:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Thursday, January 21, 2010 ::

GOTO 10

/mode +v noise, the ever expanding ASCII based music platform

I saw the /mode +v noise installation by GOTO10 at the Arnolfini earlier today and loved it. Use the IRC link (remember that?) to listen in real time and influence the generative score.

It was made using Puredyne



Puredyne is aimed at creative people, looking for tools outside the standard. It provides the best experimental creative applications alongside a solid set of graphic, audio and video tools in a fast, minimal package. For everything from sound art to innovative filmmaking.

Puredyne is optimised for use in realtime audio and video processing. It distinguishes itself by offering a low latency kernel and the high responsiveness needed by artists working in this field.

Puredyne is based on Ubuntu and Debian Live. All packages provided by Puredyne can be used if you are running this flavour of GNU/Linux. Use, share, copy, modify, join the development team or fork :)

Software highlights

audio

puredata, supercollider, csound, chuck, ladspa plugins, ardour, audacity, ecasound, …

graphics

gimp, inkscape, fluxus, freej, processing + extras, imagemagick, gthumb, gphoto2, …

multimedia

mplayer, vlc, avidemux, kino, mencoder, transcode, luvcview, xawtv, recordmydesktop, …

streaming

icecast2, ices2, ffmpeg2theora, oggfwd, darkice, darksnow, gstreamer, dvswitch, …

network

firefox, links2, network-manager, wireless-tools, ssh, telnet, gftp, irssi, nfs, …

devel

gcc, make, patchutils, subversion, mercurial, bzr, emacs-goodies-el, java jdk, python, …

…and much more.

Labels: Art, Electronic Music, FOSS, Music

:: Dan 21.1.10 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Heya! It's been some time. I know I may have thrown you the odd scrap of music now and again but that old spark, it just hasn't been there lately has it. I know you have other places to hang out. I hope you understand what a death in the family has done here. But it's great to meet up again, have a drink, chew that fat, catch up on what we would have been chatting shit about if other events hadn't conspired against us.

Did I tell you I attended the BLDGBLOG book launch last week?

[v.o.g.: You mentioned you were going]

Ah, well, I did. And not only did I get a great book out of it, not only did I meet with and chat with Geoff Manaugh, whose a really inspiring guy, not only is there a photo floating around flickr of me sat at the same table as Warren Ellis (I didn't realise that at the time, I was distracted by the woman with him), but I've also come away with some blog based inspiration.

In the introduction to the book Geoff explains that when he started BLDGBLOG he decided that he wasn't going to pour concerns and negativity into it, it would just be for stuff that interested him. Things that made him think, gave him ideas, starting points for flights of fancy. I like that philosophy. I may try to take it on to some degree.


[source here via here]

So what else has caught my fancy?


Shots taken on Czechoslovakia - East border of the eastern German state security (Stasi)
[via www.ustrcr.cz]
Found in the Vice Magazine photography special, which is out now.

Its good to know that The American President is an Ass Man, Apparently

"But seriously, is this not one of the best presidential photographs of all-time? Even Sarkozy looks like he's sneaking a peek, though he's French, so we expect him to do it. However, in Obama's defense, that is a great ass!"

"Solicitors for the National Portrait Gallery are apparently threatening legal action against a US Wikipedia user for downloading 3,300 digital photographs of paintings in the UK museum's collection, and then uploading them to Wikipedia."
[via clayton cubitt]

Cauty - Julie Andrews tip in the Nude magazine sale


Codex Sinaiticus - Home The ‘Draft for Comment’ version of the Bible

Rumours of a Dr Who film

There, I Fixed It

6 Intriguingly Shaped Communities As Seen On Google Maps

My Pinhole camera experiments


"Patti Smith is one of the most anticipated gigs of the week, and the audience the most vocal. … joined by SMZ leader Efrim Menuck on drums and Portishead’s Adrian Utley, who attacks a guitar with a paintbrush to spooky effect."
Festival review: Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown, Southbank Centre, London SE1 | Music | The Observer
I mentioned this to Leafcutter John, wondering if he was aware Ade was at the Polar Bear gig where John had used the same paintbrush trick a few months back. His response was a spirited "Ah, but did he do it better?"

Stylophone Beatbox

Pre-order here

Open Source TIC - ePetition response | Number10.gov.uk
"The Government supports the principle that, where new software is being developed by the Timely Information to Citizens pilots, this should wherever possible be released under open source licence and available for use by other local authorities. ... Where the pilots will result in new software tools, ownership and intellectual property rights will usually remain with the individual local authorities"
Is this not a contradiction?

‘Ghost village’ to be demolished

"A village built in Argyll to meet the demands of the UK oil boom of the 1970s but abandoned without ever being occupied is set for a new role." [video link]

Stuff you've missed on the tumblr
* a whole bunch of new photographers discoveries
* shoes by architects
* a bunch of LEGO stuff inc jewellery, USB sticks and giant Star Wars models
* London Underground Map print dress
* Geek guide to shoe lacing
* The Battleships drinking game

I've also just discovered that Blogger is limited to 20 tags per post.

So what have you been up to? How are things?

Labels: Art, blogs, Copyright, Electronic Music, Flickr, FOSS, History, Instruments, IP, Law, Literature, Maps, Music, Petitions, Photography, Politics, Privacy, Religion, Sci-Fi, Wiki

:: Dan 14.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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In a return to my occasional series on unusual magazines found lying around in the office kitchen, I am now a convert to Engineering and Technology magazine.

For a start, here are some interesting links from October’s fashion and technology special:
A new breed of robot
Catwalk goes techno
Haute tech couture



And the current issue is a Lego special!
Building on a dynasty
Play for tomorrow
Lego for life
Inventors’ inbox
Falling for technology
Diy society
Child's play
And more

From the DIY Society article:
www.modumobile.com
www.buglabs.net
wiki.openmoko.org
www.openhandsetalliance.com
www.sand-labs.org
www.gumstix.com
I hadn't realised how far the open handware movement had got!

Labels: DIY, Engineering, Fashion, FOSS, Lego, Technology

:: Dan 10.3.09 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"A unique, informative, very readable and practical book, "Designing Sound" presents advanced sound design methods for tomorrows video games, interactive applications and computer animations."

Andy Farnell, who Hardoff introduced me to a couple of years ago, has finished and published his book of sound design using PureData. It's been a long time coming. The world seems to be full of books on computer generated imagery but audio synthesis books are much more thin on the ground. This fills a gap nicely.

Andy is selling the initial limited run direct from this website and is hoping a larger publisher will pick it up soon. There is also a great 100odd page abridged PDF Pure Data introduction available for download. Check it out and help support him if your interested.

Labels: Audio, Computing, Electronic Music, FOSS, Pd, Software, Sound

:: Dan 2.11.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Mixxx | Free Digital DJ Software

Just checking out some free DJ software as we're doing the old wedding DJ thing on Saturday. It's a first: Dan P b2b Mrs P. Good luck to Vil and Rach! We'll try not to mess up your big day.

Labels: DJ, FOSS, Music

:: Dan 20.8.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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ReViSiT - racking software for VST hosts

Before the Gusset vs Hoonboy set at The Cooler on Thursday Thom and I were setting up and practicing backstage. That turned out to be the highlight of the night as it was sounding good but in the end we didn't get to play. I bailed out at 1am as there was hardly anyone in the place, we weren't due to start until 3am, and the sound was awful for poor Rich Defazed. We tried to get the venue to sort it out put the sound guy had already fucked off home. We were told, "there's nothing wrong with it, it's been set up by professionals." What? Professionals who go home and leave it to run itself? Anyway, I cut my losses and got out and that turned out to be the right more as the venue decided to shut down an 2am anyway. Shame, it was a great line up and could have been a great night, but a Thursday was not the time for it and the promotion could have been better.

Chatting during set-up I mentioned how cool it would be to have a tracker in a VST. Thom pointed out ReViSiT, which does it already. I presumed it would exist but hadn't been bothered to search for one. Cheers, Thom. And sorry you wasted a night coming down from Manchester for a gig you didn't play.

We also have an interesting couple of hours chatting with Juxtaposeur, and have put the breakcore world to rights. Maybe more on that later.

Labels: FOSS, Gigs, Gusset, Software, Tracker, VST

:: Dan 2.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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James Binray gave me a copy of his Dave Smith Evolver VSTi editor some time ago, and to my embarrassment I've not really got around to using it despite his requests for comments. He demoed it to me when I dropped by one time and I have to say that it looks amazing and seems to piss on both of the commercially available editors [Sound Tower and Vyzor].

Driving home after the January Goatlab radio show I was talking to him about possibly making it available to other users. He was hesitant as he didn't want to have to provide technical support. However, he has done so now, on this blog page and, cheekily, on the Vyzor yahoo group.

If you have an Evolver and are considering buying one of the commercial editors I’d strongly advise you to test this one out first.

Good work, James!

Labels: Evolver, FOSS, Synths, VST

:: Dan 4.2.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Sony has become the last of the four majors to agree to release its music DRM free

Labels: Copyright, DRM, FOSS, Music, News

:: Dan 19.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Null Device collects some links and quotes extensively on the possibilities of crowd behaviour modelling. (I used to work at a private company that modelled crowed evacuation from buildings and stadiums in exactly this way, interesting to see that academia is playing catch up here.) Some interesting ideas for things to try with emergent systems. A lot of the ideas posited are akin to game play, which reminds me that "the classic urban-planning simulation game, SimCity, has now been released under the GPL."

Labels: Computing, FOSS, Maps, Modelling

:: Dan 15.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Opinion is polarised. Some believe that the mass collaboration ethos that gave us Wikipedia and YouTube could also beneficially transform politics, the public sector and business, while others hold that it kills culture and undermines economies. Shane Richmond investigates"
[thanks to Tania for leaving a copy of the RSA Journal in the house]

Labels: FOSS, Media, Politics

:: Dan 10.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Free Our Data: Make taxpayers' data available to them
"...government-funded and approved agencies such as the Ordnance Survey and UK Hydrographic Office and Highways Agency are government-owned agencies; they collect data on our behalf. So why can't we get at that data as easily as we can Google Maps or the Xtides program?"

From the blog:

• Want to put maps online cheaply? Get a paper licence and scan them
  
• Crown Copyright: time for an end?

OS Explore portal includes useful user generated route maps like pubcrawls! Note that, "any “walk” you submit becomes OS’s property. ... In other words, OS can resell your stuff if everyone creates walks it likes. Not exclusively, but for itself. Which in fact is exactly the same as we want the OS to provide its data to us, the citizens. Except that things seem to have gotten turned on their head, and OS is acting like a big media company such as MTV wanting to piggyback on the submissions of its viewers. ... Still, it’s movement, of sorts. But what we really want is an API so we can create mashups."

Labels: Copyright, FOSS, Law, Maps

:: Dan 26.9.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Previous post here

CUBE COLA ALL SPIRITS NIGHT
Sat 8th Sept/ 7pm/ £3

The Cube Microplex is possibly the only cinema in the UK to manufacture its own cola from scratch. Internationally famed and media-courted, cube-Cola tonight celebrates 4 years on the path to food science enlightenment.

A non-brand promotion bar party, expect guantanamo libres, home brewed snacks, bands and dancing.

On Saturday Sept 8th (rescheduled from Aug 25th) Cube home-brewers will be celebrating 4 years of adventures in producing our inhouse cola drink. We would like to invite anyone who also makes produce* to join us and sell their fruits from the bar.

*cakes, wine, moonshine, pies and modified commercial produce.

Arrive hungry and decaffeinated.

Labels: Food, FOSS

:: Dan 30.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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This is interesting. I wrote a post about the need for an open system and API for social networking back in March (see point 4) and guessed that someone must be working on it somewhere. It seems [via dev/null] that LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick is on the case, with OpenID. Although there are obvious privacy concerns about what information is held about you and where, especially if you actively wanted to keep different groups of friends linked to different accounts / aliases. Hopefully a robust set of rules can be written into it that might help to control aggregation sites like Spock and PeekYou, as Grom criticised last week. The biggest issue I have with these is the lack of control they give you over what information they collect about you. For example, PeekYou has scrapped my Blogger, LinkedIn and Flickr profiles together, which I'm not entirely happy about but can live with, somehow has failed to find my Facebook or MySpace, and has linked the wrong eBay account. Now, I'm not jumping to add the missing data, but I would obviously like to be able to remove the incorrect data. Having said that, there are data uses I wouldn't mind, especially having copied and pasted the same basic profile information into Blogger, Flickr, MySpace and Facebook, and rarely editing any of them, a simple "would you allow us to copy data from xx" dialogue during sign-up and one central point where changes cascade down would be very handy. But the user must have control over what data is taken from where.

Here's the link to dev/null's post again. I recommend reading the whole post if you skipped past the link previously.

Labels: Blogger, facebook, Flickr, FOSS, ID, myspace, OpenID, SocialNetworking

:: Dan 21.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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'A new front has opened in the War On Intellectual Property Theft: a campaign to block users of the open-source web browser Firefox from websites, because Firefox enables users to block ads ("steal content")'

Labels: FOSS, Internet, IP

:: Dan 20.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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How to Make Open Cola [via Natali]
Sounds like a royal pain in the ass to make something that tastes like sugary crap.

It made me wonder how many cola recipes are around, but a Cookin' with Gusset search only found recipes with cola in them, every single one of which sounds disgusting. Cola salad, cola soups, cola chicken; do these people have no taste buds?

Notes on Making Cola (chemistry lesson warning) on the Cube Cinema site. To my knowledge they aren't still serving the home brew. I'll check next time I'm there.
Edit: update

Urban legend* has it that those wanting to recreate something closer to the original Coca-Cola recipe need merely mix up coffee, red wine and cocaine. I don't know what sources or quantities of any of those three you would need but I'm sure it would be one hell of a party if you wanted to find out.

* Wikipedia confirms that it still contains coca leaf extract and snopes confirms that it did once contain trace amounts of cocaine.

Labels: Food, FOSS

:: Dan 30.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Thanks to hard.off for putting me in contact with Andy Farnell, who he knows via the Pd list.

On his recommendation I popped along to a lunchtime talk by Jake Rayson on Free Free Software at The Cube last week. I was hoping to find out something about getting started with Pd (as I still haven't really got anywhere despite blogging about my intention to for a couple of years now). Although the talk was primarily about getting people who don't use any Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) to consider it I did find some very interesting stuff.

First off, heres some of Jake's recommended FOSS projects. They are all GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac compatible.

Apart form obvious stuff like The Open CD Project, Open Office, Firefox, GIMP (and a skinned version for PhotoShop users, which is of course named GIMPShop) there were also some more complex graphics packages I wasn't aware of. These were Illustrator clones Scribus and Inkscape.
Stunning animation from Blender (The Elephants Dream)
Basic web authoring with N-Vu
VLC Media Player
And audio editor & recorder Audacity

Audacity was demonstrated by playing an MP3 file that he had recently got his hands on from a DJ friend, of Mark E. Smith's new project with Mouse on Mars, The Flenderm Will Get It. It sounds great. Nice to see The Fall working with electronics again, as the material they recorded with Coldcut years ago was excellent (even though I'm not a big Coldcut fan) and this is in much the same vein.

I also found out from Ben at Bristol Wireless that an Open Source version of Buzz Tracker is in development.It goes by the fantastic name of Buzztard.

Most importantly, I found out that Andy and Jake are running a PureData beginners workshop in June, details as follows:

The Pure Data workshop has been booked for Saturday 9th and Sunday
10th June, 10am-4pm.
It will be over at the St Werburghs Community Centre
The workshop leader is Andy Farnell
Andy has some tutorials here
And here is the Pd site
and the download section
Cost will be £80, concessions will be £40.
Let me know how definite you are. Also, spread the word :)
cheers, Jake
--
Jake Rayson
[*] firebox.nu FOSS training
[e] jake[at]firebox[dot]nu

Labels: FOSS, Pd

:: Dan 22.4.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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