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Domain: krazydad.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to krazydad.com.

Comments · 14

  1. Another cool chess/music project by jbum · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Chess Games Translated To Music

    Back in 2009, I did something very similar with one of the 1997 Kasparov vs. Deep Blue games.

    One difference is that I used a chess engine, and made the search tree audible, so you can hear the chess computer "thinking". Here's my original blog article: http://www.krazydad.com/blog/2009/05/musical-chess/ and here's video from the concert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42G6P0b72Gk

  2. How did Asciicam not get mentioned? by quoll · · Score: 1 · on Homer Simpson Drawn With Web 2.0-Style ASCII Art

    If we're discussing ASCII art, then how come the Amazing Instant Asciicam didn't get mentioned?

  3. Some graphs to illustrate by jbum · · Score: 4, Interesting · on YouTube Growing ... Like Cancer?

    I made some lovely graphs to illustrate this growth. These graphs use actual thumbnails from youtube as data points.

    That's right - the medium is the message!

  4. Flickr Hacks by jbum · · Score: 3, Interesting · on The Definitive Guide to ImageMagick

    My book, Flickr Hacks, contains a number of examples of using ImageMagick (via the Perl API) with Flickr. This is one area where it really shines. I used ImageMagick to create these mosaic posters, the Flickr Colr Pickr and other cool things.

  5. Flickr Hacks by jbum · · Score: 3, Interesting · on The Definitive Guide to ImageMagick

    My book, Flickr Hacks, contains a number of examples of using ImageMagick (via the Perl API) with Flickr. This is one area where it really shines. I used ImageMagick to create these mosaic posters, the Flickr Colr Pickr and other cool things.

  6. Grokking Ning by jbum · · Score: 1 · on Marc Andreessen's Social Platform: Ning

    I posted about Ning yesterday:

    http://www.krazydad.com/

    An excerpt:

    Ning allows user/authors to set up permanent URLs to their apps, which take the form XXXX.ning.com. I imagine there will be a bit of an initial landgrab as cybersquatters grab up some of the more obvious ones. It would be nice if Ning had a policy in place to deal with this, but I imagine, with a project this ambitious, their plates are pretty full -- and this leads to what I think is the most flawed aspect of this idea -- it's just too damn big. If successful, Ning has the potential to be a host, provider, authoring tool, and community hub for a huge chunk of web content. The question is, can the company successfully do all these things and do them well? Managing successful communities is a tricky business, and the downside is that when the users get pissed off, you've already provided them with an excellent channel for mouthing off about it (for the inevitable whiners, this is an excellent time to reserve "ihate.ning.com" and "ilovewhi.ning.com").

  7. Flickr is very cool and I hope it stays that way. by jbum · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Yahoo buys Flickr

    I'm a big fan of Flickr, which if you haven't heard of it, is a community-oriented photo-sharing service. Their photo-sharing API has enabled me to quickly assemble some nifty things such as this Colr Pickr and photo mosaics. However, I must admit I have mixed feelings about this acquisition, perhaps due my experiences in the late 90s, in which I found myself in a continual battle with new corporate overlords.

    If you read the posts that founders Stewart and Caterina have been making in the Flickr Blog, and elsewhere, it's clear that they truly believe that this acquisition is for the best, and I don't doubt that both the Ludicorp folks and the Yahoo folks have the best of intentions.

    Just as small children sometimes accidentally mistreat beloved pets, large groups of people with the best of intentions sometimes break things. Flickr currently has the feel of a 'mom & pop shop' and it is hard to believe that this state of affairs will continue with the influx of more money & extra management. But let's hope so!

  8. Flickr is very cool and I hope it stays that way. by jbum · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Yahoo buys Flickr

    I'm a big fan of Flickr, which if you haven't heard of it, is a community-oriented photo-sharing service. Their photo-sharing API has enabled me to quickly assemble some nifty things such as this Colr Pickr and photo mosaics. However, I must admit I have mixed feelings about this acquisition, perhaps due my experiences in the late 90s, in which I found myself in a continual battle with new corporate overlords.

    If you read the posts that founders Stewart and Caterina have been making in the Flickr Blog, and elsewhere, it's clear that they truly believe that this acquisition is for the best, and I don't doubt that both the Ludicorp folks and the Yahoo folks have the best of intentions.

    Just as small children sometimes accidentally mistreat beloved pets, large groups of people with the best of intentions sometimes break things. Flickr currently has the feel of a 'mom & pop shop' and it is hard to believe that this state of affairs will continue with the influx of more money & extra management. But let's hope so!

  9. Examples of projects using the flickr API by zeman · · Score: 2, Informative · on The Peculiar World of Web Photo Sharing
    The flickr api is easy to use, here's a few examples of interesting projects people have come up with...

    A Flickr World Map developed in php and flash by me (Mark Zeman).

    The Flickr Graph which maps the social relationships between people by Marcos Weskamp.

    A very playful Colrpickr that shows images by hue and luminosity by Jim Bumgardner.

    There's more examples at Flickr Services

  10. My experiences with Flickr by metalhed77 · · Score: 5, Informative · on The Peculiar World of Web Photo Sharing

    Flickr, if I may say, is one of the best designed web apps out there. It's quick to use, clean, and very featureful. Additionally it seems to have a semi-open API because I see tons of projects (like the squared circle collage) being made out stuff on there. And, most importantly, the interface makes ample use of DHTML and flash in a way that is genuinely useful. Interface elements that on most sites require loading a new page (say changing the title of an image you uploaded) or changing your navigation style are either javascripted or implemented very elegantly in flash. It feels quite close in many ways to a traditional app.

    The groups on it are also good for meeting people and sharing tips / techniques. My one complaint about these groups is that people are *too* nice. Even in the ones where it is required that users include negative feedback, none ever is.

  11. Flickr has huge potential by Pyr05x · · Score: 4, Interesting · on The Peculiar World of Web Photo Sharing
    I finally got the digital camera I wanted for Xmas '04.

    I tried out Flickr, and signed up for a year about an hour later... It has an amazing simple interface for organising/tagging etc.

    Better still though, is a published API: http://www.flickr.com/services/api/

    The best usage of this i've found so far is Colrpickr: http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/index.php?group= flickrcentral

  12. I've been teaching programming using Flash by jbum · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Introducing Children to Computers?
    One of the nice thing about early 80s PCs was that the individual pixels were large. So you could accomplish a lot with a simple program like this one (which I often entered into floor models at the local radio shack):

    10 COLOR RND(15)
    20 SET(RND(20),RND(20))
    30 GOTO 10

    Sadly, it is harder to find programming environments for kids that provide this kind of simplicity these days.

    Last year I started teaching high school aged kids to make simple videogames using Flash. My class is called "Make your own videogame in Flash Actionscript". Essentially, my class is an introduction to programming, and something of a "stealth math class." I would much prefer to be using BASIC on old VIC-20s, but Flash isn't too bad for this activity.

    I'm aware of the huge anti-Flash sentiment on Slashdot - one I generally share when I see it needlessly used on websites. However, I think Flash is pretty good for teaching kids to program.

    Since it's vector based, the equivalent code to produce the effect of the above (raster based) BASIC program is too large (see http://krazydad.com/bestiary/index2.html for my implementation), so I have had to rethink how I approach things. I have to start with programs that are simple in Flash, not programs that were simple for me in 1981.

    Still, I have to spend a couple classes getting past some unnecessary high-level concepts integral to Flash (like "timelines" and "the stage") but eventually we do get down to programming.

    When a kid writes that first program in which they can control something on the screen, they invariably yell "Yes!!" or "Alright!!" This is why I like teaching programming.

    The reasons I chose Flash, over something like LOGO (or Squeak) are:
    • It provides a hands-on enviroment for the kids to paste in their own artwork and manipulate it without yet knowing how to code.
    • It's possible to make some very simple games that look good without a huge amount of coding.
    • The kids can share their games with others by publishing them on a website.
    • It's a real-world technology that may get them a job or money.

  13. This kaleidoscope is more entertaining than TV. by jbum · · Score: 1 · on TV's Tipping Point

    This is a link to my Internet image-searching kaleidoscope -- a very cool Google hack, and way more entertaining than most TV shows.

    MetaScope

    Now, if it could only search for MPEGs...

  14. A Google Mindreading Interface is already here. by jbum · · Score: 1 · on Is Google's Future: Star Trek?

    How about this scenario:

    Ted: I'm thinking of Rice Crispies Cereal

    Bob: (types into computer) Please show us what Ted is thinking about.

    (The computer starts to show pictures of boxes of Rice Crispies Cereal...)
    Sound farfetched? Actually you can already do this today, with this amusing little Google Hack called MetaScope:

    www.krazydad.com

    Yes, I'm shamelessly plugging my own program, but ya gotta admit, it's pretty darn cool :)