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Urban Exploration Walkware
wilfriedhoujebek writes "The Dutch Group Social Fiction has been experimenting with walking on algorithms for some time now. Under the heading ".walk" they are taking the thing one step further by introducing pseudo-software to determine the route of their walks. They explain how this works and how different .walk can be connected together to form a 'pedestrian computer'. You might want to read the postscript first."
They merge with the Ministry of Silly Walks!
sulli
RTFJ.
By some error, this didn't get posted with the Joke foot. Wonder why this happened.
This sig no verb.
This whole .walk thing is pretty interesting, especially having just re-read: 0wnzored.
lysergically yours
I want software that actually RUNS!
*ducks*
Hence I don't need a computer to cough up a way for me to walk that will eventually waste my time. I already do it every damned day.
Hate me!
they are taking the thing one step further
So was the pun intended?
Unfortunatley, for some people once GUM is introduced into the algorithms the wole system falls apart.
~Z
Some how this all seems like some sort of subtle ploy to get me to execise... How I do despise them.
/. the entire planet.
Imagine it we could
-Code
---PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE---
"Now, where's the damn 'any' key?"
I've been wondering how long it would take before something like this would hit the market. I've always had the fantasy of using robots with set paths as dog walkers. Can you imagine driving through a residential area, with a bunch of robots leading dogs around? Well....maybe only rich neighborhoods at first, but things only get less expensive.
Of course, it would be a mixed blessing. It would take away another reason to get out of the house, and I don't imagine the robots would be able to clean up after the dogs at first. Plus you're going to need a huge robot to lead a big dog around. And there's nothing to pull the dog away when it bites the mailman.
Well, it seamed like a good fantasy. I'd buy one for my dog.
From the homepage http://www.socialfiction.org/:
.walk is a joke. For the other half: no, .walk is a serious attempt to find out if walking can be used for more than transportation alone. Because we were already exploring walking around on algorithms, it was a logical step to modify these little programs into something that actually solves problems. Theoretically these individual .walk programs could be connected into a computer. In the "programming .walk for dummies" text it is shown how you can solve quite complex computations by stripping them down to their smallest factor & have a interesting walk at the same time. .walk has however nothing to do with computer programming in any sense, it only mocks them. .walks is not developed by programmers & the .walk examples are written with only a minimal knowledge of both math & simple computer languages like Basic. Everybody should be able to figure out what a script does, but nevertheless people are scared by them, just as they are scared by Justin Timberlake's lips. This is in a sense part of the fun of the .walk project, there is nothing wrong with alienating people a little bit, because they will only love .walk the better for it in the end.
Pseudo software as a self generating route description. Is this a joke?
For the half of it: yes,
Do you fancy a walk with us?
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
Repeat
{
1 st street left
2 nd street right
2 nd street left
fpaintf(stdwall,"HELLO WORLD") }
http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeograph
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
I've always had the fantasy of using robots with set paths as dog walkers. Can you imagine driving through a residential area, with a bunch of robots leading dogs around?
Oh sure, that's how it starts. Nice and innocently. Then you'll see people using these walking robots to redecorate their house. Other uses for them will be found and, before you know it, evil penquins will be using them to steal priceless jewels from museums!
Stop the madness now! We've got to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand!
GMD
watch this
I recently entered a pun competition.
;-)
:)
I entered 10 times and I was convinced that one of them would win.
But, no pun in ten did.
cLive
(from Dennis/Punt, if I remember correctly
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
I did the London walk and...
A) I thought it would be a dehumanising experience
B) It turned out to be a great way to see streets in London that I'd never walked down and never would have walked down.
I thought it was funny that one of the posters above wondered whether this is what happens when you are sans girlfriend. Quite apart from the fact that Hemos is the only confirmed sighting of a mated Slashdotter (prove me wrong, studly geeks!) - I DID THE WALK WITH MY GIRLFRIEND! So there.
Her account is here...
For those of you not familiar, HEX is a lovely analogy constructed out of fictional glass tubes through which vast numbers of ants walk, diverted by gates (you get the idea). It has components including an unreal-time clock and generates messages along the lines of "+++ Out Of Cheese Error. Redo from Start +++". It apparently bears a witty "Anthill Inside" legend, and in one of the Discworld adventure games a comment is made that when you break it and the ants escape "it's been completely debugged".
I don't need to painfully fill in the gap between "walkware" and "ants walking around inside HEX", do I?
This reminds me of the "hand on the wall" algorithm to escape certain labyrinths.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Only if something possesses you to get in your car and drive the freeways.
This sig no verb.
At university, some 25 years ago, we went on Pi walks:
Start in some direction; when a junction is reached inspect the next digit of Pi: 1,2,3: turn left; 4,5,6: go straight on; 7,8,9: turn right; 0: turn back.
The results can be interesting.
For a change we did 'e' walks. You can use any irrational number.
Remember that these guys live in Europe: Left,Left,Left,Left almost never brings you to the same spot. With a car it would be almost impossible, but then again it is .walk not .drive
In reality cities should be redesigned from scratch & people should be made flawless by genetic modification to reach the situation where the human compliance to the complexities of an algorithm as a psychogeographical device is perfect.
This is my favourite bit. This whole seems to be a little too much pseudo-intellectualizing fuelled by drugs and intellectual self-indulgence. College roommates spending WAY to much time exploring their earth-shattering ideas... time to sober up and read a book (in a genre your unfarmiliar with).