There’s some hope for these old bones yet — I see some use in the new-fangled geegaw they’re callin’ The Facebooks. I did it all completely wrong and I still can’t figure out how to bookmark to it properly, but I can at least tell you this goes to the last (and first) thing I’ve posted there. I’m going to try to get into the habit of using that for small updates, as I’m more willing to write things there and less willing to go through the effort of writing a full post here, so we’ll see how it goes.

It’s stuff like this that makes me think I could write good music, if only I had the right interfaces:

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

Also neat because you can copy and paste patterns. (Might be easier to right-click.) They come out as a series of numbers, so you can easily share them, like so:

Note: For formatting reasons, I put each one in an input box so you can click, select all, and copy.

Would be neat if it had some sort of time-based pattern switch. This next three is a series; let the first run a couple times and then paste the next one.

And in fact that last one I would like to be able to alternate one square on and off for alternate passes, and rather than trying to bother describing it I’ll just paste the two sequences here:

Microsoft unveiled (or, according to some videos I saw, unleashed) the Natal Project at E3 yesterday. It’s a game system that doesn’t require controllers, because it has a camera on the tv that detects your movements, has facial recognition, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0IqdRTDJQc

You have to see that to believe it, and whether you think that statement is a compliment or an insult depends on your predisposition towards Microsoft, I suppose. Me, it makes me want to make sure none of those actors ever work in this town again.

Here’s Microsoft Dude presenting it at E3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWnZOseA3Lw

He shows a woman interacting with the TV. The view closes up to the water, and it shows a faint reflection of her, and the water ripples as she moves her hand back and forth. What gets me most about that is the audience being aghast and delighted and bursting into applause at the technology that’s been around for umpteen years.

I wonder if it’s going to work as well as their voice recognition. The videos are old, but…I remember seeing a commercial for that years ago, it was an old actor guy whose name I forget, who had some shakey problem with his hands, presumably unable to write letters, so he was just naturally talking to his computer and the exact correct sentences were naturally flowing out. Yeah.