Categories
Aesthetics Art Computing Free Software

Streaming Aesthetics (Colour)

twitsthaetics2.png

application.gnu_linux.tar.gz

application.macosx.tar.gz
application.windows.zip

Download the version for your operating system above, expand the archive, and run the application. You will need Java installed. OpenJDK is OK, that’s why it’s an application rather than an applet (Processing doesn’t work with the OpenJDK browser plugin yet, bizarrely).

The application will ask you for a Twitter username and password. It needs this to connect to the Twitter streaming API and won’t use it for anything bad. You can’t use OAuth for the streaming API yet, so the application really does need a username and password to log in.

If you decide to run the application full screen, you can finish it by pressing the Escape key.

Source code included under the GPL v3.

(Update 2010-06-21 – Thanks to Zeroinfluencer and Laundryman for problem reports on Mac OS X and Windows. I’ve updated the downloads above.)
Categories
Aesthetics Art Computing Free Software

Work In Progress – Streaming Aesthetics

This is a visualization of common colour names as they appear in the main twitter stream –

twitsthaetics.pngThis is just a screenshot, I’ll show the live version when it’s finished. The colours are placeholders and (although you can’t see it) the animation needs improving. It’s written in Processing using a Scala-based Twitter Streaming API library.If this works well I’ll do shape and pattern ones. This is a follow up to “The Colour Of…”, “Friending The Aesthetic” and “Random Aesthetics”.

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Categories
Free Software

Shooting The Messenger

There’s been another round of criticism on various blogs of the FSF’s media campaigns to draw people’s attention to the harm that not respecting software users freedom does. But the FSF’s campaigns explaining why Microsoft and Apple’s failure to
respect users freedom is harmful have been successful in getting out the
message that alternatives are needed. In the mainstream press as well as in the tech and tech culture media.

The FSF’s critics are ignoring the fact that most of the FSF’s work consists not only of the positive promotion of the idea of free software, but in practically supporting and protecting its creation and use.

The FSF does help people find free software on Windows –

http://www.gnu.org/software/for-windows.html

The FSF is making Web 2.0 alternatives –

http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Group:GNU_Social

Then there’s Libre Planet, WFS, GNU Generation, all positive practical measures to expand the constituency of free software.

And you may have heard of a little project called GNU or of a licence called the GPL.

It’s very easy to sit at an almost entirely free desktop and criticise the FSF for not capitulating to those who would once again remove people’s freedom to use software. But without the FSF’s pragmatic idealism, projects like Linux and Ubuntu
would have nothing to sell out to proprietary interests.

If people believe that the FSF should be doing something different then constructive suggestions are needed that aren’t simply gesture politics or capitulation. Otherwise it looks like people are just being “negative”.

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Categories
Aesthetics Art Computing Free Software Generative Art Howto

Techo Art Roundup

HOW TO: Connect an anemometer to the Internet:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/how_to_connect_an_anemometer_to_an.html

(I don’t like Pachube’s walled garden approach thought. We need a federated free equivalent, like StatusNet .)

“Binary Code View”, an offline net.art show in London:

http://turbulence.org/blog/2010/06/04/binary-code-view-london/

How exactly do you own a net based artwork?:

http://turbulence.org/blog/2010/06/04/owning-online-art-selling-and-collecting-netbased-artworks/

Art from its own data visualisation (not as good as my encoding of a LeWitt literally as itself, but still fun):

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/03/fine-art-pie-packed.html

RSS feed icon pillow (want! or maybe I should make one…):

http://makersmarket.com/products/rss-feed-icon-pillow

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Categories
Free Culture

Notes Towards Free Culture

Free jam:

http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/news/the-four-freedoms-two-rules-and-one-jam

Theory
book piracy:

http://turbulence.org/blog/2010/06/05/scanners-collectors-and-aggregators-on-the-%E2%80%98underground-movement%E2%80%99-of-pirated-theory-text-sharing/

Crowdsourcing
as wage saving and as workforce disempowerment:

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/crowdsourcing-and-the-new-alienating-nature-of-work/2010/06/05

“Piracy
has increased my book sales 700%”:

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/blog/2010/jun/5/piracy-has-increased-my-e-book-sales-700/

A
second-generation performance artist calls for copyright on
performances so they can enclose the performance commons:

http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/06/05/marina-abramovic-afterthoughts-willpower-control-copyright/

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