Jonathan Brodsky2019-11-14T01:40:34+00:00http://jonbro.tk/Jonathan Brodskyjonbro@gmail.comDev Log 11/13/192019-11-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2019/11/13/DevLog<p>Going to start logging progress on my current project - so far I have just been splashing stuff across various social media, but I figure its good to have a singe place for it. Will probably just prepend stuff to this file as I do it.</p>
<p>11/13/19
Got boards and stencil tonight. Components come tomorrow night, and I should have the oven up and ready. I only got a stencil for the back board, so I get to attempt to do a qfn package with an incredibly small pitch by hand on the front board. I bought a backup of that component so I should be able to try it two different ways.</p>
Year In Review 20182018-12-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2018/12/31/Year_in_review_2018<p>For my job I released a big game - I did mostly ui programming, but that overlapped pretty heavily with design work. I also did a bunch of little bits and bobs, shipping a game is seldom a straight path, and my role has always been fluid. I am glad that I have managed to keep fluidity in my role even though I am now working with a larger group. It came out in august, which is why I think I was a little light on personal projects in the middle of the year.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/jonbro/mglue">mglue</a> is a tiny game engine. I based it on an older project I was working on, mgled, but this time I rewrote it in typescript, and started cleaning up the api so that other people might be able to understand it. It clearly still needs work before other people can use it, I feel like the largest stumbling block right now is the overhead of downloading and setting up the tool chain. I find myself bailing on other javascript projects unless they have a nice neat npm package, and even then, it tend to be too much work to make that function. That said, this project is in a place where when I go back to it, I can get back into making a game pretty quick.</p>
<p>I made three games with mglue:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jonbro.itch.io/worm-drive">worm drive</a> - a strange take on nibbles / snake. I spent a reasonable amount of time tuning this and playtesting it. I think it is pretty good.</li>
<li><a href="https://jonbro.itch.io/juggle-ship">juggle ship</a> - playing with the ideas that I had for <a href="https://jonbro.itch.io/snuggle-ship">snuggle ship</a> but attempting to make them into a more interesting play space. This is looser than the above game.</li>
<li><a href="https://jonbro.itch.io/lode-tend">lode tend</a> - I made this on a coast to coast flight. It didn’t get much playtesting at all, but I had fun making it. There are much better versions of this game, but this one is mine.</li>
</ul>
<p>It isn’t something I made this year, but ROFLpillar was curated into the <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/videogames">V&A videogames exhibition</a>. I am kinda floored to be in such good company there, and it was a massive boost to me to have a piece in that show. I think my pace on projects in the 4th part of the year can be partially attributed to this. We also took a month long family trip to the uk and germany to see this show and friends, and that put me in a great mood.</p>
<p>I made an <a href="http://asc-paint.glitch.me/">ANSI art editor</a> - this was just a quick project to do some setup for 7drl next year, but it is working pretty well with the 3 weeks of work that I have put into it. I have a laundry list of features to add to it based on feedback from the small version I made. I am also having a ton of fun making drawings with it.</p>
<p>I have stopped using twitter for communicating with people, I just post projects up there occasionally. I am now on mastodon, and made this <a href="https://glitch.com/~autoboost">autobooster script</a> to help manage my privacy there.</p>
<p>I have really been enjoying using <a href="http://glitch.me">glitch</a> and made a few prototypes.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://glitch.com/~fever-chat">fever chat</a> a 2d multiplayer chatroom based on a fever dream I had one time. I am almost certainly going to revisit this with my ansi art stuff.</li>
<li><a href="https://glitch.com/~rot-js-starter">rot-js-starterpack</a> If you want to work on a rot-js game on glitch, just remix this project. Hooks you up with webpack so you can use other npm includes.</li>
<li><a href="https://glitch.com/~c64-noise">c64 noise</a> While I was trying to get the performance of rot-js display fast enough for my ansi art editor purposes, I made this. I thought it worked well as a standalone.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaHw8gb0d-M">mermaid transport</a> A weird vr game where you get in a mermaid costume and roll around on the floor. I showed a few people this prototype at fantastic arcade, but I don’t know if it is gonna go any further than that.</li>
<li><a href="https://glitch.com/~waaves">waaves</a> a quick animated ansi art sketch.</li>
</ul>
<p>I did a few drawings and sounds and things, but they are kinda just scattered around and I can’t be bothered to collect them.</p>
<p>I also spent quite a bit of time playing with lego. My kid really likes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvJg3YoehYk">great ball contraptions</a> so I made a few of them. I haven’t graduated to making my own designs yet, just building them from plans I find online.</p>
<p>I also ran a 5k. This was the first big exercise thing that I have pushed myself to do as an adult, and I feel really good about it.</p>
Mastodon Autoboost2018-08-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2018/08/18/Mastodon_Autoboost<p>I am clean and free of twitter for one week, and it feels great! Of course, I have replaced it with something that solves some of the issues, but not all, and that is mastodon. Its got a bunch of nice features, one of which is the ability to make semi-private accounts. You can have some of your posts public, and some private, and only your followers will see your private things. This is great!</p>
<p>However, it means that people you don’t want to see you private things have no mechanism to follow only your public stuff. Most people have been solving this with maintaining two seperate accounts, which is a totally fine approach. I decided to automate it, and give people the ability to follow just my public posts. The way that I am doing that is by using a public account that automatically boosts posts from the private account if they fit a certain set of filters.</p>
<p>I set the whole thing up on glitch.com, and you can easily <a href="remix it to create your own auto booster">https://glitch.com/edit/#!/autoboost</a> if you would like.</p>
<p><em>additional notes</em></p>
<p>I think mastodon is great - no ads, no algorythmic remixing of posts to drive engagement, ability to run your own server with you own rules. The api and tools that are set up for making bots on it are great as well. I really want spin up some bots that I took off of twitter on mastodon just because it would be easy.</p>
<p>However, I wonder if the underlying social space that it is creating is fundamentally flawed. Twitter has all of these problems, and it grew into them partially organically, and partially directed by the interests of the platform. Twitter encouraged me to perform on it in a way that I didn’t love, because I had some extremely visible numbers that would go up and down in realtime in response to what I did there. The way that it feel like a chat room (many to many, mostly equal social standing in discussions), but simultanously a blog (one to many, with a section for the public to respond) is a weird way to think about discussions. I am curious to see how this makes me feel, now that I have a partially private account.</p>
<p>I am hoping that it will land for me somewhere like the semi private forums that I was involved with in the late 90s / early 2ks, where I could have drop in conversations with friends. I think it can - just framing it correctly in my own mind is a big part of it.</p>
Play in Process2016-06-05T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/06/05/Play_in_Process<p>I have been working on real actual paying client work for the last little bit here, and the blog where I talk about my personal projects is of course getting neglected. Life changes (upcoming human!) mean that financial pressures are a bit more real for the moment, so I have been forced to think about if my side things are going to make me money. And since they tend not to fufill that goal, I think “hey is there a more relaxing way that I could be spending my time”. So I have been falling asleep on the couch while listening to baseball on the radio.</p>
<p>The last project all got a little overwhelming when I started working on animation for it, and realizing that I probably needed an artist to make it look the way I wanted. I haven’t touched those files in a while, but I might get back to it.</p>
<p>I was struggling with the iphone tracker a bit after realizing that the interface was just a total unfun mess. I descoped it down to a drum machine, and have been happily plugging away at that on and off for a few weeks.</p>
<p>One of the funny things that happens to me with making interactive art is that I forget to stand back and just experience it. Code change, Recompile, Check to see if code changed did the thing, Repeat. Or <em>Does this thing now fit the ideal I had in my head for it</em>. And so the changes just revolve around the vision, rather than the vision changing to fit what you actually have in front of you.</p>
<p>I spent probably 20 minutes actually playing with the drum machine, and it was so enjoyable, I tore through like 5 major features that I had been putting off in favor of writing boilerplate, or teeth gnashing about percieved performance problems. In design school, they taught us to make changes, then test, then make more changes. With all the expectations that I am holding for this project, I have weeks of work that I could do. But pulling back is super valuable for my energy on the project, possibly even more so than adding new features.</p>
<p>I suspect that I am not the only person with this problem. I don’t know where it comes from, but I have some ideas. When working with other people, I notice that I defer to them about what needs to change in the feel of the thing. The thing that I percieve as valuable in my contributions is the ability to make changes, or to just grind on the code. And if I am enjoying the object itself, that is somehow a waste of my time. But any time that I actually play with the thing, it becomes worth more than the vision of the thing.</p>
Weekly Dev Log 2/8/162016-02-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/02/08/DevLog<p>Changing formats this week, because hours wise, it was primarily client work.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/sprite_editor.png" alt="spriteeditor" /></p>
<p>The two major things I did on the game this week were tooling things. The first one was a clone of the pico-8 sprite editor. I don’t know if I will end up using any thing created with this, but the graphics need to go, and having a tool to make the new graphics felt like a good start. Then I didn’t end up using this tool for any game related stuff, I just jumped to the next thing.</p>
<iframe src="https://vine.co/v/iJYBU5eH92l/embed/simple" width="480" height="480" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<script src="https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js"></script>
<p>I built a opl style synth, and then decided to make a quick tracker for it. This whole process took about 9 hours.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/opl_tracker.png" alt="opl tracker" /></p>
<p>And then I thought to myself, I should revisit the iOS tracker that I have been working on for about 3 years. And then I discovered that not only is the whole thing buggy as hell, but the basic underlying interface concept is terrible. That was the part that I was most excited about. Frustrating, but not the end of the world, I just need to rethink everything.</p>
<p>I notice that when I have one major project going, the other projects become fragmented and difficult to focus on moving the core bits forward. This is something to deal with in the coming week I think.</p>
Weekly Dev Log 2/1/162016-02-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/02/01/DevLog<p>50:19:20</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_10_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>Another 50 hour week in the can. These are totally exhausting, and I need to stop doing them.</p>
<p>I start and stop my timer whenever I stand up from my desk, so 50 hours translates to something much higher. Probably 70 or so?</p>
<p>The fun pak poked along this week. I got builds out to testers early in the week, and got some great feedback. I also made a new game and started integrating my synth a bit better. Not sure if I am actually going to go with my synth in the end, it all really depends on what the arc of the project is. I did discover that my synth is kinda a processor hog, but hopefully I can work out some solutions to that.</p>
<p>It seems like new games in the current style take about 4-8 hours of development time, but this might change with a newer better art style if I ever get around to that.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/arcade_overworld.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>I also started in on the overworld for the game. I am pretty happy with this art, and hope that I am able to figure out a way to build out a whole world that looks like this, populated with these little frumpy characters.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/ceremonyforseeing.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>Then the bulk of the week was global game jam. <a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/ceremonyforseeing">I am really happy with what we produced for it.</a> Give it a download and a play if you have 10-15 minutes to spare. It was so nice to work with an artist and have something that looks amazing at the end of the jam. Also working with a writer and voice over person was excellent, and she did a great job with our super vague input.</p>
<p>I was really happy with the new unity tools for audio, if people haven’t checked them out, they really should. It makes it easy to do complicated sets of ducked audio and soundtracks and such. I am sure I didn’t do a perfect job on the mixing, but hopefully good enough.</p>
<p>The inscriber ritual is the one bit of the game that I am sure I am going to revisit, and maybe release as a little iOS separate toy. We will see if I have time or not.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>global game jam</em> 25:23:00</li>
<li><em>fun pak</em> 19:50:19
<ul>
<li>checking build on iPhone 4 0:38:34</li>
<li>content - arcade games 4:12:11</li>
<li>dynamic sound library 4:09:25</li>
<li>getting the web server running 1:13:00</li>
<li>overworld 6:10:48</li>
<li>setting up testflight 3:07:36</li>
<li>texture packer 0:18:45</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><em>dev log + project management</em> 0:24:24</li>
<li><em>contract work</em> 2:09:40</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 1/25/152016-01-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/01/25/DevLog<p>53:05:08</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_9_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>I have put my custom engine on the back burner, and switched over to love2d.</p>
<p>Around Wednesday of this week, I realized that my c solution wasn’t good, I was poking in the dark, and I should just grab an off the shelf thing. I picked out <a href="https://github.com/alecthomas/entityx">entity-x</a> which seemed like a pretty well maintained solution. I hooked it up with all my nice to haves (i.e. a web server that could hot reload lua scripts sent to it), and got down to work. By Friday, I had a new game, and the menu working, and I started trying to get everything ready to send off to testers.</p>
<p>And that is when I discovered some issues with entity-x that I just couldn’t figure out. See entity-x is “modern cpp” which means it is fucking impenetrable. I couldn’t use the debugger to trace code flow, everything went into these strange systems libraries that were unreadable. I spent 5 hours trying to debug some strange menu issues, then I just said fuck it, I am moving on.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/popPanic.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>In the early days of Lucky Frame, I needed an engine that ran on iOS, and one of my favorite things for developing on desktop was love2d. But love2d didn’t have an iOS target that was supported by the core. So I ended up writing my own version of love2d that worked good enough. We used it for 3 projects until the annoyance of debugging lua code and the lack of easy cross platform compatibility got to me. We switched to Unity. Now, 5 or so years later, love2d has an iOS target that is officially supported. I had initially written it off for this project because I couldn’t figure out how to get my audio engine integrated with it. But on Saturday night I was so frustrated with my thing that I spent the 20 minutes required to actually get my audio engine integrated. Then I spent 5 hours porting over all the work that I have already done to love2d.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/funPakMenu.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>So thats where I am at. On the 3rd game engine in as many weeks, hopefully with forward momentum to stop fixing engine bugs and actually work on making the games better. Lets hope this week has more forward progress on the games themselves.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>fun pak</em> 48:20:02
<ul>
<li>content - arcade games 4:37:02</li>
<li>dynamic sound library 1:11:16</li>
<li>fixing bugs before sending to testers 2:59:06</li>
<li>getting fonts working in love2d 1:19:04</li>
<li>getting the lua game runner working again 9:52:42</li>
<li>getting the web server running 1:39:37</li>
<li>making the first pass on the main menu 6:03:24</li>
<li>setting up testflight 2:23:33</li>
<li>switching over to love2d. I hate myself. 5:22:38</li>
<li>switching to off the shelf ECS and c++ 5:25:49</li>
<li>working on ecs 7:25:51</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><em>dev log + project management</em> 0:32:13</li>
<li><em>learning gl / imgui</em> 4:00:00</li>
<li><em>contract work</em> 0:12:51</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 1/18/152016-01-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/01/18/DevLog<p>35:08:25</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_8_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>This week has been spent largely working on the game engine.</p>
<p>I am not sure that was a good idea.</p>
<p>The week started off really great, with some playtesting. The existing games are small enough that I can make really fast changes based on direct feedback, so sitting down with someone and testing the game with them is just a matter of them saying “hey can you try this thing”, and 15 seconds later, I have a new build that implements that feature. It is great. I even put in a web server so when I have both my device and my dev box on the same network I don’t need to recompile.</p>
<p>Then I had a vision. A grand meta game, where you are walking around this shitty arcade and playing all these different games, and chatting with the owner. There would be a story line to drive you through the different games. And maybe you could go outside the arcade and to the shop down the street, and buy different outfits for your character.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/Super_Caesars_Palace_-_SNES_-_Gameplay_2.png" alt="super caesars palace" /></p>
<p>So I started building a new game engine. I don’t really want to do this in unity, I want to keep my games in fast iteration land in lua. Early on at lucky frame, I had my own engine, and it was great, but everything was deeply nested classes, and hard to debug because everything lived in lua land without typechecks. So this week I started building a Entity Component System based engine. And I am doing it in C because I am stubborn and want to learn c better. As far as I can tell, most people don’t make that mistake.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/arcade_machine_ECS.png" alt="Arcade Machine" /></p>
<p>So after a weeks work, I have an image on screen. You can’t see, but it is color cycling thanks to the shader. Great. You can’t play the two games anymore, so technically, I have taken a step back. I hope I can accelerate with this framework and get it out of the way this week so I can start working on the game again. But really, who knows.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>action edit</em> 33:10:11</li>
<li><em>dev log + project management</em> 0:17:22</li>
<li><em>accounting</em> 1:40:52</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 1/13/152016-01-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/01/13/DevLog<p>23:55:34</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_7_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>Starting to feel really focused here, to the point where I will probably just have just two or three line items listed on future dev logs. I started the week with a project management meeting where I decided it is time to release something and charge for it. Of all the different projects I have been working on, the one that seems most likely to be completed in a reasonable timeframe is the action editor.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/mcfp/skategarden.gif" alt="game one" /></p>
<p>So the plan is to make a bunch of micro games, things the scale of flappy bird, wrap them all up in a frame story and sell the whole thing on iOS. I got two games done enough for user testing last week. I also started porting the whole thing to iOS and replacing the sfxr based sound system with something that I enjoy.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/mcfp/robtek.gif" alt="game two" /></p>
<p>Unsurprisingly enough, porting to iOS means that I have to rethink all the controls. I think from here on out, everything is going to be iOS first to make sure the controls are fine. I am going to try to work in such a way that porting back to emscripten is easy enough when the time comes. Hopefully will have something posted for people with iOS to play on their devices by the end of the week.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>action edit</em> 17:25:59</li>
<li><em>dev log + project management</em> 1:38:34</li>
<li><em>accounting</em> 0:13:21</li>
<li><em>terrain gen</em> 1:30:00</li>
<li><em>contract work</em> 3:06:01</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 1/5/152016-01-05T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/01/05/DevLog<p>21:39:06</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_6_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>The bulk of this week was spent working on the action game editor thing. I started making a game in it, and ported one of my old games to it. I had a vague plan about making a game a day with it, but I just don’t think I have the energy for that. One of the issues with it is that I can’t see people being excited about screenshots of games made with it. I hope to have a plan to deal with that this week.</p>
<iframe src="https://vine.co/v/ibITvXUn0J1/embed/simple" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<script src="https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js"></script>
<p>One possible expression that I was thinking about for the sector editor was to make instanced dungeons that would exist in a random gen landscape. I started messing around with rendering tech for the landscape late this week. This is a pretty neat fully gpu rendering thing for heightmaps.</p>
<p>I am starting to look for other ways to make money, because I am getting really worried that I won’t be able to eat from this stuff.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>action edit</em> 10:21:12</li>
<li><em>dev log</em> 0:38:46</li>
<li><em>accounting</em> 2:11:53</li>
<li><em>terrain gen</em> 5:36:17</li>
<li><em>other money</em> 0:04:56</li>
</ul>
2015 Year in review2016-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2016/01/01/YearInReview<p>Here is a list of the things I made/did in 2015.</p>
<h2 id="mlged">MLGEd</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/cantstop.gif" alt="MGLEd graphic" /></p>
<p>I think this is fair enough to put on here, even though I am now working on it again. I had intended to actually make more games with it, but it turned out that wasn’t really my style. I think I was making it for other people, and it turned out to not be for anyone but myself, really.</p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/03/03/mgled.html">MGLEd</a></p>
<h2 id="salvage-crew">Salvage Crew</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/salvage_crew.png" alt="Salvage Crew" /></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/03/18/SalvageCrew.html">A game for 7drl</a>, made in collaboration with Cale Bradbury and Sal Farina. I don’t think it turned out too great, but I finished it in time for 7drl at least.</p>
<h2 id="chain-jam-2--episode-5">Chain Jam 2 / Episode 5</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/ep5Screen2.png" alt="chain jam ep 5" /></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/05/22/ChainJamEp5.html">I made a little myst style game for this jam</a>. I swapped graphical styles about 4 times over the course of 2 days, but somehow it turned out relatively coherent.</p>
<h2 id="contract-work">Contract Work</h2>
<p>I spent a bunch of time working on contract work that has yet to be released. Hopefully this year?</p>
<h2 id="sector-editor">Sector Editor</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/sectorEdShots/1.png" alt="Sector Ed 1" /></p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/sectorEdShots/2.png" alt="Sector Ed 2" /></p>
<p><em>unfinished</em></p>
<p>I spent a bunch of time working on a sector editor that runs inside of unity. This means that I can theoretically build doom style levels in unity very very easily. I don’t actually know who I am making this for. So far, all I have to show for it are some neat screenshots.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/sectorEdShots/3.png" alt="Sector Ed 3" /></p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/sectorEdShots/4.png" alt="Sector Ed 4" /></p>
<h2 id="delia-mute">Delia Mute</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/delia_mute.png" alt="Delia Mute" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=2166&autoplay=1#pp">A roguelike I made in pico-8</a>. It has memory issues that mean you can’t play through a full game, but it is pretty nice outside of that. Was thinking that I would port it to iOS, and then completely forgot about that plan.</p>
<h2 id="the-other-things">The other things</h2>
<p>I spent a significant amount of time working on a CYOA editor for iOS. I don’t think it is for me though, so it probably won’t get finished. I also spent some time working on my tracker for iOS, which def is for me, but it just feels like I will never recoup my investment on it, so it is painful to work on. So much of this past year has been forcing myself to work on things that I know I will never make any money on, and being sad about that. Hopefully in 2016 I will be able to get over that issue.</p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/01/01/YearInReview.html">2014 year in review.</a></p>
Weekly Dev Log 12/28/152015-12-28T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/12/28/DevLog<p>7:58:35</p>
<p>A much shorter week, due to holidays.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_5_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>Started porting the web based action editor that I was working on to emscripten. This was pretty necessary due to slowdown in the lua.vm.js bridge functions. I am not doing much beyond writing wrappers for some functions right now.</p>
<p>Spent a little bit of time on the doom editor and iPad CYOA thing as well, but nothing significant. I don’t really know where either of those are going. In particular, the CYOA thing feels too slight to be worth finishing. Maybe I should send it out to people and see if anyone likes it or not.</p>
<p>Coming later this week: my yearly roundup of what I did. I am somewhat looking forward to that.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>doom editor</em> 0:31:11</li>
<li><em>ipad game editor</em> 1:35:27</li>
<li><em>lua action game editor</em> 4:56:59</li>
<li><em>mostly circle contract work</em> 0:54:58</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 12/20/152015-12-20T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/12/20/DevLog<p>22:27:29</p>
<p>Another week, another project.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_4_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>I spent a little time tackling bugs from the doom editor and the iOS CYOA editor this week. The doom editor got a major fix committed (3 concentric sectors would cause all sorts of headaches), and I started work on better face picking / texture application.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/actionEdLua.png" alt="Action ed lua" /></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/03/03/mgled.html">Around march or april of this year</a>, I had released a game making tool that never got any traction with anyone. I think a big part of that was I wasn’t using it myself, but it was also deeply strange for a number of reasons. Most of them had to do with the underlying complexity of the sdk. I had started trying to clean it up, but ended up realizing that it needed a full rewrite. That was too much to handle, so I dropped the project.</p>
<p>This week I came back to it, and rewrote nearly the entire sdk in lua. It took about a day. I spent another day banging my head against some strange bugs in lua.vm.js. This isn’t ready for release yet, but it is close. I am hoping that more people will be excited about it, since I smoothed out a ton of the issues.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>accounting</em> 0:46:03</li>
<li><em>doom editor</em> 6:05:41</li>
<li><em>ipad game editor</em> 0:39:36</li>
<li><em>lua action game editor</em> 12:41:56</li>
<li><em>mostly circle contract work</em> 2:14:13</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 12/14/152015-12-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/12/14/DevLog<p>24:56:45</p>
<p>One of the projects that I resurrected last week was a iOS based game making tool that I have been kicking around on and off for probably 6 years or so. The last incarnation of it was a Wario Ware DIY alike. Unfortunately, I got overwhelmed by the scope of the project, and ended up dropping it earlier this year. Before I dropped it, I wrote a new scope for it that felt more manageable. This week I implemented most of the things in that scope. Perfect.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_3_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>The new scope for this game is an iOS based choose your own adventure system. You can draw little pictures for each scene, and link the scenes together through text. When you are done, you can upload it to the web, and have people share in it. I did a play test with Morgan on Friday, and <a href="http://vnsys.neocities.org/?p=7666c1450d532e4e52cd">she made this cool little game</a>. Weird and experimental, and a cool first release for this tool.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/gamemaking_tool.jpg" alt="game making tool screen shot" /></p>
<p>I posted this screen shot from the tool, which was pretty reasonably ignored until I explained around what was going on. So that tells me that the tool itself needs to look a bit shinier. Not a huge deal, just something that I don’t want to do until all the features are squared away.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/LD34.jpg" alt="game making tool screen shot" /></p>
<p>The last big chunk of work this week was ludum dare. I tried to make a board game that incorporated both of the themes, gardening and two buttons. Predictably I failed to completed it. I managed to get a few iterations in, and it was starting to feel like something though, so potentially I will return to the themes of it at some point.</p>
<p>I also mailed out the drawings from the plotter. Those that asked for them should be getting should be getting them shortly.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>accounting</em> 1:16:37</li>
<li><em>ipad game editor</em> 13:31:29</li>
<li><em>music</em> 1:53:03</li>
<li><em>Ludum Dare</em> 8:15:36</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 12/8/152015-12-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/12/08/DevLog<p>14:59:05</p>
<p>Primary time this week was catching up with the books. I took on Morgan’s books too, which are way more complicated than mine, since she has inventory and vendors and about 15 different ways to process payments.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_2_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p>I got a major bug fixed with the doom editor, and then immediately found a new bug. Part of the fun of this project is that I am doing it with test driven develoment, so when I break something new I get about a million red lights. I hope I get the core sector finding code sorted soon though, because it is frustrating to just be mucking around with that endlessly.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/doom_ed_bug_notes.jpg" alt="doom ed bug notes" /></p>
<p>Other time this week was ressurecting some older projects that I spent time on earlier this year and were suffering from code rot. The iPad game editor is a fun one, and the last time I was working on it I had stripped it back to minimum viable product in notes, now I just need to go through and actually build the thing.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>accounting</em> 8:51:24</li>
<li><em>doom ed</em> 3:30:52</li>
<li><em>ipad game editor</em> 0:52:02</li>
<li><em>little iPhone Tracker</em> 0:50:38</li>
<li><em>plotter</em> 0:54:09</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 11/30/152015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/11/30/DevLog<p>12:28:08</p>
<p>Slightly shorter work this week due to family and holidays. A bunch of the untracked time this week was dedicated to playing board games and cleaning out basements.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_1_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<iframe src="https://vine.co/v/iz6bzDUJ3PF/embed/simple" width="500" height="500" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<script src="https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js"></script>
<p>The time that I did spend on personal projects this week was largely dedicated to doing an edition of drawings. I had built this lego plotter a few weeks ago, but never got around to writing the code to run it. This week I did, and got some neat L-System drawings out of it. It was pretty fun to not know what kind of drawing you were going to get until the pen actually dumped it out.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/l_system_drawings.jpg" alt="log" /></p>
<p>Speaking of which, 3 out of the 6 drawings in this edition are unspoken for. Let me know if you want one, and we can work it out.</p>
<p>I got one huge bug fixed on the doom editor this week. Then I lost all ability to work on it.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>doom ed</em> 2:25:12</li>
<li><em>Mostly Circle contract work</em> 0:49:17</li>
<li><em>plotter</em> 6:09:19</li>
<li><em>community work</em> 3:04:20</li>
</ul>
Weekly Dev Log 11/22/152015-11-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/11/22/DevLog<p>23:58:39</p>
<p>Normally I leave off the “here is what I did recently post” until the end of the year. I am feeling the need to get some of that love early this year, so I am going to try doing a weekly update. Hopefully this will keep me focused and dedicated to the little projects that I am plugging on.</p>
<p>I am going to redact some of the details of contract and other necessary redactable work.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/weekly_dev_0_time.png" alt="log" /></p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/doom_ed1.png" alt="screen2" /></p>
<p>I have been working on this doom sector style level editor that lives inside of unity on and off for a few months now. It isn’t to the point where it is really fast or fun to use yet, but I am closing in on bugs at the very least. This week I worked on some really necessary features, including moving lines and verts around. The secondary thing that I am working on with this is a <a href="http://forum.makega.me/t/covers-based-on-a-screenshot/1318">cover game for this forum thread</a> that everyone except me has forgotten about.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>doom ed</em> - 11:46:33</li>
<li>bugs - 2:49:32</li>
<li>building level - 1:53:44</li>
<li>performance - 4:31:18</li>
<li>moving lines - 1:20:24</li>
<li>moving verts - 0:26:10</li>
<li>undo 0:45:00</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Mostly Circle contract work</em> - 9:19:00</p>
<p><em>Community work</em> - 2:41:25</p>
Delia Mute in Grave Grotto2015-07-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2015/07/27/delia_mute<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/delia_mute.png" alt="Delia Mute" /></p>
<p>Another small grid roguelike. I think this one came out slightly better than my 7drl from this year. It is my first big project that I did for pico-8, and it took about a week to finish it off.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=2166&autoplay=1#pp">Play it here.</a></p>
Chain Jam Season 2 - Episode 52015-05-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/05/22/ChainJamEp5<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/ep5Screen1.png" alt="screen1" /></p>
<p>I just completed my episode of Chain Jam Season 2. You can grab <a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/episode-5">download links at my itch site</a>. Follow along as the episodes are released <a href="http://forum.makega.me/t/chain-game-2-schedule-games/1483">on the Dev Log</a>. There should be a new episode once every three days for the next month and a half!</p>
<p>During this jam I tried out a bunch of different processes for getting hand drawn water colors into a 3d environment. I don’t think I figured out the perfect method yet, but I tried out about 5 different techniques. One of them almost got me to give up on the whole jam, but since there were people down the chain depending on me, I powered through.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/ep5Screen2.png" alt="screen2" /></p>
<p>During the dev process, I made a small unity tool for creating myst style node walking. <a href="https://github.com/jonbro/UnityTool_CameraNodes">You can grab the source or the unity asset package at the github site</a> I made for the tool.</p>
Touch Trackers2015-03-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/03/23/TouchTrackers<p>http://www.vividtracker.com/
http://nitrotracker.tobw.net/
http://www.warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
http://www.warmplace.ru/soft/pixitracker/
http://www.chocopoolp.com/index.php
http://milkytracker.org/</p>
Salvage Crew [7DRL]2015-03-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/03/18/SalvageCrew<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/salvage-crew">Play Salvage Crew.</a></p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/salvage_crew.png" alt="Salvage Crew" /></p>
<p>The original intent of this game was to be a version of xcom with no randomness to the combat encounters. I had also been planning to make something that was as interesting as nightmare cooperative (which I did for 7drl last year). I think that while it isn’t quite as good as that, it does hit a few interesting moments. My favorite bits of this game are the storyline, which is delivered in about 10 sentences, and all the great work that <a href="http://twitter.com/netgrind">netgrind</a> and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/sundog-peacehouse">Sal Farina & Austin Redwoood</a>.</p>
<p>Additional thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/whatisian">Ian Snyder</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/draknek">Alan Hazelden</a> for their feedback during the development process. I made some major changes to the to the game design that I probably wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for them. My week on this game was largely down to wrestling with graphics and menus, and had about 2 days of solid game design in it even once I got all the graphic stuff sorted. I am starting to realize why ASCII art is one of the core tenants of roguelike design. Basically it means that you can add things as fast as you can think of them, and don’t have to worry much about what it looks like.</p>
<p>Some other games that I really enjoyed from this years 7drl:
<a href="http://www.ianiselsewhere.com/7DRL.swf">SEVEN CELL</a> - Ian made this in about 6 hours, and it is amazing. Such a perfect random puzzler
<a href="http://7drl.org/2015/03/14/dead-blinger/">Dead Blinger</a> - a great 1HP roguelike that has the classic elements as well. Read down for more about why ascii is great.
<a href="http://humbit.com/dumuzid/">Dumuzid</a> - the design in this is so wobbly, but I love it.
<a href="http://jonathanwhiting.com/games/garbagein/">Garbage In / Garbage Out</a> - a cross between roborally and glitch tank. Awesome.</p>
MGLed2015-03-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/03/03/mgled<p>I made a small thing called <a href="http://mgled.neocities.org">MGLed</a>. It is a web based editor for making games with <a href="https://github.com/abagames/mgl.coffee">MGL.coffee</a>, a really cool library for making tiny action games. I borrowed heavily from increpare’s <a href="http://puzzlescript.net">puzzle script</a>, which was an invaluable resource when figuring out how to make a web based editor.</p>
<p>I am releasing this in a partially finished state to see if it is something that people would like to play with further, and to potentially gain (or lose) energy from seeing if people are interested in it.</p>
<p>I was inspired to start working on this because <a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/blog/2014/12/12/games-in-2014/">Kenta Cho made 50 games last year</a> using this library. I gave the library a shot, and while it is super super strange, it is also blazingly fast to make stuff with once you learn your way around it. Among its strange and exciting features are: RANDOM MUSIC! SINGLE LETTER FUNCTION NAMES! ONLY NON-ROTATED SQUARES FOR GRAPHICS!</p>
<p>You can check out the source code for Kenta Cho’s games, and dump them into the editor and hack around with them.</p>
<p>I have also made a few games with it that you can look at the source code for. I have used the single letter variable names that the engine encourages, so I don’t promise that it is easy to read.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/cantstop.gif" alt="cant stop" /></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/cant-stop">cant stop</a></p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/snuggleship.gif" alt="snuggle ship" /></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/snuggle-ship">snuggle ship</a></p>
<p>If you want to dive in, the best place to start is the <a href="https://github.com/abagames/mgl.coffee">github documentation for the library</a>. I will be happy to keep updating this tool if people are happy to use it!</p>
2014 Year in review2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2015/01/01/YearInReview<p>Here is a list of the things I made/did last year.</p>
<h2 id="some-music">Some Music</h2>
<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/68611554&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true"></iframe>
<p>I did a better job of breaking out the musical equipment on a semi-regular basis, but since this playlist represents the some total of all the music I finished, it could probably be a little bit better. I did an ok job of getting rid of hangups and just calling things done though.</p>
<h2 id="all-together--candy-bomb">All Together / Candy Bomb</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/alltogether_candybomb.png" alt="All Together / Candy Bomb" /></p>
<p>Two small puzzle games, I think they made a pretty big difference in my gamemaking approach for the year, and finally allowed me to finish the roguelike that I had been thinking about for a long time.</p>
<h2 id="series-instruments">Series: Instruments</h2>
<p><a href="http://forum.makega.me/t/series-instruments-done/672">A collection of 4 instruments played with xbox controller</a>. Made for the makegame series pagent, and a fun experimentation. One of the songs above is made with one of these instruments. Also I was able to slightly modify one of these to run in kiosk mode at an art installation, which was nice to have a thing sitting around for that purpose.</p>
<h2 id="zero-zero-projector">Zero Zero Projector</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/zerozero_hero_500.png" alt="Zero Zero Projector" /></p>
<p>Probably the jammiest game I made in the past year, a collection of ideas just stuck into a single package and kinda rushed to get out the door. I think it is fun enough, but also pretty broken over all. I had actually finished the first version of nightmare cooperative before I finished this one, so I had an idea about how roguelikes were supposed to work.</p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/zero-zero-projector">Download Zero Zero Projector Here</a></p>
<h2 id="the-nightmare-cooperative">The Nightmare Cooperative</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/nightmare_cooperative.png" alt="The Nightmare Cooperative" /></p>
<p>This was the biggest thing I did all year, and it took me about 9 months from beginning to end. We have since sold it to another company, which is nice, since it means that they see longer term potential in its sales than we were able to get. I am a pretty big fan of this game and had an incredibly fun time making the first version of it.</p>
<p><a href="http://luckyframe.co.uk/nightmare">Get Nightmare Cooperative Here</a></p>
<h2 id="a-bunch-of-t-shirts">A Bunch of T-Shirts</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/coolshirts.png" alt="CoolShirts" /></p>
<p>Twitter was impossible to be on, so I switched my twitter over to a t-shirt advertising business. None of them were turned into physical products, but it was fun to make a shirt a day.</p>
<h2 id="no-more-lucky-frame">No More Lucky Frame</h2>
<p>Was such an amazing ride, and I think that I am totally on a different path with my life now that I have had that experience. Moving on has been tough, but I am excited to see what the future holds.</p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/01/22/2013_year_in_review.html">2013 year in review for comparison.</a></p>
Android KitKat Emoji2014-12-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/12/03/KitKatEmoji<p>Google does something good every once in a while, and recently they commisioned a set of emoji that is licensed with the liberal apache license. You can get this emoji set in the <a href="https://www.google.com/get/noto/">Noto Sans fontpack</a>.</p>
<p>I have extracted the emoji set to a <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/notoColorEmoji.zip">png set that you can download here</a>. This set happens to be my favorite, because just look at these cute little squishies.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/kitkatemojis.png" alt="notoemojis" /></p>
Temporary Twitter Change2014-09-04T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/09/04/CoolShirts<p>Follow me at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/cooltshirts2000">CoolTShirts2000</a> until I get bored of posting tshirts.</p>
<p><em>back to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jonbro">normal</a></em></p>
Nightmare Cooperative2014-08-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2014/08/31/nightmare_cooperative<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/nightmare_cooperative.png" alt="nightmare cooperative" /></p>
<p>A small grid roguelike in which you control multiple characters simulatanously. <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/03/03/The_Nightmare_Cooperative.html">I have posted a few of my thoughts on the development here</a>.</p>
<p>Links to buy (and more maketing) here: <a href="http://luckyframe.co.uk/nightmare">Nightmare Cooperative</a></p>
Make Game Series pageant2014-05-04T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/05/04/MakeGame_series_pageant<p><a href="http://MakeGa.me">Make Game</a> is a forum which is a sequel and successor to the now defunct superfriendshipclub. I was a sometimes member of the superfriendship club right when I was starting out making games full time. It was an interesting place to hang out, with a much different focus than most of forums for indie games that I had found at the time.</p>
<p>One of the best parts of it was the pageant section, which gave rise to a series of really interesting jams. At the time, I didn’t feel ready to approach the themes, they were too big for me to wrap my mind around. I thought I was ready, but of course the first theme for the ressurected pageants is blowing my mind. Please join me in participating in “Series”.</p>
<p><img src="http://makega.me/uploads/default/_optimized/6be/dd6/2895e54bdf_315x500.gif" alt="Series" /></p>
<p>The instructions from Ian Snyder:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Make a two or more small games all revolving around one central theme or idea that when taken together form one cohesive whole. Make the games good.</p>
</blockquote>
Zero Zero Projector2014-03-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/03/16/Zero_Zero_Projector<p>A first person permadeath arcade shooter with fog flasks.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/zerozero_hero_500.png" alt="zero zero hero" /></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/zero-zero-projector-webplayer">Unity Webplayer</a></p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/zero-zero-projector">Win / Mac / Linux Downloads</a></p>
<p>I started out 7drl this year with high hopes. Just on the tail of nightmare cooperative, I was feeling pretty confident that I could get to the end of this jam without making a pile of garbage (like I did last year), or just completely fail to make anything (like I did the prior year).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I got it into my head that the correct thing to do was to make a heist game that didn’t have any combat, and which was presented as a series of disconnected vignettes. A top down 30 flights of loving. I built out some nice graphics for it, and had ideas for some of the scenes that I wanted in it. Unfortunately, once I started thinking about it in terms of a game, I let “player agency” creep in. This was the death knell for this project, because I didn’t know how to handle a heist where the player could make choices about how it was going to proceed. I kept getting mixed up between the game I wanted to make and the expectations of what a roguelike should be.</p>
<p>I think I will come back to this idea at some point, or at least find a use for the graphics, because look at these graphics.</p>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/7drl2014_fail.png" alt="20147drlfail" /></p>
<p>Two days into the 7drl, I decided to deep six that project and start on something new. I had the beginnings of a randomly generated fps, so I grabbed all that code and started actually making it into a thing. I ripped out all of the enemies that I had implemented, tore out all the graphics, and switched it so that it just generated a single empty square room. I had big plans for this dungeon generator, but moving things to the third dimension is always hard. Making it to a first person asteroids simplifies a bunch of the generation.</p>
<p>I then built out a few enemies. I probably picked the wrong art style for this, because it took me a few hours each to make the animations and art. I don’t know what I could have done different except just not had animations. Or maybe art is just costly always.</p>
<p>Finally, I hit on this idea of throwing potions around, and having the fog have different properties. I had some notes of a roguelike that would use potions as the only weapon, with about 30 ideas listed. I stripped these back to the most important and interesting three, and shoved them in the game. Up to this point the game was brutally difficult, but with the addition of the potions, it didn’t take much work to balance it into something more or less playable. Winning feels like you are exploiting the game, which is an interesting thing to have happen. I don’t know if it is good design or not, but I like that there is a secret way to win and that you have to track it down.</p>
The Nightmare Cooperative2014-03-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/03/03/The_Nightmare_Cooperative<p>A new game.</p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/the-nightmare-cooperative">Play The Nightmare Cooperative here</a>.</p>
<p>I have been attempting to make a roguelike, and more specifically a <a href="http://mightyvision.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/868-hack-ios.html">broughlike</a> for the past year or so. You can play some of my earlier attempts <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/asmallrogue/asmallrogue.html">here</a> and <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/taxi/t_a_xi/t_a_xi.html">here</a>, but I would not recommend it. They are largely directionless, I was attempting to cargo cult design my way into the correct space, without understanding what a roguelike is or what makes them interesting. There were two breakthroughs in my understanding.</p>
<p>Both of the breakthroughs came through making games in puzzlescript, and they both happened in the same week, on sequential days. The first was <a href="http://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=8524611">All Together</a>. This helped me to understand what makes a grid and turn based game function. Largely, it is about positioning, and engines to manipulate that positioning in reaction to enviromental factors. This is tightly constrained in the early levels of all together, but by the last level, there are multiple solutions. In my initial idea for this game, it was a prototype for a roguelike. Having a prototype that ignores all but the most core mechanical elements of the roguelike allowed me to not get caught up in <a href="http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Berlin_Interpretation">the parts of the definition that concern replayability</a>.</p>
<p>All Together stopped at the point where it had only had 4 objects to work with (characters, enemies, goals and walls). With <a href="http://jonbro.itch.io/candy-bomb">Candy Bomb</a> I started to allow new objects to bleed in as I came up with ideas for them. It only started to explore the cross section between these objects. The breakthrough here was in having minor modifications to object definitions that had large consequences. In prior games that I have made with a large number of objects, they tend to exist very far away from each other in their definitions. In Candy Bomb, changing the number of bombs required to explode a candy is a HUGE change to the way that puzzles are solved. The fact that minor changes make such a huge difference is freeing in that you can populate the space of the game with tons of variety without too much work. This is something I have shyed away from, because there seems to be an implicit rule that games with a bulk of rules are worse than games with only a few rules. I am no longer sure.</p>
<p>Moving from the puzzle games to the roguelike was not the hardest problem. I knew the core mechanic that I wanted to implement. The obvious and first step was to soften up the penalty for encountering enemies in the game. A less obvious jump was something that was pointed out by <a href="https://twitter.com/smestorp">smestorp</a>.</p>
<p>My original note:
<em>roguelikes need to have ways that you can spend your way past blocks in the level… even if it is always solvable, have alternate solutions that don’t require as much thought, but you can spend a commdity (bombs or ropes in spelunky) to get past them.</em></p>
<p>I am going to fail to perfectly communicate his suggestion, but hopefully I will get close. He suggested that roguelikes need to have consumable items that allow later levels which might be impossible without the consumables to be beaten. On the early levels, you can always beat them without using consumables, but it is easier with them. This is where the ideas for the characters special moves came from. From there, having different specials for each character was an obvious jump.</p>
<p>I have plenty more ideas for how to expand this game, but I am trying to keep it within the <a href="7drl.org">7DRL limits</a>, so please enjoy.</p>
All Together / Candy Bomb2014-01-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2014/01/22/alltogether_candybomb<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/alltogether_candybomb.png" alt="all together / candy bomb" /></p>
<p>Two small puzzle games, my first ever puzzle games. Were incredibly fun to create. All together is a bit difficult, and probably the more unique of the two. Candy bomb was made for the candyjam.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=8524611">all together</a>
<a href="http://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=8557000">candy bomb</a></p>
2013 Year in review2014-01-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2014/01/22/2013_year_in_review<p>Here is a list of the things I made last year.</p>
<h2 id="wave-trip">Wave Trip</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_waveTrip.png" alt="wave trip" /></p>
<p>The last of the channel 4 music games. I think I finally turned a corner on how to make arcade game with this one. It might be my first game with screen shake and score multipliers. Also user generated content. I think this might be the last phone / tablet exclusive game I make for a while.</p>
<h2 id="proteus-mac-port">Proteus Mac Port##</h2>
<p>I love this game. I am still working on the port a little bit. I encourage everyone to <a href="http://visitproteus.com">play this game</a>.</p>
<h2 id="a-daily-journal-for-jan--feb">A daily journal for Jan & Feb</h2>
<p>Started out as a fun a day project, then tried to extend it to a fun a year project, but fell off after the second month. Was really enjoyable while I was doing it, but I am not sure if it helped me with my output at all, or my mental health. I should probably revisit, and keep metrics as I do it to see. I wish I had more copies of it to hand out, but xeroxing things is really expensive.</p>
<h2 id="in-d">In D</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_in_d.png" alt="In D" /></p>
<p>This was a cover of <em>in c</em>, set in a dungeon. It was shown at bit of alright 2013, and I think it went over pretty ok. It is certainly the most content I have ever produced for a game in the shortest time; ~40 unique rooms in under 7 days. I should have learned a lesson from this, but I think I might have forgotten it for the whole year. I don’t know if any documentation of this project exists, and I don’t have a currently available version for distribution.</p>
<h2 id="a-small-rogue--txi">A small rogue & T@XI</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_taxi.png" alt="T@XI" /></p>
<p>I have now made this part of a roguelike around 10 times (including some attempts that were so unfinished that I didn’t include them on this list). I am starting to learn that starting from a formalist definiton of a game and filling it out is not a way for me to finish something. I lose interest in it way too quickly. I feel kinda bad for the guy that did <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2gkLsa3fu0">a video review of T@XI</a>.</p>
<h2 id="options">Options</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_options.jpg" alt="Options" /></p>
<p>I made a game for <a href="http://www.morgancahn.com">Morgan’s</a> degree show, to be played with physical bits. I think it went alright. I am certainly learning to design for time scales. Before I made the physical version, <a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/files/options.html">I made a twine version</a> to test out all the various bits and get some copy down on the page.</p>
<h2 id="sokobomb">Sokobomb</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_sokobomb.png" alt="sokobomb" /></p>
<p>I am not sure if there was any strong reason to make this other than the fact that I was trying to get a game done every month, and it was a funny name. If it wasn’t so buggy it would be pretty fun. I think it might be inspired by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyro_2">PYRO II</a>, but I can’t remember if that inspiration was conscious or not. <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/jonbro/sokobomb">Not alot of people have played it</a>.</p>
<h2 id="laser-lock">Laser Lock</h2>
<p>Was attempting to make a game that had some of the feeling of <a href="http://mightyvision.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/o.html">O by smestorp</a>. I discussed some solutions to the issues with this game with him, but was never really drawn back to it, potentially due to the fact that it was tough to test on my own. <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/07/02/Laser_Lock.html">There are a few more words about it here</a>. It looks super cool, but I don’t have a screen shot of it.</p>
<h2 id="gentlemen">Gentlemen</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_gentlemen.jpg" alt="gentlemen" /></p>
<p>This game just kept on going. It should have been obvious during the development that this was a pc first game, due to the fact that we kept testing it with xbox controllers. We released first on android and ipad, and then ported to ouya and pc. I think it is pretty good, but I also think that it is lacking a bit in depth of its mechanics. I wish I had put in a single player mode more than anything else, because it could have helped me tune the high level input and find new ways to explore those systems. I also wish that I had played more streetfighter before making this game, so I could have included some of the systems from that. The rolling design phase on this game was really fun though, I got to keep tuning stuff for months, and it ended up at a far better place than it started.</p>
<h2 id="arcade-jam">Arcade Jam</h2>
<p>An amazing experience, and something that drove the Roflpillar project, and also somewhat drove the creation of <a href="http://luckyframe.co.uk/tacos/">TBGV</a>. I think the <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/09/21/arcade_jam.html">post that I did about</a> it is probably more worth reading.</p>
<h2 id="high-rise-hovercraft">High Rise Hovercraft</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_hoverbounce.png" alt="hoverbounce" /></p>
<p>Made for the <a href="http://chainjam.com/">chainjam</a>, a collection of 4 player party games. I also built a cabinet to play the games on, which ended up being reused for showing gentlemen. The core thing that I was exploring here was blocking. It is pretty fun to play, but doesn’t have a bunch of depth. I am pretty sure it is pretty similar to a minigame from a ps2 party game collection.</p>
<h2 id="ikon_colonize">IKON_COLONIZE</h2>
<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2013_games_ikon_colonize_small.png" alt="ikon_colonize" /></p>
<p>My first experience in making online multiplayer. Attempted to make a three player version of dota. There were a bunch of learning experiences here. I wish I had prototyped this as a card game with simultaneous moves, and I think I might go back to that. <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/07/29/Ikon_colonize.html">You can play it, if you can find 2 other people</a>.</p>
<h2 id="roflpillar">Roflpillar</h2>
<iframe src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/115045454@N04/12078535634/in/set-72157640026996483/player/" width="500" height="333" frameborder="0">
</iframe>
<p>Probably the best thing I made last year, and you will probably never get a chance to play it. Really incredibly proud of this thing.</p>
RoflPillar2013-10-20T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2013/10/20/roflpillar<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/roflpillar.png" alt="roflpillar" /></p>
<p>A two player game which you control by rolling around on the floor. It is themed as a caterpillar simulator. Nomimated for Amaze 2014 Human Human Computer award, and shown in the 2014 alt.ctrl.gdc exhibit. Also shown in london, nottingham, and edinburgh.</p>
<p><a href="http://luckyframe.co.uk/works/roflpillar/">More information, including news articles</a></p>
FPS Roguelikes2013-10-12T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/10/12/FPS_roguelikeI have been thinking about this genre connection for a while, apparently way too long, because there are a bunch that are out or coming out real soon. I am using a pretty open definition of roguelike here, so if it has randomized levels, or perma death, then it qualifies. Basically it just needs one or two of the high value factors from "the Berlin Interpretation":http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Berlin_Interpretation to make it here. People only accepting ADOM need not apply.
Now, a list:
"Paranautical Activity":http://codeavarice.com/ currently available
"Rogue Shooter":http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=170551729
"Fancy Skulls":http://www.fancyskulls.com/ alpha available
"Heavy Bullets":http://www.heavybullets.com/ pre-alpha available
"Tower of Guns":http://www.towerofguns.com/ available
"Eldritch":http://www.eldritchgame.com/ available
"Discoverie":http://7dfps.com/?action=games&id=45 7dfps version, available
"Receiver":http://www.wolfire.com/receiver available
"Sir, You Are Being Hunted":http://www.big-robot.com/tag/sir-you-are-being-hunted/ available
"Taquito Tower":http://www.freeindiegam.es/2013/08/taquito-tower-magdev/ available
"Dead Squared":http://www.indiedb.com/games/dead-squared alpha available
"Hellgate London":http://hellgate.t3fun.com/home/home.aspx available since 2007, now f2p
"Moraff's World":http://emptysqua.re/blog/moraffs-world/ available, eye of the beholder style. It seems like moraff made a number of games in this style.
"Disco Fear":http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=33179.0 not yet available, not sure of that name.
"Illuminascii":http://7dfps.com/?action=games&id=89 7dfps version, "ongoing development":http://depressingdrawers.tumblr.com/
"Boarding Party":http://7dfps.com/?action=games&id=228 7dfps version
"Delver":http://www.delvergame.com/ available
"Death Smashers":http://7dfps.com/?action=games&id=289 7dfps version, seems to be "in onging dev":www.broforcegame.com/DeathSmashers/
"The Aurora Wager":http://7drl.org/2013/03/17/the-aurora-wage-success/ 7dfps version
"Bob's Dragon Hunt":http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/bobs-dragon-hunt/screenshots/gameShotId,182640/ available
"7DRL":http://games.nagademo.com/games/11/ 7dfps version, available
"procedural FPS":http://www.mapcore.org/topic/14396-procedural-fps/page-24 this project seems to have stalled
"spire":http://hitboxteam.com/mystery-and-mastery not yet available
"oblige":http://oblige.sourceforge.net/ random map generator, supports doom, hexen, others
"3098":http://3089game.wordpress.com/ futuristic outdoor shooter with tons of features
"EtRD":http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=EtRD stylized graphics, crafting
I am going to try to livestream plays through some of these. I suspect that I am missing a bunch from the 7dfps this year, so will need to dig through those more. Also if you know of any others, let me know, so that I can play those as well.Arcade Jam2013-09-21T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/09/21/arcade_jamThis last weekend I participated in an arcade jam sponsored by the "VMGS":http://www.vmgs.com/ and organized by "David Hayward":https://twitter.com/nachimir. The intent of the arcade jam was to build a number of custom gaming boxes that would be shown in a popup arcade space. Some of the games ended up being custom built, and some of them ended up being custom controllers for existing games.
<iframe width="500" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OGRl7zluqDM?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The one that "got the most press":http://kotaku.com/a-piano-that-plays-doom-1338284919 was Doom Piano, a piano modded to play doom, along with a custom mod of the doom source code by "Sos Sosowski":http://sos.gd/. The mod enabled the piano's keys to be held longer in the game and to add permadeath to make it better for showing in a space. A pretty impressive, and altogether massive arcade machine.
The projects that I worked on more closely were the RGBriefcase, an audio only puzzle game built into an old suitcase, and GTA HI FIVE, a video game to be played with two gametraks.
<iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/hnQOWur6u7F/embed/simple" width="480" height="480" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The RGBriefcase was the project that had the most people touching it, David Hayward built the physical bits of it, "Joon":http://joon.be/ prototyped the first levels, I coded those first levels and wired the case, "George":http://nottheinternet.com/ coded a two more levels, and came up with the idea for the final puzzle. The two interesting bits were making a puzzle game, which I have never done before, and making an audio only, screenless game which is something that I am surprised I have never done before. I learned a bunch about doing audio on arduino as well, which has got me kicking around a few future ideas (anyone want a box that only chops up amen breaks? I want to make it).
<iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/hvBBOZIdgdb/embed/simple" width="480" height="480" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The GTA HI FIVE was also pretty great, but gripped by problems from the start. Me and Joon made this one, and restarted it about 7 times, the final restart was at 7 in the morning the day the arcade opened at 10. Unfortunately all this starting and restarting meant that some things were lost along the way, and we weren't able to polish this one perfectly. I am not sure exactly what the take away lessons from this are other than never use complicated physics when simple physics will do.
Overall, the experience has got me thinking more about the context in which to place my games, and how to do the initial publicity, and the value of actually interacting with game players in person. Talking with "Simon of One Life Remains":http://www.oneliferemains.com/ in particular had me thinking more about how I want our games to exist in the world, and how to get there.
Finally, I am going to be building an arcade box to play the games for the "upcoming Chain Jam":http://www.copenhagengamecollective.org/chainjam/. If you want to make a four player game, and have it played on a cool arcade machine somewhere in Scotland, then just make something. If you are in Scotland, and just want to hang out and make games for this jam, that would be amazing as well! I think I will be opening the Lucky Frame office that weekend so that people can come by, hang out, and make games.IKON COLONIZE2013-07-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2013/07/29/ikon_colonize!https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/2013_games_ikon_colonize.png(wave trip)!
MIKRO LOMA / #7DRTS / 3 COLONISTS PER SHIP // DESTROY THE CORE AND BE THE LEADER TO OWN THE DROP SHIP.
"Play on Kongregate":http://www.kongregate.com/games/jonbro/ikon-colonize
Ikon Colonize2013-07-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/07/29/Ikon_colonize"Just posted a new version of the game on kongregate":http://www.kongregate.com/games/jonbro/ikon-colonize with a few fixes.
My desire to make a dotalike for this competition rose out of the fact that I really enjoy dota but am unable to get my coworkers to play it with me. I wanted to make something that is similar to dota that matches the sort of games that we play and enjoy at the office, in the hope that would get them interested in the real thing. I was also interested in exploring what makes dota fun for me, and if I can find that fun thing in a week.
"I have written previously about what I liked about dota":http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/03/03/DOTA2.html, and strangely enough, I don't think I included much of those things in the game that I made this week. What I did manage to include was a somewhat grindy game that tips over into an endstate with a surprising speed, and has some of the micro work that goes into a dota match. There isn't as much teamwork in this game, because it turns out that organizing alliances is something that doesn't just happen in a quick match. I suspect that alliances are a thing that can happen when you actually have time to think out the whole issue.
This is also the second multiplayer game that I have made in a row, and I think I am starting to close in on what would make a successful one. The first game we just finished is local only, but only requires two players to play. I solved the local only with this one, but added a new wrinkle, which is that you need exactly 3 players. It is a bit frustrating that social pressures force you towards certain types of games, but I suppose I could work on making this something that would support 2-x number of players. Potentially by adding teams, or by having more players at once.
The other direction that I could build this game in is to add more abilities for each player. Making the dash a triggerable state with a cooldown made it feel a ton more like dota, and I think that adding a set of ultimates for each player would add a really nice last ditch phase to the game where everyone is triggering ultimates, or saving them to exactly the right time. I am not sure if adding the tech tree / store system to this game would be a good idea or not, but having different builds for the players is something that would be interesting. Basically adding complexity to create depth.
I hope you manage to find two other players and get a game of it in.Laser Lock2013-07-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/07/02/Laser_LockI just made this small game for "one game a month":http://onegameamonth.com called laser lock. It was mostly made on trains, but had a little bit of actual office coding stuck in there for good measure. Partially inspired by "this blog post by smestorp":http://mightyvision.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/overlapping-input-competitive.html, I decided to expand on the one mechanic that is a shared control input thing in "our new big game":http://luckyframe.co.uk/gentlemen that we are working on at lucky frame. The first thing I did was think "what is the most simplest form to express this idea in", and promptly forgot what was cool about the idea. No matter, I pressed on, and came up with this laser reflecting action game for two players. While there were some interesting things that came out of making this, in the end, it was more the aesthetic and sound that was interesting. I would like to revisit the original idea, which was more about just pressing buttons at the correct time, where half the time the button is correct for you and half the time it is correct for the other player. The issue I think this game illustrates is that even the smallest amount of complexity and distance from a clear solution to a problem can quickly multiply and become impossible to manage.
Here is the "android apk download for laser lock":https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/laserLock.apk. Only tested on nexus 7, but should work on most recent android tablets.Gentlemen2013-06-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2013/06/01/gentlemen<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/Gentlemen.png" alt="gentlemen" /></p>
<p>Single screen local multiplayer game. Released on (nearly) every platform. Marks Lucky Frame’s official switch to Unity.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.luckyframe.co.uk/gentlemen/">More information and purchase links</a></p>
GDC 2013 Review2013-04-05T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/04/05/GDC2013_reviewI feel like writing a blog post about my experience at GDC this year is necessary to my recovery from it, something so that I can continue to get work done and restart all of my hanging projects.
The speed at which GDC proceeds has left me with mostly glimpses, so that is what I am going to relay here. An exhaustive minute to minute experience probably wouldn't be that useful anyways.
Before GDC even started proper I heard a rape joke. It wasn't even a joke, just someone using rape as an adjective in a way that was intended to get a shock laugh (I think this is a common rape joke structure). I learned later that this was someone whose work I had been pretty into, which is a bit frustrating. This wasn't the only instance of this kind of thing happening at the conference, just the first one that I heard. I didn't call him out on this, maybe I should have, but I let it slide.
This thing was counterbalanced by all the bits of the conference that seemed focused on making stuff better for marginalized people and non commercial interests. Yann pointed out the difficulty with holding both the 5 story posters for battlefield 4 and the talk about "free indie games":http://www.freeindiegam.es in your mind at once. Like GDC was using all of the indie game stuff to validate all of the other more commercial / problematic work that was going on.
"Lost Levels":http://www.unwinnable.com/2013/04/05/gdc-lost-levels/ was one of the amazing bits on the non-commercial end of the scale, it provided a great section of passionate people talking about issues that couldn't necessarily exist within the main structure of GDC. I was totally impressed by the organizers of that thing, along with all the speaker that I managed to see. I was sliding into a low blood sugar haze during the event, but what I was present for was really amazing and I appreciated it. I am looking forward to more of this type of thing if I end up going to GDC again. It felt like a really important thing that should be part of every corporate focused gaming event. The lack of a projector was also brilliant, and forced people to rely on words, which was something that could get lost during the more visually focused main conference.
The few talks that I made it to were also pretty great, the aforementioned free indie games talk, and the rants session and parts of the experimental gameplay workshop. The rants session in particular, and Anna Anthropy's reading / remix of "Romero's Wives":http://nightmaremode.net/2012/11/romeros-wives-23746/ was completely amazing. It summed up so much that is wrong with the culture that surrounds making games, and was completely crushing in person.
We were lucky enough to have a ton of people with us and helping this time, particularly Yann and Kristina that did the thankless work of running the booth while I sat around on the lawn. I should also mention that the most important part was as it always is, meeting new people and catching up with old friends. I don't want to leave anyone out though, so I am just going to leave everyone out.
The game of the week was by far an unreleased two player competitive game by "Harry Lee":http://harry-lee.com/. Hopefully he will post it in some playable form at some point. It reminded me that simple could be amazing, and that there is room for academic thoughts about psychology and bluffing within high speed games.
Also "my sister made her first video game that week":http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/jonbro/3220524, in a competition with "Sos":http://sos.gd/ over who could make the most terrible game.One Game a Month / Fun a Day Update2013-03-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/03/16/OGAM_FAD_updateI just completed the third chunk of One Game a Month, more or less. This one is "a game called T@XY":https://t.co/7bZdbHucOT, and it was done as part of the 7 day rogue like challenge. I have not put either this game or "the one that I did for the last game a month":https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/asmallrogue/asmallrogue.html on my website, or anywhere other than the wilds of twitter, due to the fact that I am not that proud of them. They have both been little games that while they had the core loop in them, didn't seem to rise to the level of being interesting. I fear that my larger game projects are making me forget how to accomplish jam games, and also making my expectations for my own games rise past the point where I can accomplish them as an individual (due to the fact that I am working with a team every day). I think I am also losing sight of why to do jam games, which is to explore and prototype. If 1 in 5 jam games is alright, that is probably an ok record.
While I was working on this one, I was also felt like I should have been working on this larger project, one which is on its "3rd iteration without a public release":http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/08/07/visionary_artists_festival.html. I think this time through I might actually have the drive to finish it though. One of the issues is that the core of that project is so big, it is hard to hold it all in your mind at once. I currently have about a third of the core in on this current iteration, but I am hoping to be able to focus my free time on it after getting back from GDC, and maybe get a playable / usable version of it out for the next GAM. "Martin vs Monty": probably will take us into the 5th month unfortunatly, but that one is also coming along nicely, it is to the point where I don't feel at all bad showing it to people.
Simulateously to all that, I am continuing to do Fun a Day for the entire year. I have yet to print the zine for month two, but I am putting up the "photos from month three on the web as I go along":http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/sets/72157632921463712/with/8558512554/. Going to the states while attempting to continue making lego scupts is going to be interesting, and difficult I imagine. I don't yet know what I am going to do in month 4 for that, but I am leaning towards something that I can actually accomplish on the train this time around.Dota 22013-03-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/03/03/DOTA2I have fallen back into dota 2 this weekend, after dropping it for about 3 and a half months. The last time someone asked me if I liked it, I had to say "I am not sure". I still feel the same way about it, but I am starting to hone in on the bits of it that I do enjoy (and the ones that I don't like so much). I think it say a bunch for the game that it took me around 30 hours of play to gain an opinion of it, or maybe it is illustrative complex the game is.
Much like the RTS games that it is descended from, much of the moment to moment play in the game is a micro management game, which comes down to understanding animation timings and clicking at exactly the right time. I enjoy this much more than the micro in star craft 2, which I find to have to many moving bits to really feel like micro management, and starts to feel like an interface management problem.
The larger macro game is a bit harder for me to enjoy, as it is quite broad in terms of the decisions that can be made. I think this is my beginner reading of the game however, I am still at the level where I don't understand the buy orders for each of the various moving units on the field, much less how I need to balance my purchases against the other team. This may all be a moot point because I have yet to perfect the micro game, and can't really purchase the items as quickly as I need to keep up with the level of play in the rest of the game. Valve has made this a bit better by integrating user build orders into the interface that help you decide what to buy and when.
I think that this may speak to my larger issues with the game, which is that the level of play needed to keep up with other players is so far beyond what I am capable, even after 30 hours of play.
Those thing said however, I still really enjoy playing the game, and there are a number of things that I would borrow from it for my own design. the fact that they didn't seem to ever throw away any content. If you can think of an element for the game, it is in there. Weapons that do major modifications to the behavior of some of the heroes, but don't do anything for the other heroes, strange item delivery systems. It seems like the design was one ongoing shit sticks session, and I really enjoy that. I wonder what got taken out, if anything. It does seem to lend itself to a game that has a bunch of breadth, which the depth comes out of. The system starts with a bunch of branches, which are quickly pruned as play goes onwards, and then converge on correct builds. The points in the game that allow for branching decisions seem to be centered around the play within a team, the hidden information around what the other team is doing, and the specifics of how a player approaches the micro game.Wave Trip2013-01-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2013/01/22/wave_trip!https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/wave_trip.png(wave trip)!
The final game in the set of music creation games that we did at Lucky Frame. I am sure there will be more, the next thing we do will not be as clearly connected. This game is a cross between a cave flyer and sound shapes. I am really proud of the game design decisions that we made on this one, I think it is both accessible and deep.
"Wave Trip Website":http://www.luckyframe.co.uk/wavetrip/
A Plan2013-01-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2013/01/14/A_PlanI am going to try to finish more things this year. I was a bit disappointed that I looked back on 2012, and didn't have a "crazy long list of games like I did for 2011":http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/01/12/year_of_games.html. Some might argue that it is quality over quantity ("one of the 2012 games got into the igf for petes sake":http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html), but proliferation is its own reward. I also started a bunch of games last year, but never finished them to the point that I was comfortable with releasing them. This year I am going to try my hardest to get things to a state where I enjoy them, and where I feel comfortable with giving them to others.
As such, I am going to participate in "1GAM":http://onegameamonth.com, a project in which I am going to release 12 games in 2013. I think it should be doable, I already have the first 3 lined up, I just need to come up with another 9. I am also writing "750 words a day":http://750words.com/ for the month of January. Writing is one of the skills that I feel like I am lacking in the games that I make personally. It is amortized a bit by working with lucky frame, but my jam games suffer from a lack of story. I will probably post up an ebook of my rambling for anyone that is brave enough to download it at the end of the month.TENNNES2012-12-04T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/12/04/TENNNESThere is a "kickstarter called sportsfriends":http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gutefabrik/sportsfriends-featuring-johann-sebastian-joust that is nearing its final days right now, and it looks like it is going to be a tight one. I am writing this in the hope that it will help explain why I think these games are really enjoyable, and hopefully get other people the opportunity to play them. The game I want to talk about is "TENNNES":http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gutefabrik/sportsfriends-featuring-johann-sebastian-joust/posts/358829.
Plenty of things have been said about J.S. Joust, and it is one of the games that I have spent the most time playing from this pack. Doug has been touring with it like mad for the past few years, and I have played it with him and others, late into the night. It is a singular experience, and I hope that everyone gets to play it at some point. Enough has been said about this game in other, smarter venues though, so I encourge you to follow some of the links off the kickstarter page.
Hokra, Barabariball, and Pole riders I have spent a bit of time with. I don't know them all that well though, as I havn't had the opportunity to really dive in deep. I am super pumped to kick back with a controller and the guys at luckyframe and dig into all of them when they come out. Also, due to the fact that they are core sportsfriends games, there is plenty of information already available about them. I don't think I need to
Where does that leave us? TENNNES. It is not one of the core sportsfriends games, but it is going to be availble for pc with the pack, and I really think that it is amazing. After hearing the "Idle Thumbs podcast talk about it":http://www.idlethumbs.net/idlethumbs/episodes/happy-halloween, I asked JW for a copy of it. Much of what I have written is repeated in that episode.
TENNNES has been running on a computer at the office non-stop since I got it. Every moment of downtime has been TENNNES. TENNNES is just tennis, more or less, but filtered through the simplicity of pong, i.e. you could play it with a beer in one hand (with the correct joystick). It is incredibly deep though. Watching a match as an uninitiated player looks pretty much the same as pong, but as someone that has played it, you can see crazy risky shots and amazing saves and incredible points. It is a strange combination of approachable in its controls, but crazily deep in the outcome. We are still finding optimal stragies and new gambits for serves weeks into playing. And we are only playing two out of the three possible courts in the game.
TENNNES also creates this amazing competitive space, where you end of vibrating with energy after a close match. I have left several matches sweating and swearing. This seldom happens to me when playing an online multiplayer game. Something about having your competition in the same room with you really helps the game itself.
I hope this encourages some more people to pledge to the kickstarter.Far Cry 2 and Hotline Miami2012-11-12T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/11/12/FarCry2_hotlineMiamiI have been playing a bunch of Far Cry 2 and Hotline Miami recently. They are both really nice examples of improvisational play, but the details in each game create for wildly different experiences.
Each game has a similar start state, a planning phase where you attempt to work out your path through a problem. In Far Cry 2 the problems generally amount to figuring out where the enemies are in the check point that you are working your way through. Hotline Miami blocks the information off from you a little bit. In blocking off the information, it requires you to repeatedly play through the same situation, planning a little bit further into the problem each time. This is almost an improvisational approach to creating a composition, which is the piece that you play once you have gathered all the information about the level, and play through it to the end. This play system is supported by one hit kills, and an extremely fast restart system.
Far Cry 2 on the other hand has a bit longer load time, and you are required to walk back to the location that you were just working through. This, coupled with the amount of damage that you can soak up, makes it less likely that you will give up on a situation, and continue to improvise through to the end. The fact that you don't have perfect information about the problem at any point during solution means that there is a bunch more force towards dealing with the unfolding issues.
It is interesting how wildly different the pace of a game can be controlled by these types of tweaks to the underlying mechanics, and framing of the games.Super Hexagon2012-09-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/09/08/Super_Hexagon"Super Hexagon":http://superhexagon.com just came out for iOS on thursday, and I have been playing it a bunch. I really like this game, it fits into the way that I play iphone games quite nicely.
There are a bunch of specific things that I am enjoying about Super Hexagon. There is a major design change from the flash version in that you are no longer hit by the sides of walls, only incoming walls. This allows for tighter slalom style sections. It also encourages oversteering in some sections, which then makes you lose at yet other sections.
One of the overall winning strategies seems to be taking in the whole screen at once, looking far in advance for upcoming holes. This would be totally easy if this was a standard racing game, where you had a good idea of the position of your car based on dead reckoning. Here though, you need to contend with the constantly spinning camera, and remember your past position based on that. The changing number of walls seems to effect this the most because it pushes the potential openings further off the screen. There may be something else going on there with the speed of the advancing walls changing per section too, but I am not sure what it is.
The fixed sets of patterns is a really nice choice as well, it makes the game simultaneously endless, and a set of learnable elements. There are some that I struggle with, like the offset by one fast pulsing hexagons in the hexagoner stage, but I think with practice I can over come them. That is really nice to have the feeling of practice in what is an endless twitch game.
And speaking of twitch, I like that the hexagon stage isn't really about twitch at all until you creep up on 60 seconds. Maybe it is the hour or so that I have played of it, but hexagon is almost relaxing now. I am glad that Terry left in this slow section.Bad Hotel2012-08-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2012/08/14/bad_hotel!https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/bad_hotel_iphone.jpg(bad hotel)!
The next big luckyframe project, bad hotel is a music tower defense game. It is based on the prototype that is lower down this same page, but extended out into a full game.
"Bad Hotel Website":http://luckyframe.co.uk/badhotel
Interview about music games2012-04-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/04/16/interviewThis interview that I did about "Lucky Frame and what we are up to":http://www.indiegamepod.com/?p=2934 has just been posted. We talk about what drives our current projects and where we are looking in the future. It was a chat that gave me about 20 ideas for new directions that we could go in the future, and I hope that it is inspiring to other people as well.Music Tower Defense Notes 22012-03-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/03/18/tower_defenseYesterday I reached a breakthrough in the simplification of the game. I realized that although having a single player avatar gave players a more human connection to the actions that were occurring in the game, it didn't add anything to the sound that was being produced, and in fact the sound was not that interesting at all. I came home, and ripped out the player character, and started rebuilding something similar to an old LD game that I did, "bad hotel":http://jonbro.tk/software/2011/05/01/bad_hotel.html.
The other thing that I ripped out was the audio engine that I was using. Although I love the pugs luv beats sounds, I think they were getting in the way of me imagining anything new. "Martin Brinkmann has a really nice set of instruments":http://www.martin-brinkmann.de/pd-patches.html up on his website, so I dropped one of those in.
Bad Hotel is basically a tree based system, so I am just traversing the nodes out to the leaves and then looping back to the root. This was the first thing that I sonified.
<iframe width="500" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AYwJNf7gAzk" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I then added in enemies, to add some entropy to the song making. These enemies are dirt stupid, they just go straight for the root node.
<iframe width="500" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JLdjFHUkswU" frameborder="0"></iframe>
There is nothing in the game itself to keep me from going on forever. However, I am setting certain rules for myself, just to make the song more song like. I think that these rules could be written into game systems eventually. They could take the form of either more health on the individual hotel elements, or a certain amount of cash flow that you need to manage as the game goes on. In addition, some of the enemies could aim for the leaf nodes instead of the root node, and this would guarantee that the song would be pruned back, rather than totally falling apart at certain points.
The other thing that could be done to structure the song better would be to have certain diffusion limits as the triggers travel through the leaves of the tree. That way you would need to add new power sections to different parts of the structure. If only one of these was sonified at a time, it might give rise to verse chorus type structures.Music Tower Defense Notes2012-03-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/03/14/tower_defenseI have been through a number of prototypes for the follow up to pugs luv beats, and I think that I am closing in on a working direction. I think this is the 5th one in a series of wildly different ideas. Where this post starts, we are thinking about doing a tower defense where the towers are step sequencers. We also are thinking about having a main controllable character for setting up the towers, like the engineer in team fortress.
I am going to do this prototype more out in the open than the one for pugs luv beats, at least until someone tells me to stop. Hopefully it will give people an idea of how we work, as well as give me a way to get feedback from a larger group. I will be updating this post as often as I can with new stuff.
h2. Notes 14-3
Bloons tower defense 3 does not have any health bar style readouts on the state of the enemies. It displays the states of the enemies as distinct graphics. On the first 20 levels, I only saw 6 states, four of which mapped directly to health states, and two of which mapped to special states. One of these was an enemy that contained multiple enemies. The other one was an enemy that could only be pushed into a killable mode through a special attack type.
Revenge of the titans survival mode only had 6 tower types. On further review, this is controlled by the main game tech tree. The six that were opened up were due to the way that I had approached the game. A resource collector, and a tower that buffed it. It had three types of attack towers, but these were effectively all the same, just speed boosts of the base tower. The last tower was a healer for the attack towers. It also had a bunch of one time use pickups, so a bunch of the game was trying to find these on the screen. I think that once the game went past 7.5 mins or so, it stopped doing highlights of these as they random dropped, which made grabbing them a ton harder. The enemies didn't have displayed health, but you could guess how many hits they were going to take through their general size. Also the size of the crowd was a general display of the amount of health that you were going to have to deal with. The large enemies had a health display that only showed while they were under attack. The same for your towers, although highlighting them seemed to display their health.
The prototype got this far today:
!http://yfrog.com/g0votbp:iphone!
h2. Notes 16-3
I started the prototype at this point today:
!http://yfrog.com/klj3ilp:iphone!
I added the enemies back in, and corresponding lose states. The enemies are a bit dumb right now, they just spawn a certain distance at a random angle from the players base, and move towards it. I think that at some point they should probably move towards towers that are attacking them, and try to take out the players towers. The enemies also drop money that you can use to build new towers, or upgrade your existing towers. I haven't played it to an endgame yet because of some bugs, but that is my first plan of the day.
One of the biggest issues with this prototype right now is how confusing it is to look at. I think that by limiting the expansion of the towers so that they cannot overlap, it should create nice textures on the screen as well as removing some of the visual confusion.
Also, you may notice that I have a virtual control stick in the bottom left, and two big virtual buttons. I really would like to get rid of both of those things. I may try out the bit pilot controls for the moving the character, but I am concerned that they won't map well to a game where you want your player to end at a particular spot, rather than vacate their current position in a specific vector. This may just be me waffling over details though.
I am currently using just blinking graphics to signify audio, but I noticed a few issues that may mean really boring audio. It seems that an optimal strategy may mean that the notes that are playing from the towers will just be a totally steady drum beat. I am not sure how to deal with that, but perhaps putting in actual audio may help with discovering a cure. Will probably use the pugs luv beats sound engine as I have been on all of the prototypes to try to figure it out.
Other than those two big issues, I want to add context sensitive towers, so that if you build a tower close to an on screen resource, then it harvests that resource. That may be adding too much complexity, but the only way to find out is to add it unfortunately.
h2. Notes 17-3
I added the wave on / wave off mechanics that are present in so many tower defense games. The reason I added that was because the games were going by way too fast. Now that the pace of the game is slowed down, you can start to notice some of the issues. I have also added actual audio, and that is becoming apparent that the way the towers charge up does not make for quite so interesting audio. I have two ideas for how to fix these issues.
<iframe width="500" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mhF2oGRlb2Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The first one is to cut out the main avatar. That fixes two problems, one that there are control issues that I have not faced yet, and a simple place towers directly is something that I can handle much more easily. The second is that I may be ignoring what is fun about tower defense, and making a different kind of game. Tower defense is at its core a lightweight management sim. I think what I am making is more about avoidance. I think that by focusing in on just one type of fun, rather than trying to have two types of fun simultaneously, I will be able to make something better.
As for the audio component. I like the towers being trigged by the enemies, it adds some computed variety to the sounds that they produce. I don't like the fact that the sound outside of that is such a droning rhythm. One of the nice things about offline sequencing is that you can make really complex rhythms really easily. With this game, it seems that you are forced into making really simplistic sounds for the gameplay to work.Pug Synth2012-01-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2012/01/25/pug_synth!https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/pug_synth.png(pug synth)!
We took one of the things that people liked most from pugs luv beats, and spun it out into its own app. This was a pretty quick and fun project. It is a bit like a more whimsical version of "bebot":http://normalware.com/, an app that we all really like.
"Pugs Synth on itunes store":http://www.itunes.com/apps/pugsynth/
Year of games2012-01-12T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2012/01/12/year_of_games<p>Making games has been a long term goal of mine for a few years now, probably since I outgrew astronaut as a life goal. This year I really started making games in earnest. While I had made about 4 games prior to this year, I didn’t really have the drive or the understanding to do it. A bunch of things came together this year though, the most important of which was the funding of Lucky Frame by Channel 4 and Creative Scotland. That allowed me to stop doing my day job of making websites and dedicate myself to making games full time. What a year it has been too.</p>
<p>The most recent thing is that Pugs Luv Beats was nominated for an IGF award. I had entered the year with the goal of having a single game that would be worth submitting to the IGF at all, I had zero expectations of anything more than that. To be clear, I did not have any game that was even worth submitting last year.</p>
<p>It turns out that over the course of this year, I have made 10 things that qualified as video games. I also made a card game, which may have helped a little bit in my understanding of games, but I am not really sure. This is a super far stretch from 2010 where made 4 games, only 2 of which were arguably playable. And an even further stretch from the other 27 years of my life where I made 1 video game.</p>
<h2 id="ten-second-fire-jump">TEN SECOND FIRE JUMP</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_firejump.png" alt="firejump" /></p>
<p>This is the third <a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/">Glorious Trainwreck</a> that I had done. Glorious trainwrecks is where you make a game in 2 hours, so it is a slightly crazier jam then the Ludum Dare, but good for testing out ideas. For this one I decided to learn flixel. Also I had not even tested out the tool chain, so I had to get that all working within the 2 hours. This game kinda sucks. But Flixel turned out to be totally awesome, and I ended up using it on a few more projects throughout the year.</p>
<p>I actually ended up cloning big part of flixels engine into the iphone engine that I am using, because it is so enjoyable to work with. This may also be because it is the first real game engine that I have worked with, so I didn’t know anything else. I suspect it is because flixel is really great.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/files/TENSECONDFIREJUMP.swf">Direct link to SWF</a> - arrows to move, space to jump</p>
<h2 id="sound-track">Sound Track</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_soundtrack.png" alt="sound track" /></p>
<p>During the month of March I started working on Lucky Frame all day, and made a few prototypes that were not released. Sound Track is probably the most complete of these.</p>
<p>I had been playing a bunch of trainyard at the time, and wanted to make a game that accentuated the rhythmic aspects of that game. <a href="http://www.theamazingrolo.net/">Yann</a> made about 10 levels for it, and we user tested it a few times before realizing that it was far to complicated for people to control. I think that we didn’t fully understand user testing at that point, nor did we understand our market, so we may have been more harsh on this prototype than we should have been.</p>
<p>However, it was good that we scrapped it, because the toy at the core wasn’t that fun to actually play with. It felt more like a chore to build songs by drawing roads.</p>
<p>This one doesn’t have a link because I was not diligent about saving working builds back in this time period. Also it is for iPhone, and I neglected to port to PC.</p>
<h2 id="bad-hotel">Bad Hotel</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_bad_hotel.png" alt="bad hotel" /></p>
<p>My second Ludum Dare entry, this one is a literal take on the genre “tower defense”.</p>
<p>Boy, does it have some problems. I made the controls far too losey goosey, you have to hit buttons at the exact right times to place pieces. There is a strange cool down period on the placement that has nothing to do with the actual game play, and feels really divorced from it. There is no difficulty curve, and it starts out pretty darn hard, so you don’t really get a chance to practice your skills before being bombarded by enemies.</p>
<p>All that said, the core toy is pretty fun to play with. Basically it is a human controlled Diffusion Limited Aggregation system, so you can make super cool looking structures super quick.</p>
<p>Sean, the artist at Lucky Frame keeps bugging me about this one, so it will probably have a sequel at some point. One of the things that I want to draw from is [Rampart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampart_(arcade_game), which was pointed out to me by <a href="http://www.mainlyaboutgames.co.uk/">Tony</a> as a pretty similar concept.</p>
<p><a href="http://jonbro.tk/BadHotel/jam_version.html">Direct link to SWF</a></p>
<h2 id="unislot">Unislot</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_unislot.png" alt="unislot" /></p>
<p>This one started out as a text adventure slot machine, which I did in 20 minutes as a joke. When I saw how sucked into it Yann got, I decided to add graphics to it. Still was basically a joke.</p>
<p>I ended up putting it in the <a href="http://www.piratekart.com/igfpiratekart.html">IGF Pirate kart</a>, so a bunch of people have played it in the context of other strange games, so that is good that there is a context for this type of thing. The Pirate Kart ended getting a bunch of news coverage, which is strange and cool. I think I am going to do more of those if I have the time.</p>
<p>I still think that slot machines are a great model for thinking about simple game play. Mining in minecraft is basically a big slot machine. Every time you break through a block, it is like pulling the handle.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/LuckyFrame/unislot">Play on Kongregate</a></p>
<h2 id="droopy-lasers">Droopy Lasers</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_droopy_lasers.png" alt="droopy lasers" /></p>
<p>Did this one with <a href="http://www.alexanderwaterston.com/">Alex</a> and Yann in 6 hours for a dundee game jam. I didn’t do too much of the gameplay code because I was handling the bridging between the pitch tracker and the game engine. Unfortunately because of the crazy setup we used, it is pretty hard to setup. I think that it would be possible to rebuild it, but I am not sure why you would.</p>
<p>I also did the character art for this one. It is “OK”.</p>
<p>Working with Alex was awesome, it was great to have another programmer on a project. A++++ Would work that way again.</p>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/24421145">Demo Video</a></p>
<h2 id="martin-vs-monty">Martin vs Monty</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_martin_v_monty.png" alt="martin vs monty" /></p>
<p>A game for Ludum Dare, made with Lucky Frame. This one is half vvvvvv, and half super crate box, but not as successful as either of those by a long shot. I burned half of the compo time trying to get the collision code correct, and ended up not tweaking the gameplay enough. I should probably revisit this one now that the collision code is solid.</p>
<p>Also, Super Crate Box for iOS has convinced me that platformers can work on the iphone. I may revisit this one, if for no other reason that platformers are a well accepted genre, and one of the things that people like to cut their teeth on when learning level design.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/?action=preview&uid=1187">OSX Download link and instructions</a></p>
<h2 id="pyoing">Pyoing</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_pyoing.png" alt="Pyoing" /></p>
<p>After the stress banging my head against collision detection for MvM, I decided to take it easy and do something super simple. I ended up making a clone of crossfire for iPhone. This one didn’t require much work, but turned out pretty great. There are still some rough edges, but I don’t know how much I want to fix them. We should probably make this free.</p>
<p>One thing to learn from this one, it is that games where you play against another player are much easier to make engaging then games that you play by yourself.</p>
<p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pyoing/id454152968">iTunes store Link</a></p>
<h2 id="some-faces">Some Faces</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_some_faces.png" alt="Some faces" /></p>
<p>This game is an object lesson in not getting bogged down in systems. After spending a week or so writing a parser for <a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/bulletml/index_e.html">BulletML</a>, I decided to make something with it. BulletML is a programming language for programming bullets, and is used in some of my favorite shmups. It turns out that using the same systems as your heros is not the best way to make the same things as your heros.</p>
<p>I would like to actually make a shmup at some point in my life, but I need to actually spend some time trying to understand them first. This thing I banged out in a few hours, and it made me realize that shmups are far more complex then they seem. I am probably not going to attempt one for quite some time.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/2024">Glorious Trainwrecks Link</a></p>
<h2 id="rocket-gun">Rocket Gun</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_rocket_gun.png" alt="Rocket Jackhammer" /></p>
<p>This one is the final outcome of an idea that I had been thinking about making for over a year. Unsurprisingly, it is not very good, as many over worked ideas turn out to be.</p>
<p>The initial plan was to make a game called rocket gun, where you control a gun with rockets attached to it, and have to control your movement either by shooting or firing your rockets. I made a prototype for that, and it turned out to be impossible to control. I didn’t even get as far as making levels for it.</p>
<p>I revisited the idea, but took out the shooting, and just made a game where you are an oblong object controlled by rockets. Turns out that this is still super hard to control.</p>
<p>If I revisit the idea, I think I may continue to lower the complexity of the control system, because that seems to be the real issue here.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/2038">Glorious Trainwrecks Link</a></p>
<h2 id="pugs-luv-beats">Pugs Luv Beats</h2>
<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/2012_games_pugs_luv_beats.png" alt="Pugs Luv Beats" /></p>
<p>Not going to say much about this here other then the gameplay is an ongoing revision, partially because we really care about this one, and partially because the gameplay isn’t the best it could be yet. It is interesting to change gameplay on games that are already “finished”, but I think it will be an important lesson.</p>
<p>However, as a toy, it is super fun to play with and make music with. I think that fulfills where we wanted to go with it. Any further things that happened with this game are amazing. I am so excited and humbled that it got into IGF.</p>
<p><a href="http://luckyframe.co.uk/pugsluvbeats/">Website</a></p>
Pugs Luv Beats2011-12-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2011/12/19/pugs_luv_beats!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/plb_splash.png(pugs luv beats)!
I will probably do a bigger post on the concept and development and such, but in short, this is a music _composition_ game. The difference is that most music games are performance games, and as such focus on the creative pursuit of generally playing other peoples music. We tried to make something that is more about creating your own music.
It was an intensly collaborative project with my friends at "Lucky Frame":http://www.luckyframe.co.uk . And at 6 months in prototyping and development, the longest game project that I have done by a factor of 10^4.
"Pugs Luv Beats on itunes store":http://itunes.apple.com/app/pugs-luv-beats/id488112663
"Pugs Luv Beats Website":http://www.pugsluvbeats.com/
"Nice writeup on Create Digital Music":http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/12/pugs-luv-beats-marries-music-gaming-on-ios-how-it-was-made-how-free-libpd-music-tool-helped/TODO list2011-12-11T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2011/12/11/todo_list<p>I am just in the process of finishing a really big project, and as such, I have a bunch of little projects that I have been pushing off, or not finishing in the interest of completing the big project. Now that it is coming to a close, I am starting to think about which of these little projects I can take on in my brief vacation and make into something nice.</p>
<h2 id="blud-opensource">Blud opensource</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.luckyframe.co.uk/pugsluvbeats/">aforementioned big project</a>, and a number of small projects have been built on top of this toolkit, that I built ontop of another toolkit. I really wanted a version of <a href="http://love2d.org">love2d</a> that I could run on iphone. I just like writing in languages that don’t require header files and make it really really easy to mess around with your object instances.</p>
<p>So I put a bunch of lua bindings on top of openframeworks, and some of the openframeworks addons that seemed useful, and have built a number of games with it. It actually started with this ludum dare game <a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-19/?uid=1187">soundman stepper</a> and I have used it on two more ludum dare entries. It is getting to the point where I can throw together 3-4 hour games with it that are almost app store quality.</p>
<p>The issue is that I know it like the back of my hand, and it would be a really long road to go to make it useful for other people. In fact, I don’t even know where to start or what the major problems are. I also don’t know if anyone cares. There are plenty of frameworks out there that do really similar things, and I don’t particularly feel any great need to compete with them. I guess I am going to put this one off until someone asks me for it.</p>
<h2 id="itch">Itch</h2>
<p>Man this one is a goddamn millstone. It started as a clone of scratch for iphone about 2 years ago. I got it pretty far and then dropped it until this october. I rebuilt it using blud, and got it pretty far into a nice graphical code editor. There are a few missing opcodes (arn’t there always), but it is pretty nice.</p>
<p>Then I started in on a drawing app (ya know, because scratch has one), and then I realized how scary big this project is, and then dropped it.</p>
<p>I suspect that if this one doesn’t get picked up again, and soon, it might be another year before I get back into it. I would really like to release something with it though, because I think it is pretty cool.</p>
<h2 id="lipo">LIPO</h2>
<p>Or little iphone tracker. I havn’t written any music (seriously) for over a year. I have just been too busy with other stuff. Part of me wants to blame my tools though. My last composition tool that I really loved was <a href="http://littlegptracker.com/">LGPT</a>, but keeping around a platform that ran it became too much of a pain. Before that, my favorite was LSJD, and before that buzz. All the interface spawn of octamed to a certain extent.</p>
<p>I have been pining for something that has that model for iphone, but havn’t been able to figure out how to deal with translating the smoothness of the chording buttons + dpad that they all used so well. I have a brain bolt last week that might be the right thing, and started bashing it out. I would really like to dig into this and figure out if it is the right interface decision, but I don’t want to add yet another project to the pile of incompletes.</p>
<h2 id="blog-post">Blog Post</h2>
<p>Did that.</p>
Neon Festival 2011 Highlights2011-11-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2011/11/13/neon_festival_2011_highlights<p>I spent the past few days taking in as much of the <a href="http://www.northeastofnorth.com/">neon festival</a> as I could. The neon festival is an annual digital arts festival that takes place in dundee. I am not sure why it is called a digital arts festival, as a bunch of the highlights for me were decidedly analog, but I am going to chalk that up to a combination of a lack of understanding of the specifics of electronics, and a push to fund anything that seems remotely computer related. I am excited to see how the festival develops for next year, it had some rough edges that could have been smoothed out, but on the whole, it was a super vibrant display of the interesting venues and people that dundee had to offer, and I was glad to meet a ton of people involved in it.</p>
<p>The first thing that I saw was the pecha kucha. I found that the majority of the presentations were really hurried sales pitches, but a few of them stood out.</p>
<p>Gary Penn of Denki’s presentation was quite quick and confusing, and it gave me a bit to think about as a game designer. What I gathered from the core of his presentation is that <a href="http://www.orbital-game.com/">Orbital</a> for iPhone is a better game than <a href="http://www.addictinggames.com/puzzle-games/gimmefrictionbaby.jsp">gimme friction baby</a>. The comparison felt a bit off, comparing something that is both a highly abstract and minimalist game, to another game which had a budget, and eschewed minimalism using the flavor of the month glowy vector graphics. For players, yes, I would agree that orbital is a better game. For game developers, I would say that gimme friction baby is a far more important game to study, and that the games we should be looking for are more like that one. While I was initially frustrated by this presentation, it has absolutely left me with a few things to think about in the realm of game design.</p>
<p>Rohan Gunatillake’s <a href="http://buddhify.com/">buddify</a> app presentation was nice and measured, didn’t feel rushed, and ended on an uplifting note, and I am not just saying that because I am friends with him. He managed to bring quite a bit of personal history into his presentation, and only mentioned the app in the minority of the slides, which was nice.</p>
<p>Andy Milligan’s presentation I wanted to call out for seeming to overlook a really important prior art. Andy Milligan was suggesting an alternate conference format that would center around the dining table, as a method of democratization of the conference format. I was struck by the fact that this would possibly increase the likelihood for the loudest voices in the room to continue that trend, and I think that well curated speakers can work just as well for creating an interesting discourse around a topic. One thing that it did make me think of is the micro funding system based around communal dinners that has popped up recently. Called <a href="http://sundaysoup.org/">Sunday Soup</a>, it is a dinner that charges every one at the dinner a cover, the proceeds of which are then awarded to one of the artists that has presented that evening. I think that it may be more of a phenomena in places that don’t have the arts funding that the UK has, but I still think that it is an interesting concept.</p>
<p>While I have organized more than one rip off pecha kucha in the past, I have never been to an official one, and going to this one fulfilled my expectations of the format.</p>
<p>I took the next night off from the presentations, and came out to the skull etching workshop performance. I was happy to see a nice turnout for what was essentially an academic noise show. The conductor and workshop leader kept it moving along, and for a group of people that had not only built all the synths that afternoon, but had learned how to play them, and the performance as well, it was really great. Full disclosure, my partner was part of the group, so take that into consideration. Even so, it was great to see a bunch of people, some of whom had never touched a soldering iron, put together a synth was really awesome. I made me wish that more modern and electronic art techniques could be picked up so fast. I guess that is why there is so much synth noise music and animated gif art, and relatively few art games though.</p>
<p>The presentations the next day had two great standouts. <a href="http://tobinalex.com/">Alex Tobin</a>’s presentation on his homemade 3d animated music videos was short and sweet. It was great to see something that was within the reach of the audience members being presented. The fact that I really loved his aesthetic didn’t hurt either.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.n55.dk/">N55</a>’s presentation was mind boggling. They are a couple of amazing engineers that take on crazy projects and succeed. It was Buckminster Fuller, by the way of hippy utopianism, looped back though modernism, and then with some aggressive anti copyright stuff as well. I spoke to them later at the art exhibit about there engineering, and they claimed that it was all relatively easy. I want to try out some of it to see just how easy it is. The other thing that I am wondering about is how low the prices on their stuff can get. A house that costs the same as a car and lasts for 500 years is amazing no matter the details.</p>
<p>The finale day had a few highlights as well. <a href="http://www.rachelmaclean.com/">Rachel Maclean</a>’s videos being shown over lunch was really great, as well as the performance in the basement. This was by NOMA (John Cromar) who doesn’t seem to have much of a web presence unfortunately. It was one of the droniest, easy listening’ist power electronics shows I have ever heard. Super great, to the point, and with a bunch of peaks and valleys in the music. Plus it was in the dusty basement of a youth center.</p>
<p>The planetarium show, with both a presentation by the hilarious visitors guide, and a ambient electronic show in the observatory top was super great. The visuals of old nasa footage, as well as the fact that we were listening in the same room as a 1.5 meter telescope helped out the atmosphere a bunch. I would go to more shows there. From there we went up to the Dundee law and saw a performance detailing all the of things that we were not allowed to do in Dundee public spaces, during which the performers proceeded to do them dressed up in florescent costumes. Solid.</p>
<p>Interested to see if Dundee can sustain the kind of energy that it did for this week.</p>
WarioWare DIY action instructions2011-10-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2011/10/26/wario_ware_diy_action_instructions<p><img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/wario.jpg" alt="wario" /></p>
<p>I couldn’t find a comprehensive list of all of the actions that are available in warioware diy for programming your games, so I thought I would write one up for people that are interested in focused game scripting. Nintendo did some really clever things here that both make the types of games that you can do really small, and make those types of games really easy to make. The mechanics that you can have in your game are pretty straight forward, and it allows you to make ghosts of familiar genres, but not the genres themselves.</p>
<h2 id="trigger-conditions">Trigger Conditions</h2>
<h2 id="tap">Tap</h2>
<p>Reacts to the stylus coming down. Can react to either:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>This object</em></li>
<li><em>Anywhere on stage</em></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="contact">Contact</h2>
<p>This is the collision detection. The main types are either <em>touch</em> or <em>overlap</em>, but I am not sure what the difference is. Perhaps with overlap, the object in question needs to be fully enclosed or enclosing the other object. In either case you can define one following parameters.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Object</em>: The object to check for collision with.</li>
<li><em>Area</em>: The area to check for collision with.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="art">Art</h2>
<p>Allows you to check conditions on the art for <em>this object</em>. Can be one of two conditions.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Specific art</em>: when a specific art for this object is being displayed.</li>
<li><em>Art finishes</em>: when any art animation reaches the end of a loop.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="time">Time</h2>
<p>Can be one of two types.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Exactly</em>: Triggered when a particular time is reached.</li>
<li><em>Randomly</em>: triggered when a random time within a selected range is reached. This gives you the timeline with range controls. It is the way to make random things happen at the beginning of the game.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="switch">Switch</h2>
<p>Allows you to check the switch state on any object. The switch state can be one of four.</p>
<ul>
<li>Switch turns on.</li>
<li>Switch is on</li>
<li>Switch turns off</li>
<li>Switch is off</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="winloss">Win/Loss</h2>
<p>You can check for game conditions.</p>
<ul>
<li>Win</li>
<li>Has been won</li>
<li>Not yet won</li>
<li>Loss</li>
<li>Has been lost</li>
<li>Not yet lost</li>
</ul>
<p>All conditions when combined are && operations. To do things sometimes, on the first frame set a condition that says “when time == 1-1 and time randomly == 1-1 .. 1-8”. The range of the second clause gives you the possibility of that happening. This can be used for shuffling objects on the stage.</p>
<h2 id="actions"><em>Actions</em></h2>
<h2 id="travel">Travel</h2>
<p><strong>Go Straight</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Starting at</em>:
This can be the <em>current location</em> or <em>another location</em>. In the case of another location, it can be a point on the stage or another object, with the offset from the other object.</li>
<li><em>Direction</em>:
This can be a <em>specific direction</em> or a <em>random direction</em>. In the case of specific direction, it gives you an 8 point compass to set. In both cases, it allows you to set the speed of travel.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Jump To</strong></p>
<p>Takes one of the following two types:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Location</em>:
Can be a <em>point</em> on the stage, or a random location within an <em>area</em>.</li>
<li><em>Another Object</em>:
Jumps near another object then stays attached to that object. This brings up the object selector, and then an offset editor.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Roam</strong></p>
<p>Takes four parameters. The first parameter is one of the following movement types:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Wiggle</em>: Appears to be a drunk walk that can change its direction wildly, and moves in short steps.</li>
<li><em>Reflect</em>: Bounces off the area that you define for the movement in a pong style.</li>
<li><em>Insect</em>: Drunk walk, just like wiggle but with a larger step and changes the movement direction less.</li>
<li><em>Bounce</em>: Same as pong, but accelerates due to gravity. Seems to have enough energy at the end of the bounce to make it to the top of the area that you define.</li>
</ul>
<p>The second parameter is one of the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Anywhere</em>: Moves anywhere within the area you define.</li>
<li><em>Try not to overlap</em>: Not really sure how this works, perhaps it bounces off of other objects.</li>
</ul>
<p>The last parameters are an area on the stage that the object will roam within, and a speed of roaming.</p>
<p><strong>Stop</strong></p>
<p>Stops the current travel.</p>
<p><strong>Swap</strong></p>
<p>Trades location with another object.</p>
<p><strong>Target</strong></p>
<p>Moves towards another object. Takes three parameters:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Object</em>: The object to move towards.</li>
<li><em>Offset</em>: The offset from other object.</li>
<li><em>Speed</em></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="lose">Lose</h2>
<p>Ends the game with a loss</p>
<h2 id="sound-effect">Sound Effect</h2>
<p>Plays one of 64 sound effects. These are arranged in 8 banks of 8.</p>
<h2 id="switch-1">Switch</h2>
<p>Turns the switch either on or off.</p>
<h2 id="art-1">Art</h2>
<p><strong>Change</strong></p>
<p>Can change the <em>animation style</em> to one of three styles. It also allows you to select the art for the object. There can be 1 - 4 arts per object.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Hold</em>: Stay on the current frame.</li>
<li><em>Play once</em></li>
<li><em>Loop</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Stop</strong></p>
<p>Stops the currently playing art.</p>
<h2 id="stage-effect">Stage Effect</h2>
<p>These are effects that play over the whole stage.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Flash</em></li>
<li><em>Shake</em></li>
<li><em>Confetti</em></li>
<li><em>Freeze</em>: Stops everything, including all further object actions.</li>
</ul>
<p>I think this list is more or less complete. If you notice any errors or corrections that you would like to make, please tell me in the comments.</p>
Pyoing2011-08-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2011/08/14/pyoing!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/pyoing.jpg(pyoing)!
A two player game for Ludum Dare mini 28. More or less a clone of crossfire, the finest ball bearing game from the 90s. I did more of a "writeup on LD":http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/08/09/pyoing-live-on-the-app-store/ about the making of. I am hoping to make this part of a suite of two player games for ipad / iphone.
"Pyoing on itunes store":http://www.itunes.com/apps/pyoingFestipods2011-07-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2011/07/25/festipods!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/festipods.jpg(festipods)!
A project for the Edinburgh festivals lab, using their new api. I was also interested in using both webGL and processingjs on this project, and it worked out pretty great I think. The art was done by Lucky Frame's newest employee, Sean McIlroy. I think he did an awesome job breathing life into these little beasties. The other fun thing was extending processing js to support the necessary code for doing texture mapping and tinting of images. That code should be on the main branch shortly.
Of course, there is "a much better writeup on the Lucky Frame blog":http://www.luckyframe.co.uk/2011/07/introducing-festipods/.
"Festipods":http://www.festipods.co.ukUncover the Gold2011-07-10T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2011/07/10/cfgd_2.1_get_the_gold<p>I just got <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X">Challenges for Game Designers</a> recently, and have started working on the various excercises in it. I don’t know how many I will post, but here is the first one that I finished off. This game is a response to chapter 2, challenge 1: the path.</p>
<h2 id="uncover-the-gold">uncover the gold</h2>
<p>A card game for two players (tested with 2 players, may be possible with more)</p>
<p><em>Required Pieces</em></p>
<p>One 52 card deck
A token for each player</p>
<p><em>Setup</em></p>
<p>Lay out the cards in 13 stacks of 4. These stacks should lie on the table in 3 rows of 4 and one row of one. This last stack is the goal stack.</p>
<p>The players place their tokens on the first stack on the bottom row.</p>
<p><em>Setup Diagram</em></p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>[goal]
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[tokens] [] [] []
</code></pre></div></div>
<p><em>Object</em></p>
<p>To take the last card from the goal stack</p>
<p><em>Order of play</em></p>
<p>On each turn, each player may do one of three things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Move their token forward one stack, and pick up a card from the stack their token landed on.</li>
<li>Discard a number card, and move their token forward the number of stacks displayed on the card. Draw a card from the stack they land on.</li>
<li>Discard a face card, and place another card from your hand on one of the remaining stacks on the table. Move your token forward one, and do not draw from the stack you land on.</li>
</ol>
<p><em>some notes</em></p>
<p>This game feels a bit like reshuffling the deck to me, I don’t know if there are enough meaningful decisions that can be made over the course of a session of play. That said, I did win three games in a row (and although the rules changed slightly between each game) it felt as if there was some strategy that was going on.</p>
<p>Also, I somewhat ignored the rules of the assignment and made a racing game where the goal position changed depending on how the players played the rest of the round.</p>
<p>Thinking about further changes, and reading the tips specified at <a href="http://www.tic-tac-totality.net/wiki/index.php?title=Game_Design_Principles">Tic Tac Totality</a> I think that there are a few things to change. First, make the player that gets the last card on any stack the loser. That way you can try to force someones hand, and there are way more failure points. The second way that I think it could be tightened up would be to have only 4 stacks, one for each suit, which would again make the game a bunch tighter.</p>
UNISLOT2011-05-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2011/05/09/unislot!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/unislot.jpg(unislot)!
Made with "luckyframe":http://www.luckyframe.co.uk. The most reductive flash gambling game that we could come up with. Even so, it has a few features. An intersting experiment in what makes gambling fun, and how little gambling you can have around to have something be fun.
"UNISLOT on kongregate":http://www.kongregate.com/games/LuckyFrame/unislotBad Hotel2011-05-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2011/05/01/bad_hotel!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/bad_hotel.png(bad hotel)!
An action puzzeler building game made for "ludum dare 20":http://ludumdare.com. With music from "Yann Seznec":http://theamazingrolo.net. You can see the whole development journal here. It is kind of a pain to play, but you can create cool looking "DLA":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation style buildings in it, until they get knocked down by missiles.
"Bad Hotel Flash":http://bit.ly/jwmcZ6Programming Games2010-12-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/12/08/programming_gamesI have been sending this list of games to my friends over and over, so I figured it was time to formalize and detail and post. It also gave me an excuse to practice "dvorak":http://www.dvzine.org/. Let's go!
"Carnage Heart":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnage_Heart - for psx was the first of these games that I ran across, although I was in no way prepared to deal with it. For those that don't know it, it is a mecha RPG, but the core of the game is a complex flowchart system. Using these flowcharts, you can program the mechs for battle, setting movement rules, firing distances, and the like. Unfortunatwely the game had a learning curve that was near verticle. I didn't play the second installment, but from what I understand, they only ramped up the difficulty.
This game is absolutly targeted at real programmers, not people that just want to mess around. I wish I still had a copy, so I could revisit it with my current knowledge.
"WarioWare DIY":http://www.wariowarediy.com/ - Oh man, this one was exciting. I don't normally play too much DS, but this kept my interest for quite some time. On the surface this game is a clone of gamemaker, but the limitations are pretty brilliant. Animations are limited to four frames, things like random states require hoop jumping, and games can only last five seconds. Worth messing around with for sure.
The major downside is all the hoop jumping that is required to share your levels. I lost interest after sending my code to a few people, waiting for responses, and then having my games played. It would have been nice if your levels just had URLs that you could send to people, but I imagine that nintendo had issues with that.
"Zachtronic Industries":http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com - This is where I started noticing that there was a demand for this type of game. Zachtronics' games are unbelivebly nerdy, almost to the point of being unplayable. They wallow in this nerdyness though, and that makes them quite enjoyable. I am really looking forward to his next one, which looks like it is going to be a really epic challange.
"manufactoria":http://pleasingfungus.com/ - I came to this game through Zachtronic Industries. While it does have some of the same nerdiness that is present in the Zachtronic games (some of the puzzles are just building binary arithemetic systems) the turing machine in the game is pretty easy to wrap your head around. This goes a long way to making the game a pleasure to play. The machines are also built with a small set of components, which leads to a ton of fun problems that just have to do with the arrangement of elements, in addition to the order of operations.
"trainyard":http://www.trainyard.ca - I feel like this game is simultaneously a stretch to fit in with these games and also just about the best programming game on this list. A stretch because it isn't really turing complete like the rest of them. Because it isn't turing complete, it can have a simple instruction set, in fact, it only has one instruction that can be used in two different ways.
The criticism that I can level against this game is that it is a bit too simple. With only one instruction, the problem space is limited to two issues to manage, timing and order. I found myself blowing through the game at an alarming rate. It did tickle my brain in a very similar way to these other programming games though, so I think it is pretty safe to include on this list.Wiresq 1.1 Crashing Issues2010-11-11T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/11/11/wiresq_1.1_crashingMan, I missed a big one there. Turns out that the 1.1 version of wiresq had a pretty big crashing bug in it. I don't want to rush out an update, because that is how it ended up in this version, but I do want to help out those that were effected by it (pretty much everyone that purchased at v.1.1, rather than upgrading).
If you were effected, and would like a free copy, please contact apple for a refund, and then proceed to contact me for a promocode. My email address is jonbro@gmail.com. As far as I can tell from the promocode contract, I am allowed to do that.
Ah bugs, you can't avoid them, but you can try to minimize and if that doesn't work, make people not feel ripped off.Wiresq 1.1 Submitted2010-10-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/10/31/wiresq_1.1_submittedWell that was quick. About a week and a half after I submitted the first version of wiresq, I have submitted an update. I was initially intending to just do a bug fix release, but due to circumstances, I decided to push in a few features as well. Just for fun, I am going to list out all the technical stuff, maybe it will be interesting to people playing along.
*Bugfixes:*
* _The cool halos from the demo vid will now show up as you play with the app_. This was a pretty horrible typo, I was doing a loop that decremented, but it didn't go anywhere because the conditional had already been matched when the loop started. I am hoping this doesn't rough up the performance too much on 3g and lower devices, but depending on what people say, I might try to fix this up again.
* _The square wave is now actually a square wave, not a triangle wave_. Again, a typo. I put in the code to implement the square wave, but forgot to call it when the synth was set to a squarewave.
* _Touches will not fall through to the speed control_. Woo, this one was weird, and totally due to the vagaries of my event system. I was forgetting to remove the touch event listeners from the speed control sliders when they were hidden by clicking on the playfield.
* _You will not lose your settings for SYN0 after returning to the app_. This was the biggest pain to track down. Again, it was due to vagaries in my event system, I maintain two copies of the current synth settings, but the first synth was always getting zero'd out. It turned out that I had an update loop running on my synthEdit object when I didn't mean to, and before I had loaded any of the relevant synth data.
*Features:*
* _Added integrated help files_. Now you don't need to jump out of the app to find out how to run the app.
* _Synth Volume control_. No longer will your tracks be muddy when there are tons of notes being triggered.
* _File saving and loading_. You can also access your saved files through the itunes document sharing, which will allow you to share your files with other people.
* _Analytics_. This will probably just help me, but in turn, I am hoping that will help my users.
The reason that I ended up adding so many features was because it became pretty clear, pretty quick after launch that I needed to have integrated help. I hope it is just the vocal minority that was complaining on the itunes store about not being helped enough after launching the app. I have pretty nice help files up on the apps site, but I guess that is too far away for some reviewers, so I decided to put them into the app itself.
Because I was jumping out of openframeworks at that point, and into standard UIKit, it was pretty easy to get the saving / loading stuff implemented at this point as well. I had also done a bunch of the implementation legwork, so it was mostly just display work.
I have a bunch more stuff that I want to implement, so don't think that this app is going to be forgotten, and please keep the emails and reviews rolling in. I don't mind criticism, I swear! I am tracking the issues at the "github source site":http://github.com/jonbro/heavyephemera/issues, so if you have a login there, please feel free to add directly to the issue tracker. I have yet to dig through all of my email and copy it over to the tracker yet, so you might not see your request there until tomorrow night or so.
"To the app store!":http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wiresq/id399289681?mt=8Wiresq2010-10-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2010/10/27/wiresq!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/wiresq.jpg(wiresq)!
A cellular automata based sequencer and synthesizer. Is available in the app store and is still in ongoing development. To a large extent, it is an experiment in pushing the boundaries of apples "no interpreters" rule.
"Wiresq appstore":http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wiresq/id399289681?mt=8 "Wiresq Demo Video":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hoa0dUYm9cWiresq Released!2010-10-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/10/27/wiresq_liveGood news everyone! Wiresq is now public. "Go grab it at the app store":http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wiresq/id399289681?mt=8.
I also made this spiffy video for it last night.
<object width="500" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1hoa0dUYm9c?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1hoa0dUYm9c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="400"></embed></object>
Obviously, at this point, please share as much as possible. Thanks much everyone!wiresq submitted2010-10-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/10/19/wiresq_submittedHot dang, I am off to the races. That last feature ended up being about 10 more features, some of which were actually difficult. I also discovered that even though I thought I had done enough testing on the 3g, the audio dropouts were beyond stupid. Luckily I had left a bunch of pointless processing in the audio pipeline, so I was able to get a huge performance jump by just deleting about 20 lines of code. I should always do that.
Also it turns out that I hate doing marketing materials more than anything else in the world. I wish that just blogging about it would solve my problems, but then only 10 people in the world would hear about it. I did manage to write up an ok blurb, and do an ok video, but I really need to redo the video, and include some humans in it.
The other thing that I am going to do is just put off approx. a 200 hours of additional features to version 2. I started in on the top layer of them, but I just couldn't justify missing the date to get them in. They will be good though, this app has so many possibilities that it makes my head spin.
Speaking of the possibilities, I should talk a bit about why I made this. Some people are aware of the 3.3.1 restriction for iphone apps, the so called war on turing completeness. I am well in the camp of this being a really sad restriction, not because I particularly have a great interest in scripting languages (I do), but more because I believe that there are a ton of opportunities to teach programming literacy, and I think the iphone and ipad are one great place. My first introduction to programming was qbasic, but I never created an actual piece of software until I learned "max/msp":http://cycling74.com/products/maxmspjitter/. I also look at things like "scratch":http://scratch.mit.edu/ and see something that would be perfect to port to the iphone.
However, I really want to test the waters of what is allowed in terms of turing completeness. I know that this particular app might be rejected, but I think it would be something I could argue. Yes, this is turing complete, but saying that you are acessing any of apples APIs in any ways would be absurd. It would also be absurd to say that this is a programming language, unless you really want to stretch the definition. The closest thing this could be compared to would be a circuit simulator, but even those generally give you slightly higer level abstractions.
I am starting to get concerned about making this post, but ah well, fast and loose!
<del>Oh, I know that asking people not to share a link on the internet is absurd, but if you could keep this link to yourself, that would be awesome: "wiresq video and helpfiles":http://heavyephemera.com/wiresq/index.html. I am planning on making a better video prior to release, and that is the one that I want to be passed around to everyone. Thanks much to all 10 of you that read my blog!</del>
Scratch that, share at will! "wiresq video and helpfiles":http://heavyephemera.com/wiresq/index.html.The Endless "Final Feature"2010-10-06T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/10/06/endless_last_thingI think I am closing in on this project. I sent it out to some super alpha testers last time I posted, and I didn't really get too much feedback that I was looking for. I am pretty sure that the project has exited the normal set of sound art projects that I was aiming for, and is now a super edge case program. No matter, I am still excited to play with it myself.
I feel like I am closing in on the final features, I have one more big one, and then it is all just little tweaks to make the system behave correctly. I just finished the note setting feature tonight, and I was starting to feel like everything was a bit pointless. Luckily I still had some fun features to implement, like the trigger display. This was one of those features that brings the juice (to steal a term from "the experimental gameplay project":http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml). I just added it and my desire to show off the software went through the roof. I need to focus more on those types of things.
The last feature that I want to add is having multiple triggers for each of the synths, so that you have have more than 8 notes triggering per patch, maybe even be able to make (god forbid) songs in it. The reason that I was putting it off was because it involves making arrays that grow in c++, and this is one of the topics that scares me. I managed to pull it off in about 10 mins for the trigger displays though, so apparently it isn't that bad. After that one, everything is just tweaking, making sure the software is not impossible to run and the like. Basically it is making sure that touches go to the right views, and not to the wrong. Right now it is kinda painful to paint the circuits, you keep splattering paint all over, and the "undo" that occurs right before scroll is a pain in the butt as well.
<img src='http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/wiresq_juice.jpg'>
Also, WTF apple, requiring me to FAX you a change of address form? How about I get a page to ride his horse to you instead?Wireworld Features and Bugs2010-09-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/09/27/wireworld_bugs_n_stuffAh what a five days. I last claimed that I had added some features, particularly the ability to serialize out the state of the application, but unfortunately, I had just copied some old working code from another project, without checking the api, or even checking to make sure my feature worked. I burned about 4 hours tracking down the api change. It turned out that not only did I need to serialize my data, but I needed to tell the disk to save it. The fun part was that the system was calling this "syncronize" function by itself occasionally, so sometimes it would work, but most of the time it wouldn't. Bugs that require precise timing to trigger are the worst.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/5036591424/" title="rainbow power by jonbro, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/5036591424_69822ba923.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="rainbow power" /></a>
Once I got this working, I cleared out a few more bugs that were things that I had added rather than me vs. my frameworks type bugs. Those went really quick, and helped out a bunch with the interaction. I quickly fell into another big bug when I hooked up my slow iphone (I had been testing on a 4g), and discovered that the app was completely unusably slow. It took me another few hours to realize that I needed to switch to release mode to get acceptable performance on the 3g. I had discovered this fact in the past, but it had been a while, and sometimes it takes a few hours to rediscover this fact. These types of memory failures remind me that while I am an ok programmer, I am a pretty horrible engineer. Maybe another 5 years doing this stuff will make me ok.
Finally, towards the end of the week, I started adding features that pushed the app from "simple prototype" into "releasable". Basically this means that I added speed controls, so that not all your tunes will run at 120 bpm, and I added slidey transitions between all the screens. I sent the app out to some testers as well, and realized that it will probably be pretty important to have either a nicer startup screen, or include some demo patches for people to start with, because it is pretty obtuse when it first opens. Unfortunately adding those will require me to write another 3 screens or so. Arrgh, the last 10% is actually the last 90% and all that. Sending out the beta test did get me to start on the helpfile though. That helped with building excitement for the app I think, and it required me to work out a design for the icon and splash screen, which will help with marketing.
<img src='http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/wiresq_help.jpg'>Wireworld Synth2010-09-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/09/26/wireworld_synth_3I have been working on a project for the iphone for about a month on and off that is a cellular automata plus a synthesizer. I know this has been done about a million times before, but all the existing ones are the Game of Life, and I am interested in a slightly different CA. POV at "Ludum Dare":http://www.ludumdare.com/ just recently posted a "challenge to get a game out in the month of october":http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/09/22/povs-challenge-make-a-game-sell-1-copy/, and have at least one sale on it, and I decided to take him up on it. I already have two posts on the topic over at the ludum dare blog ("1":http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/09/24/kicking-it-off/, "2":http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/09/25/night-one-of-development/), but I decided to move my project blogging over here so I wouldn't jam everything up too much with incremental project updates.
Yesterday I made a huge amount of progress, but I also excized a bunch of features. The main thing that I progressed on was adding in a saving system, so now your cells are properly generated when you close and reopen the software. I had built a nice system for copying between the c arrays that I use while the software is running and objective c arrays that are really easy to serialize when I was working on "mujik":http://www.luckyframe.co.uk/mujik, and I just needed to revive it for this project. Sometimes it is as simple as remember where your code was that you wanted to use. Also on mujik I had build a main controller that handled which screens were currently rendering and where to send the events. I am going to need to rebuild that system for this because it is desperately in need of it.
The first thing I cut out was zooming on the main cell world. It is just too much of a pain to get it working, and is something that I would like to get back to when I have time to work on my reimplementation of uiscrollview. If anyone has any advice, or even better, source code that I can look at, it would be greatly appreciated. The second thing I excised is the super awesome synthesizer. I am just going to cut it back to a simple subtractive synth, because I have the code nearby, and I don't feel like diving into the full on rebuild my synth engine nonsense this weekend. I am going to try to model the controls after the Juno 6, but I am going to also cut way back on them because I don't want to write another scrolling view.
<img src="http://img.skitch.com/20100926-e3tda5g9m33fwidbkg4ukg9dji.jpg" alt="skitched-20100926-114615.jpg"/>
One thing that is working out pretty nice is pixeling as I go along. I am using a combination of photoshop and "opacity":likethought.com/opacity/. I bought opacity at the beginning of this project because I thought that it would be really nice to just drop the code that it produces right into my views. I eventually switched to using openframeworks, but the system of factories and variables that it has makes it really easy to cut up the graphics and output them to slices I can use as sprites. I am not really happy with its performance, it seems to suck ram and die about once every four hours, but that may have been the screen capping software that I was using as well. Also doing logo design in it is kinda tricky because it is half vector, half pixel, but I think bringing in an existing logo from illustrator or something like that could be really good.
Speaking of timelapse, here is the first night and day of working on it. The software was crashing a bunch, so there are a few missing hours. Sorry about that. You can get some glimpses of the software in there though.
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15298682?title=0&byline=0&color=01AAEA" width="400" height="100" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15298682">povs challenge days one and two</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/jonbro">jonbro</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Even though I am aiming to have the bulk of the work done this weekend, there are still a bunch of things in here that I am noticing will need a second pass through. The scrolling / zooming view is a big one, another big one is web sharing of your layouts. Also the way that synths are linked to the world I don't really like at all, it needs better graphics to help explain the linkages. So much to do this month, so little time. Thanks a bunch POV!HTML 5 Chip Tracker2010-09-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/09/19/html_5_chip_trackerThe recent builds of firefox have included support for realtime synthesis through javascript, and I though I would get in on the fun and build a toy with them. I of course went overboard, and decided to make something that you could actually use to write music with, and implemented a tracker. To note, this is a prototype, and rather than discarding it without showing it to world, I have posted it here for people to play with, and potentially dissect.
Before we go further down the road of what the specific features are, and why it is cool, here is a quick video that should explain it a little bit if you are still unclear:
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15107463?title=0&byline=0&color=01AAEA" width="400" height="424" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15107463">html 5 tracker</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/jonbro">jonbro</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
If you want to play with it yourself, first go grab "a beta of firefox 4":http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/, then head over to "the app":http://audexp.appspot.com/tracker/. You will need to log in with your google account, it allows for saving your songs as you work on them.
The tracker currently allows for 8 channels of monophonic patterns, and each channel controls a synth that has either sine or noise waves, with a simple AD volume envelope.
The worlds worst help file follows:
* arrow keys navigate
* enter goes down one screen, escape back up one screen
* the bottom two rows of keys are used for entering notes, like a piano keyboard
* places that seem to take numbers, try typing numbers into them, it should work
* not everything that is on screen is actually implemented
* spacebar stops and starts the song
* / goes down one octave, ' goes up one octave
_update_
I put the "source code for this project":http://github.com/jonbro/AudioExperiments onto github, in case anyone wants to play with it.Bookstock II2010-07-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2010/07/31/Bookstock2A benifit for the local libraries.What I do at work2010-07-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/07/09/what_I_do_at_workThis post is completely prompted by the fact that my job is hiring another developer, so for the impatient, "go there and apply right now":http://www.walltowall.com/news/view/119. All others that want to know what they are getting into should read further and see if it applies to them.
For the past 4.5 years I have been working as a developer for Wall to Wall studios. It is a pretty small firm, but with a broad set of skills. When I was first brought on we were just starting to get into the Content Management System game, partially because the size of client was increasing and partially because it was no longer economical for us to offer maintenance and update contracts for large sites. We have been through two and a half major iterations of our content management system since it was first built. All of them have been built on php, because we look for a large deployment base, but the systems have grown a number of support systems that are either shell scripts, or rake build files, or other programming languages, because we tend to grab whatever language glue is near at hand to build what we need.
Describing a typical day would not emcompass all of the types of work that gets done here, because we tend to move in larger cycles. The most constant part of the job is building html templates for our cms. I have gotten to the point on this job that I don't really view building html templates as a fun thing anymore, it is just production work. Not to say that it doesn't contain interest, just that it is the easiest, and most time consuming part. Occasionally a fun problem pops up in this phase, and I get to write a bit of javascript for some rediculous feature.
The second biggest part of the job is maintaining and upgrading the CMS. Our CMS is built on "cakephp":http://cakephp.org, but we have gone quite far beyond what cake supports at its core, and we encourage that sort of relationship to a framework. When we made the jump from treating cakephp as a framework, to treating it as a library, our job got a bunch more interesting. In fact, some parts of the cms have totally replaced cake core elements, for example, the view layer is now running on "twig templates":http://twig-project.org. As a developer here, you are also expected to be a UX engineer and interface designer, because the designers only work out what they want the output of your data to look like. All backend engineering and design decisions are left up to the developer building them. To me, designing the systems for collecting and manipulating data are just as much fun (read, even more difficult), if not more fun as designing the systems for collecting the data.
While I have been here, I have designed the backend for a calendar and event registration system, an extremely extensible slideshow system, and added a number of features to the core content system. In each of these cases, although I could seek input from my coworkers (and I did on a great number of occasions), the final design decisions were mine. In addition, the programming decisions were mine, so I could make as many crazy interesting polymorphic data decisions as I wanted, or make the data simple to make my life simple.
This creative agency extends to the process policy here. Between myself and the other developers, we have moved to a process that uses source control for everything, has a continous build server, automated testing, scripted deployment, pair programming, code reviews and bug tracking. None of these systems were in place or mandated by management, but we were given the space to make good decisions as we needed, and drop the ones that were slowing us down if we didn't need them. We are also encouraged to do reasearch on new technolgies, which is nice and gives us an excuse everytime we are surfing reddit.
So, hopefully that helps, "please apply"::http://www.walltowall.com/news/view/119!with Arrington De Dionyso's Malaikat Dan Singa / Dean Cercone2010-05-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2010/05/30/Arrington_De_Dionyso copyIndonesian trance-punk-dance party
More info:
"http://www.myspace.com/arringtondedionyso":http://www.myspace.com/arringtondedionyso
"http://www.myspace.com/deancherconay":http://www.myspace.com/deancherconayNew games2010-03-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/03/19/new_gamesSince the beginning of the year I made a few new games, and I thought it might be helpful in making the next few not horrible if I take some time to talk about them, and their problems. A _post-mortem_ if you will. Will you?
before I start talking, go grab them over on the "software page":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/index.html. Be warned, one is mac, and the other is windows, so unless you have some virtual machine magic (or two machines), you are only getting half the fun.
h2. bibababoa
!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/bibababoa.jpg(bibababoa)!
This one was made for "gamma 4":http://www.kokoromi.org/gamma4/. A pretty standard collect the dots game, but with double jumping and weird dot order collection mechanic. I did about 4 prototypes before I landed on this game. Most of the prototypes had a similar collection mechanic, one of which was suprisingly similar to faraway:
<br>
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I ended up going with my third prototype because I really couldn't figure out how to make the orbital mechanic work well for me. Along the way I built and rebuilt a pretty nice particle engine that I am pretty sure will get some more use eventually.
h3. ups
Double jumping is awesome, and really feels like the only mechanic in the game that you have full control over. Also, when you can time to hit a series of different collections in the right order, it feels great. The fact that the game always ends on the "you win" screen is pretty nice too, altho, it leads nicely into the problems.
h3. downs
There is no real progression to the difficulty of the game, so you never feel like you are winning. I tried to make the collectibles move faster, but it just feels like luck, or bullet spam. At the last minute I put in these two giant heads that would do more standard bullet patterns, but I couldn't quite figure it out by the deadline, so I gave up on it. It did seem like the right solution though. I think the added element of interesting patterns would have made a huge difference of progression. It is also possible that changing the complexity of the collection rules would have helped the game. For example, level one, collect 10 of these things, level two, collection 15 of these things, and 2 of these other things.
The graphics, while good, were actually something that I couldn't tweak quickly enough when I figured out that they caused problems. The biggest problem is that you character is so big that it doesn't really pay off when you have the double jumping mechanic, so there is really no reason to have it in there. I also dumped so much time into the graphics that I didn't have enough time to fix up the core gameplay problems.
Finally, and related to the graphics, I used a custom drawn font. I totally fall into this trap on the other game as well, but I manage to decide that I don't give a fuck about consistancy at the last second, and use a system default font. It really made it hard for me to add new features in the game when I didn't have the whole alphabet, and I didn't have an easy way to get the whole alphabet onto the screen.
h2. Drinky
!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/drinky.jpg(drinky)!
I decided to give gamemaker a go, and this is the first game that I came up with. What a nice platform though. I just stream of conciousnessed the whole thing, and I think it came out alright considering how quickly I went through it. The game is roughly based on the first time that I talked to my girlfriend (except for one time when we were both in costumes, and trash talking each other). Also, I don't drink anymore. Maybe this game is about that too.
h3. ups
Holy crud does gamemaker rock at blowing out horrendous animations. I love this animation engine for making sprites (with the exception of the lack of onion skinning, wtf?). I was able to make way more sprites and objects than I normally would, due to how easy it was to get them into the game. The fact that I could just prototype in basic behaivors with a graphical programming language was wonderful for my hands as well. Also, the first time I have music and soundeffects in the game, and I think that they push it from _barable_ to _sorta ok_. I really want to clone gamemaker now. Also, finally one of my games has all the standard game elements... is that supposed to happen at game 4?
h3. downs
wtf. Why am I obsessed with bullet spam. I have been telling myself for the past few games (there are more than are on my software page), that I am going to actually do a game with some nice bullet and enemy patterns. For some reason I never get around to it. So bullet spam it is, and the lack of progression that goes along with it. I think the fact that I only have one level in the game causes that. I should probably learn how to follow through. As such, this game is only fun for about 3.5 mins.
Also, handdrawn type and healthbars. I dumped so much time into these that could have been spent better. I need to remember how to prototype I guess.
h3. conclusions
So according to jesse schell, I have another 6 bad games to pump out before they are going to start getting good. Ok, better keep speeding along through these games, while I try to add some progression to them. Also, I need to stop getting bogged down in making graphics, and just use programmer colors for everything. Using ripped music, and sfxr for sound on drinky really helped get the full game together before I got bored.Drinky2010-03-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2010/03/14/drinky!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/drinky.jpg(drinky)!
Standard shmup, except sometimes you have to catch the bullets, and sometimes you don't, depending on who is shooting. Even though the _level one_ title would suggest that there is more than one level, there is not. It is about the first time I talked to my girlfriend.
"Drinky win":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/drinky.zipBibababoa2010-02-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2010/02/01/bibababoa!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/bibababoa.jpg(bibababoa)!
A game for "gamma 4":http://www.kokoromi.org/gamma4/. This is basically the last game with _better_ graphics.
"Bibababoa osx":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/bibababoa.zipThe wide wide world of coding2010-01-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2010/01/23/world_of_codingHoly beejeez have I been busy. I don't really have much I can show for it yet, but it seems like a good enough time to tease a few things.
First, I threw a game together for last months experimental gameplay project. Unfortunately the game was total crap, but a video popped out. I think it is uncouth to show vaporware trailers, but what the fuck do I care, I am an artiste! "Peep it":http://www.vimeo.com/7827794
For "fun a day":http://funadaypgh.blogspot.com/ (which I am currently failing at, due to other obligations) I was trying to code a game / animation a day. The best one is "fun a day 3":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/funaday3.zip, which is a one button game for mac osx. My favorite parts are the double jumping, and how simple it is to play. Woo! For my second playable game, I am pretty happy.
I also just recently threw together some live video processing on the iphone. The code is not yet available, nor do I have a usable app, but I am totally into how "this API":https://devforums.apple.com/message/149553 captures anything on the screen.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/4298425301/" title="feedback computer + morgan by jonbro, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4298425301_5eb6752740.jpg" width="480" height="320" alt="feedback computer + morgan" /></a>
It reminds me of how I used to fuck up in the dark room and end up with images that had pieces of glass or the numbers from filters super imposed on them. I am sure this isn't going to last into the next release of the iPhone SDK, so I better enjoy it now.
The final thing is that I have been suffering from horrible arm pain for about the last three months. I finally started moving on it this week, and the first visit I had told me that I might need surgery. I went to another therapist, and they claimed that I wouldn't. I am starting to feel more hopeful about the whole thing.
Also, I threw up a software section. Go Grabz.Fun a Day 32010-01-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2010/01/03/fun_a_day_3!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/funaday3.jpg(funaday3)!
One button game, done in about two hours. I reused some code for the main character, and the whole thing is build with the help of "openframeworks":http://openframeworks.cc. I am into the double jumping.
"Fun a Day 3 osx 10.5":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/funaday3.zipwith for Wet Mango / Andy the Doorbum / The Ex-Monkeys / 8Cylinder2009-12-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2009/12/08/Wet_MangoA night of electro, chiptunes, and the Apocalypse.
More info:
"http://www.myspace.com/thisiswetmango":http://www.myspace.com/thisiswetmango
"http://www.myspace.com/andythedoorbum":http://www.myspace.com/andythedoorbum
"http://www.myspace.com/theexmonkeys":http://www.myspace.com/theexmonkeys
"http://rhinoplex.org/8cylinder":http://rhinoplex.org/8cylinder10 11 122009-11-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2009/11/30/TWR101112!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/TWR_10_11_12.jpg(twr101112)!
A chuck of super cliche techno bangers! feel it! Thanks again to proc records for being amazing.
"Download zip":http://proc-records.net/upload_music/%5Bproc355%5DThe_Wizard_Rises_-_10.11.12.zip from "proc records":http://proc-records.blogspot.com/2009/11/proc355.htmlA Music Release2009-11-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/11/30/music_releaseA new album release is linked to from the "music section":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music.html. I finished this way back in june, but I finally got around to contacting the amazing proc records to put it out. You should check out the "super hype up blog post":http://proc-records.blogspot.com/2009/11/proc355.html which says everything that I could say but better. I only want to add that it is part of the _the wizard rises_ project, which is intentially digging through cliche rich techno. The Pittsburgh Visionary Arts Festival - August 7th, 8th and 9th2009-08-07T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2009/08/07/Visionary-Artists-FestivalThe first "Pittsburgh Visionary Arts Festival":http://pghvisionaryartsfestival.com/ is bringing together more than 50 local visionary artists and art innovators into a single venue. For three full days, these artists will share their work, vision and unique ideas in a friendly outdoors festival setting.
I will have a booth at this event, as well as playing in the hiTec Orchestra all three nights.Visionary Arts Festival (software release edition)2009-08-07T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/08/07/visionary_artists_festivalThis weekend I am participating in the "Visionary Arts Festival":http://pghvisionaryartsfestival.blogspot.com/ in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh. I am showing two new pieces here, a graphical programming language for iPhone called itch (named for the software of inspiration, "mit's scratch":http://scratch.mit.edu/), and a set of tunnels and soundtracks programmed for NDS, PSP and Arduino.
I have posted a few demo videos of itch:
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5946053&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=1&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5946053&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=1&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5946053">Itch Demo 1</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user157075">jonbro</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<object width="400" height="270"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5977663&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=1&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5977663&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=1&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="270"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5977663">Itch Demo 2: Variables</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user157075">jonbro</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
"The source code to itch is available on github":http://github.com/jonbro/iphone_turtle, and I will be working on it, and adding features throughout the weekend.
Also, I was informed this morning that "mujik has gone live on the app store":itms://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=324895775&mt=8&s=143441. What a weekend, I am going to melt into a puddle like the t-1000.
!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/vaf_booth.jpg(My Booth)!
Mujik2009-08-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2009/08/01/mujik!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/mujik.jpg(mujik)!
Hey! Its some iPhone software, how nice. Coming off a giant chunk of monome programming, it made perfect sense for me to port some monome style controls to the iphone. Also this soft sounds super great with just a bunch of amen breaks (sorry, dev version only). So, basically I ripped off an app called "flip":http://docs.monome.org/doku.php?id=app:flip and then with a ton of help from my friends at luckyframe, we put together a sweet toy for the iphone. This was the first time I actually sold something that I had wholley designed myself, and it was also the first time I ever did any c programming. Basically a super fun nightmare trainwreck daydream.
"You can buy it by clicking this link.":http://itunes.apple.com/app/mujik/id324895775?mt=8Mujik Preview2009-06-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/06/30/mujik_previewAlways wonderful to be working with good people. Along with "yann seznec":http://www.theamazingrolo.net/ and "mike greer":http://www.deepfriedconcepts.com/, I am proud to present the preview video for mujik, our upcoming iPhone software.
<object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5373563&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5373563&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5373563">Mujik Demo!</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user157218">The Amazing Rolo</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Some technical details, for those that can stomach the stuff. This was built with the wonderful "openframeworks":http://www.openframeworks.cc/, using some ideas that I jotted down during the workshop given during the "art and code conference":http://artandcode.ning.com/.
The audio is done using remoteIO, which may not have been the smartest decision, but certainly worked. I think for future projects I am going to experiment with using audioqueues, partially because they seem like a much easier interface, and partially because they might not require as much optomization in my audio routines.
All of the textures ended up needing to be compiled into texture atlases, so we could fit them all in. The iPhone (<=3G) has an extremely small texture memory and we had to look for any place we could to shave bytes. I can't wait until everyone is on 3GS or greater, the graphics capabilities of the phone have been changed so much it is rediculous.
There are a few more things to iron out, but look for this coming out in july.HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative)2009-06-12T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2009/06/12/HiTec_At_The_NerveHiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative), the 22 member experimental orchestra founded by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE will be playing its 2nd gig as part of "The End of Television event":http://theendoftelevision.blogspot.com/
Be Well Benefit2009-05-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2009/05/23/Be_Well_BenefitCatch the Wav2009-03-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/03/01/catch_the_wavI have won a film festival with the video below:
<object width="100%" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z2Un259BDwE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z2Un259BDwE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="100%" height="400"></embed></object>
Kind of suprising, I totally expected it to get boo'ed. I made the video for thing a day back in 2006, and only sent it out to the disposable film fest. Luckly I had expected to send it to some other festivals, so I had a high res version around. My hard drives crashed twice between the time I made it and the time I entered it, so there was only the youtube copy and my unmailed dvd submissions.
Also, my buddy k9d got inspired by the flying destructicate, and started doing microbooks. Check out "dinoaids":http://www.dinoaids.com for the releases. "I just did one of covers for the TWR project":http://dinoaids.com/006/dinoaids006-the-wizard-rises.pdf. They are super tiny, you just need a color printer and standard paper to print and assemble them. I like the lo-res netlabel nonsense aesthetic approach he is taking with the whole project.
I am still looking for a netlabel to deal with releasing my jonbro-something album, but I am getting closer and closer to just posting it here. I think the legs on that project are becoming increasingly feeble.Love is Wet2009-02-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/events/2009/02/26/Love_is_WetSlippery Edits / Moist Oddities / Damp Discos
Projections by Balfun Dyngusdae and Michelle FriedThank you Mr. Clap (TWR R2)2009-02-06T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2009/02/06/TWR_2R!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/TWR_R.jpg(TWR2R)!
Remix of a "frostedtreesnowyfloor track I found on 8bc":http://www.8bitcollective.com/music/Frostedtreeandsnowyfloor2/LGPTPJ1%3AThank+you+Mr.+CLAP%21/. My second remix that I would consider as an actual remix rather than just a sample fodder thing.
"Download LGPT SRC":http://hexawe.net/hex0026_thx_u_mr_clap_rmx_by_TWR.zip
OR "Listen to the MP3":http://hexawe.net/hex0026_thx_u_mr_clap_rmx_by_TWR.mp3 from "HEXAWE":http://hexawe.net/Make Your Own Truth Book Release2009-01-24T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/01/24/make_your_own_truth!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/images/make_your_own_truth.jpg(Make Your Own Truth Flyer Crop)!
We are in the final production stages of this giant book that I have been working on with "Encyclopedia Destructica":http://www.encyclopediadestructica.com/ for the past 6 months or so. It ended up clocking in just under 500 pages, which is kind of mind bogglingly big for a handmade print publication. The covers are all neon and grey and have little poems on them by "starpaws":http://starpause.com, and awesome drawings from Chris of Encyclopedia Destructica. The grand total comes to 8 little books, and one big book all contained within a fancy slipcover.
*The Main book has the following work from me:*
* A series of 3d models based on photos of empty rooms that people publically uploaded to the internet
* Landscapes, two generations removed, from directions given on twitter by anonymous posters
* Several motivational posters
* A lecture (with script and materials necessary to give the presentation again)
*The main section of the book also contains new works from the following artists*:
"Alberto J. Almarza":http://vimeo.com/user529399, "Juliacks":http://www.juliacks.com/, "Rick Gribenas":http://www.gribenas.com/ and "Josh Atlas":http://www.joshatlas.com/.
They were given the prompt to work on "invisible forces", which is the same place that I started from.
I also organized two evenings of lectures on a wide variety of topics. The only rules were that the presentations could not be on the contents of the presenters day jobs. Of the 24 lectures given, 8 were reprinted and bound along with the main book. The lectures reprinted are by:
M. Callen, T. Foley, Curt Gettman, Brett Kashmere, Laura MIller, Shaun Slifer, Greg Siegle, and Jim Storch
*The book release info is as follows:*
* The Flying Destructicate: Make Your Own Truth book release and award presentation
* January 31st
* 5:30pm - 8:30 @ the Miller Gallery on CMU's campus.
Presentations by
* T. Foley
* Greg Siegle
* Laura Miller
* Jonathan Brodsky
* and a sound performance by Rick Gribenas
*And the book is out!*
!http://img.skitch.com/20090207-mw62maix4ywaq9cr64pjbpp9dc.jpg(Title)!
"A review from the city paper of the release event":http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A58590
"A review of the book":http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A59517
"Purchase the book, 25$":https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2652616
New Engine2009-01-05T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2009/01/05/new_engineI finally did it, a new engine for the site. I have now replaced the old and crusty wordpress with a new(old) and shiny(nerdy) flat file blogging system. Most of all, I am happy that I have collected all of the blog posts that I could track down from the past few years. I think I am going to leave my tumblr seperate for the time being, or maybe just jam it in along side the content here.
Also, I am going to throw this up now, in its current busted state, but expect the feed, design, and old / lost content to show up over the next little while.
6 months isn't long enough :D
BoxCutterBlower2008-12-10T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2008/12/10/BoxCutterBlower!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/boxcutterblower.jpg(boxcutterblower)!
Feeling totally bummed out, I made this super harsh improvisational noise album in the course of 24 hours. I also produced an extremely short run of 3 nice cds with printing and packaging. I have yet to sell/give them away.
All these tracks were made with a wall of amps, a loop pedal, a floor tom, a bass guitar, a vocal mic, and DS-10.
ProcRecs stepped up and released it along with some really nice superlatives. I would suggest that you go read further on their site.
"Download zip":http://proc-records.net/upload_music/%5Bproc232%5Dboxcutterblower_-_boxcutterblower.zip from "proc records":http://proc-records.blogspot.com/2008/12/proc232.htmlBad Sectors - The Wizard Rises 2+3+42008-10-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2008/10/25/Bad_Sectors!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/wizard_rises_2_3.jpg(TWR4)!
MUCH LOVE TO PROC RECZ! I started doing _The Wizard Rises_ with two limitations: The entire set needs to be transportable by bike and There is no such thing as cliche.
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!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/wizard_rises_4.jpg(TWR4)!
Another side goal is to explore how close to actual techno I can get. This all comes kinda close. These tracks were produced on DS-10 and LGPT.
The zipfile below contains a whole bunch of artists, including myself. All of the releases are 1.44meg.
"Download zip":http://proc-records.net/upload_music/%5Bproc200%5DVarious_Artists_-_BAD_SECTORS.zip from "proc records":http://proc-records.blogspot.com/2008/10/proc200.htmlShm2008-07-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2008/07/01/shm!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/shm.jpg(shm)!
"Monome":http://monome.org software based on "mabalhabla":http://docs.monome.org/doku.php?id=app:mabalhabla. I took the core of a modal midi keyboard, and added four layers, as well as arpeggiators and event recorders. I have used it for the past two years in my band "shambolish":http://shambolish.com. I have intended for the entire time to make a release ready version of it, but never got around to it. So here is what will be an endless beta of the software. Please contact me if you have any need for further instructions on how to use the software.
"SHM for max5":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/shm.zipHandface - all albums2008-06-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2008/06/19/handface_all_albumsDownload, distribute, have fun. Probably start with <i>And You</i>.
<object width="100%" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PSUZ6xZEqJA&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PSUZ6xZEqJA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%" height="344"></embed></object>
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/handface/mp3s/Handface_album_1.zip">Album1</a>
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/handface/mp3s/Handface_and_you.zip">And You</a>
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/handface/mp3s/Handface_not_actual_size.zip">Not Actual Size</a>
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/handface/mp3s/Handface-Did_You_Mean_Hand_Face.zip">Did you mean Hand Face?</a>
A note, this band was made of myself on gameboy, <a href="http://www.theamazingrolo.net/">Yann Seznec (the amazing rolo)</a> on guitar / bass, and <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user529399">Alberto Almarza</a> on drums.
el orfanato2008-05-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2008/05/30/el_orfanato<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashleylovespizza/2531141975/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2531141975_c6b908c94f_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashleylovespizza/2531141975/">el orfanato</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/ashleylovespizza/">ashleylovespizza</a>.
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people staying at my house.<br />
<br />
YAY!
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slow noise2008-03-06T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2008/03/06/slow_noiseVideo of a arudino based video synthesizer I put together yesterday.
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In other news, the show in detroit went great. Detroit was a really beautiful town for its wide roads, and 1940s vintage signage. The perfect place for the urban hermit.
I have a show coming up in Pittsburgh at the end of the month. Yes.
Deadly Door2008-02-05T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2008/02/05/deadly_doorI am going to do another reprint/burning/design of the album I posted for below. After that, no more free downloads, until I run out of CDs.
Grab it while it is hot. On the new one, there will be an additional track.
A preview of the cover:
<img src="http://img.skitch.com/20080206-mf9ncs3p8iys82k3sgbtheu342.jpg" alt="deadlydoor"/>
Something2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2008/01/01/Something!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/something_cover.jpg(something)!
I did this album because I was bursting at the seams, and I needed to play live. This is the first time that I played drums in a band since highschool, and the only time that I have ever sung in a band. The live show lasted from August 24th 2007 until approximately August 2008. I played at least once a month in Pittsburgh (sometimes several times a week), and thanks to the very friendly guy, Baron Knoxburry, played in Detroit and Ann Arbor. I could not have done this without the help of the hexawe crew as well.
These songs are mostly about my exes, with the exception of _There is no name_ which is about how much I like prog rock.
I and gave away somewhere in the realm of 40 copies of this album in handmade cdr, then I used the money I made to put it on amazon and itunes.
"Download Zip":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/jonbro_something.zip
Media dump 2 videos, one EP2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2008/01/01/media_dump_2_videos_one_epHere are some videos that I just put together today. First to clear your pallet, some footage from the parking lot of a Prime Outlets mall in western PA. Audio is from a very short song I found floating around my hard drive.
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="" height="0" data="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=464507&server=www.vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=" style='height:335px;width:444px'> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="scale" value="showAll" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=464507&server=www.vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=" /></object>
Here is some footage of a show I played last night. Please excuse the dropouts, I had my laptop sitting ontop of my bass amp, and I guess that doesn't make for very good hard drive writing.
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Finally, a short ep, which I have been giving away at shows, and I had for sale on the front page of my website, I have decided to give away. Please enjoy, and share this link where ever you would like.
<strike>JonBro - Something E.P.</strike>
<strong>reprinted! email me to purchase a copy</strong>
I hope everyone had a productive and healthy year.
Hey folks2007-12-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/12/16/hey_folksI am not dead, but I am doing my more regular blogginz on my <a href='http://www.twitter.com/jonbro'>twitter feed</a>. Also <a href='http://del.icio.us/jonbro'>my del.icio.us links</a> may be of interest. Just a little "how ya doin'" from me to you. Maybe some day I will be able to make this thing into more tumbly style.
Also, if you are in PGH and not doing anything for NYE, come to hear me play. Drop me a line in the comments and I will get you the address / guest list (?!) whateveessz.
Tried To Warn You2007-09-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2007/09/29/JonBro_Tried_to_warn_you!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/tried_to_warn_you.jpg(TWR4)!
One of the better tracks I wrote for the LGPT + Drums + Voice project. I was trying to just use very basic wave forms on all of these things.
On another note, I really feel at home with the HexAwe krew, they have helped me out musically more than I can really comprehend, and I feel like the friendships I have made with them are some of the strongest I have made with people on the internet. IRC FTW.
"Download LGPT SRC":http://hexawe.net/hex000C_tried_to_warn_you_by_jonbro.zip
OR "Listen to the MP3":http://hexawe.net/hex000C_tried_to_warn_you_by_jonbro.mp3 from "HEXAWE":http://hexawe.net/single chip synths2007-09-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/09/23/single_chip_synthsFrom <a href="http://forum.monome.org/topic/1441">a post over on the monome forums</a>, some single chip / open source synth projects:
<strong>AVR chip based designs:</strong>
<a href="http://www.elby-designs.com/avrsynth/avrsyn-about.htm">avrSynth</a> - Dual oscilator, DCF, DCA, plus some LFOs. Has pins for all kinds of front panel controls, plus midi in.
<a href="http://www.roboterclub-freiburg.de/atmega_sound/atmegaSID.html">atmegaSID</a> - attempt to clone the functionality of the C64 SID chip, takes all of the register inputs that the original SID does, however, does not yet have all of the functionality duplicated. Needs to be driven from some type of serial interface, however there are a whole bunch of open pins on the chip, so it could certainly have some type of editing interface built into it.
<a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~nvawter/projects/1bit/">1bit groovebox</a> - full on crazy ass chip instrument, interface, sound output, the whole 9, also quite reductive in terms of sound pallette and control logic.
<strong>Other chips</strong>
<a href="http://www.saratronics.com/index.html">saratronics</a>
<a href="http://oopic.com/soundgin/">soundgin</a> - synthesized speech, some oscilators.
<a href="http://www.critterandguitari.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2">critter board</a>
<a href="http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp_opl3.html">OPL3 midibox</a>
<strong>Really simple project</strong>
<a href="http://www.medcosm.com/picaxe_beatbox.htm">picaxe beatbox</a>
Also interesting are these <a href="http://tsp.bigcartel.com/">PARASITE modules</a>, small audio modules intended to be added into circuit bent hardware. Of particular interest to me is the filter module, which is sadly sold out right now.
ok, that is it for now, just wanted to get this all in my database in case the monome forum goes down.
Upcoming Shows2007-08-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/08/22/upcoming_showsHoly Crap dudes, two upcoming shows! Apparently if I set my mind to it, something will totally happen.
On <strong>Friday, August 24th, at Garfield Artworks, 8pm</strong> (probably 5-7 dollars, all ages)
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/atouchofwonder">Huxtables</a> (totally sweet trashy instrumental surf rock)
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/snakessayhisss">SnakesSayHisss</a> (synthpop sweetness)
JonBro (its me! more on that at the end of the post)
Jacob Pope & The Free Agents
<strong>Some video from The Huxtables</strong>
<a href="http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=7064404">the huxtables-Hopper C</a><br><embed src="http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf" flashvars="m=7064404&v=2&type=video" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="430" height="346"></embed>
and then!!!
At <strong>Kopec's (3523 Penn Ave) on Saturday, September 1st at 10pm</strong> (5$ and 21+)
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/captainahab">Captain Ahab</a> (fucking mental early 90's homoerotic synthpop)
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/realicide">Realicide</a> (Experimental Happy Hardcore?)
<a href=" http://www.myspace.com/lordbirdgoldencobra ">LORD BIRD GOLDEN DISKO SHOWER</a>
and JonBro (ME!!!@?#!@?)
I am super excited to play with captain ahab. I remember discovering their music right after mp3.com went belly up. Holy crap. It is like a little slice of my past.
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wN4CVwhfr9w"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wN4CVwhfr9w" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
<strong>What I am up to?</strong>
I have been doing backing tracks on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X">GP2x</a> with live drumming and singing, and I am fucking proud of it. If anyone wants to book me in their city, let me know. I am pumped for some touring right about now.
Homemade ginger ale recipie2007-07-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/07/26/homemade_ginger_ale_recipie<em>stabbedintheface posted this on Jun 30th, 2007 at 10:59:24 am</em>
<strong>home-brewed ginger ale:</strong>
ingredients:
2 liter bottle
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 1/2 tbsp grated ginger
juice of one whole lemon
-Get a 2 Liter (or there abouts. mine is a little different because the sizes are slightly different in Japan) and put a funnel in the top of it
-pour 1 cup sugar into the bottle (i used brown sugar)
-pour 1/4 tsp dry active yeast into bottle as well
-shake it up so the sugar/yeast mix well
-grate 1 1/2 tbsp of ginger on a grater with very fine teeth. place ginger in a cup to the side
-juice the lemon, and pour into the cup with the grated ginger, but dont wash out the juicer just yet
-stir the lemon and ginger together, then pour into the bottle. rinse the juicer with fresh clean water and pour the water into the bottle as well, to get all the lemon flavor.
-cap and shake bottle so all the ingredients mix well
-open the bottle and fill the rest of the way with fresh cool water, leaving about an inch of headspace. Cap the bottle very tightly, and invert it a few times so the sugar dissolves.
-place in a cool place (i put mine in the closet) for 24-48 hours. Check on the bottle and if it is hard to the touch, showing you there is a decent amount of fermentation/carbonation that has occured, place it in teh fridge over night. if not, let it sit a little longer until the bottle is hard with pressure. allowing it to cool over night will assure you dont explode ginger ale all over the place, and it will taste better.
You may want to pour it through a strainer when you have a glass, as lemon and ginger bit may still be floating. In the end, this is one of the best ginger ales i have ever tasted, and super simple.
<em>There are some potentially large posts in the tubes, I just didn't want to let this blog completely die before I was able to figure out a replacement for it.</em>
Pillar of Schmaltz2007-05-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2007/05/27/Pillar_of_Schmaltz!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/POS.jpg(Pillar of Schmaltz)!
Electro vs. Burt Bacharact. All LGPT, cover by "onnyc":http://www.twitter.com/onnyc
"Download zip":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/jonbro_pillar_of_schmaltz.ziptwitter overflow 12007-05-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/05/23/twitter_overflow_1just finished a 4 hour long meal. totally satisfied. had chicken with chili and lime, beer, corn, and chocolate. laid in the grass and looked at the stars.
I would have put this in twitter, but I was 5 characters over the limit. This is happening with disturbing frequency, look for posts on this blog to pick up with increasing frequency at least until I can figure out a better solution.
Another thing that is in the pipe is this twitter to facebook status bridge. It is clearly not done, but a quick/fun project none the less. If you would go ahead and edit the login and password information for your accounts on both of these services and setup a cron job to call this script, you would be golden. Also, you are gonna need the <a href='http://rubyforge.org/projects/facebookbot'>facebook bot</a>, which just happens to be the first opensource project that I have ever contributed to.
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/twitter_to_facebook.rb.zip">Here is the download.</a>
As a final note, here is a download of an ep that I finished in the past month or so. It is mostly techno bangers, with a brief excursion into videogamemusic. I promise that the next one will be on a proper netlable rather than mixed in with soooo much crap. Thanks for downloading in the meantime, and Thanks to <a href="http://onnyc.tumblr.com/">onnyc</a> for the dope ass cover!
Download: <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/Pillar_of_Schmaltz.zip">JonBro - Pillar of Schmaltz!</a>.
The other two tracks2007-05-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/05/01/the_other_two_tracksOk, I am bored of waiting, here are the two tracks that I entered in blockparty.
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/musicDump/mp3s/mista_bojangles_toasty_transport.mp3">mista bojangles toasty transport</a>
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/musicDump/mp3s/for_serious_your_face.mp3">for serious, your face</a>
There are also a bunch of other tracks in <a href="http://jonbro.tk/musicDump/">the music dump</a> which you may want to listen to. There is no telling when I will delete them either, so go download now.
Blockparty 2007 wrapup2007-04-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/04/29/blockparty_2007_wrapup<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/477860900/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/227/477860900_7f6c720135.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Ledge Bird" /></a></p>
<p>I just got back from blockparty 2007, and it was freaking great. For those not initiated on the concept of a demoparty, as explanation, the <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoparty'>ubiquitous wikipedia link</a>. I have never been to a demo party before, but as my consciousness said when I preregistered, “my 14 year old self will not forgive me for skipping this”.</p>
<p>Truthfully, it has been a while since I have watched any demos, but being in a room full of demo fans screaming a visual when some sweet tunnel effect comes up on screen was totally fantastic. A bunch of the demos brought a tear to my eye. Also the passion of all the demoscene people was palpable. It was really nice to be in a room with people that are passionate about computer graphics for arts sake, and in a concepts be damned, lets push some pixels kind of way.</p>
<p>I entered only three of the compos this year, and managed to only come in last place in one of them. I came in second in a “freestyle compo” which was freestyle rapping over that timbaland track ripped from a demoscene tune. For that I won an effects pedal from <a href="http://www.effector13.com/">Effector 13</a>, which is fucking awesome. I came in second to last in the freestyle music compo (any type of entry) and came in last in the chiptune compo. Ah well, next year better eq’ing and better music. I imagine the entries will be available on the web at some point, and I will throw up a link to them when I get it.</p>
<p>Also while at the party I managed to finish off an entry for the lgpt 10k contest and <a href="http://10pm.org/nostromo/lgpt/sounds.php">it is up on the web right now</a>. I am really enjoying the dubsteppy chip stuff, and I think I am gonna try to do a whole ep worth of it eventually. And in related, “new releases” news, an ep that I did for meltrecords is also up on the web now. That one is more of a dark electro thing, and there are some great remixes on it from both 5dots, the melt records head, and the amazing rolo, who really made the track that I gave him great. So, go download <a href="http://meltrecords.net/">This shower is a suspended bucket</a>.</p>
<p>Any who! next year, and there will be a next year, as it has been promised by the great jason scott, I will hopefully be entering many more of the compos, esp. the demo compo. <span class="caps">BECAUSE DANG IT TUNNELS ARE AWESOME</span>! Greetz and thanks to everyone there, you all made it super fun.</p>
<p>As a bonus, two deloreans passed me on the drive back to Pittsburgh. Back to the future dudes, back to the future.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/477860532/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/477860532_56557cb683.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="two deloreans in western pennsylvania" /></a></p>
This shower is a suspended bucket2007-04-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2007/04/27/This_shower_is_a_suspended_bucket!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/suspended_bucket.jpg(suspended bucket)!
First time getting remixed, first time releasing a track that wasn't 4/4. I am pretty happy with the production on this one.
"Download zip":http://5dots.net/file_download/95 from "melt records":http://meltrecords.net/Car related movies to watch2007-03-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/03/27/car_related_movies_to_watch<p>I saw <em>Grindhouse</em> yesterday, and it was pretty awesome for a tex-sploitation zombie flick / muscle car slasher chase movie. Clearly, there were some major downsides, but stuff “blew’d up real good” and the presentation with previews separating the movies was unabashedly great.</p>
<p>After watching it, I tracked down <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_Point">Vanishing Point</a></em>, a movie which was referenced many times during the Tarintino section, <em>Death Proof</em>. <em>Vanishing Point</em> was fantastic as well, and really makes me want to go on a muscle car genre binge. Here is a list culled from some wikipedia’ing (is there a better verb form of that?).</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Lane_Blacktop">Two-Lane Blacktop</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_2000">Death Race 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Mary,_Crazy_Larry">Dirty Larry, Crazy Mary</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_in_60_Seconds">Gone in 60 Seconds</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt">Bullitt</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_%28film%29">The French Connection</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_%28film%29">Cannonball</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I will report back when I have completed this list. Wish me luck, and also if you would like to join me for any screenings, let me know.</p>
Monthly catchup2007-03-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/03/14/monthly_catchupHello there, I just cleaned the corner of my room. This is what it looks like right now.
<a title="Photo Sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/421502571/"><img width="500" height="375" alt="clean corner" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/421502571_ac283abc29.jpg" /></a>
That corner used to look more like the opposite corner of my room which is slowly collapsing under the weight of my clothing. In fact, it used to be full of clothing, but I have just made a bag of stuff to go to goodwill.
Since the last post, I did a bunch more videos, which are on my youtube stream. I think the best one is this <a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Un259BDwE'>match.com ad mash</a>. Other high points of the youtube stream are <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAT56cLf-Ps">dancebot</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpXZDCMMToY">dronemash</a>.
There is also some more static work on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/">my flickr stream</a>. I am still recovering from the creative act month, but I have an animation in progress, which should be done somewhere in april if I am really lucky and focused. Ok, talk to you later!
<code>an addendum.</code>
I read the Frank Miller <em>Elektra: Assassins</em> book, and it was severely fantastic, at least as far as the art was concerned. I also read the Evan Dorkin <em>Dork: Volume 1</em> book, and it was pretty good, if you can get past the self hatred and the slave labor graphics drawing style all over the place. I can't really stand that publishing house due mostly to the fact that all of their artists draw EXACTLY THE SAME.
Week one of "the creative act"2007-02-10T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/02/10/week_one_of_the_creative_actI just finished my projects for week one of the creative act. Only three days late, woo! My theme was "decay", and that started as meaning iterative decay, but by the end of the week it ended up being about signal loss and addition through poor documentation. A stronger theme through the week was that everything was an animation, and most of it had to do with creative screen capturing.
Without further ado, here are the videos. Presented as a youtube playlist, as I am trying to roll with the prol'
//edit:
apparently I need to just link for you, as embedding isn't working.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D865AB35EF4DA4E3">GTFO! </a>
Emptying the project pile (short stories)2007-01-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/01/31/emptying_the_project_pile_short_storiesA while back I attempted to finish a short story. My methodology was to bring a few people along with me, hoping that by all of us sharing the same goal I would be able to finish mine easier. That turned out not to be the case, as I struggled through it as much as I have with any piece of writing. I guess I wrote something, which in itself was an achievement.
Yann managed to finish a quite nice story, <a id="p41" href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Darkness.pdf">Darkness</a> (pdf). Kudos to you sir, you have put my writing chops to shame. Perhaps we will meet on this field of words again, and that time, I will be prepared for you.
Also, for those that are suckers for punishment, I submit for you, <a id="p40" href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/captain_angrypants.txt">Captain AngryPants</a> (txt).
Tomorrow I start creating a piece of art a day, to be documented at: <a href="http://itp.nyu.edu/~hf35/creativeact/">The Creative Act</a>. Wish me luck!
Music with Billy - in teh ahahhahahaha2007-01-24T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/01/24/music_with_billy_in_teh_ahahhahahaha<p>I just uploaded some new tracks to my <a href="http://www.jonbro.tk/musicDump/">dumping grounds</a> tonight. The most recent one is just a sketch that I did with billy, called <a href="http://jonbro.tk/musicDump/mp3s/in%20teh%20ahahhahahaha.mp3">in teh ahahhahahaha</a>. I did it for a 60 minute compo that is loosely related to <a href="http://www.em411.com">em411</a></p>
<p>Enjoy.</p>
Two short cd reviews2007-01-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/01/23/two_short_cd_reviews<p>Gotta get these reviews off my work computer so that I can potentially give the cds back to <a href="http://www.wrct.org">the radio station</a>. Also, shamelessly ripping off <a href="http://al3x.net/entries/765">Al3x</a> for blogging inspiration.</p>
<p><strong>Burial – Burial</strong><br>
Completely rain-soaked dubstep, quite dark, but it still pulls through some elements of the two-step that it grew out of. Reminds me of a cross between photek and monolake. The only major issues with this record is when there are actual distinct vocals, they fall into a very posturing kind of sound. The vocals, when used as texture are really quite great. P.S. These tracks have been around for a long time now, probably not right to call them _dub_step anymore.<br>
recommended tracks: 2, 6, 7, 8</p>
<iframe name="bleepPlayer" id="bleepPlayer" width="280" height="141" src="http://www.bleep.com/player/?/HBCD001/55133/maxi/D3F9D3/575757/00D126" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<p><strong>Venetian Snares – Hospitality</strong><br>
More of the cut up breaks and superfast atmospheres from Aaron Funk. It seems that the snares have gone forward with melodic song structure, and is luckily enough incorporating the less amen-y breaks that were on ross callig. The orchestral sounds on this album have much more in common with something like µ-ziq’s royal astronomy record, very preset / midi / playstation era synth sounding. Sweet acid on the last track.</p>
<iframe name="bleepPlayer" id="bleepPlayer" width="280" height="141" src="http://www.bleep.com/player/?/ZIQ140/66336/maxi/D3F9D3/575757/00D126" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
Rapid creativity, Life Update2007-01-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2007/01/14/rapid_creativity_life_update<p>I recently participated in a time limited art project, <a href="http://54hours.org/">54hours.org</a>, where you get a sentence on friday evening, and have until sunday night to complete a short movie based on the sentence. This was by far the most relaxed time-limited art project that I have participated in, far less brain destroying than the 24 hour comic, and far less time management focused than the month long album. Also, the fact that it was a team effort added quite a bit to the fun. <a href="http://mirror.video.blip.tv/54hourmovieproject-BrownianMotionOrAreWeDancin463.m4v">Feel free to download our submission behind this link</a>.</p>
<p>This weekend was yet another partymode/college friends reunion. I helped <a href="http://eli.pousson.net/blog">Eli Pousson (former roommate) set up his blog</a>, which will probably be anthropology/transportation related. Also, I will be going to <span class="caps">NYC</span> on the second of February, and will also hopefully have time to hang out with everyone there.</p>
<p>And yet one final update, if you don’t have enough diary type entries from me, I tend to update <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jonbro">my twitter feed</a> with shorter, less interesting and context free stuff.</p>
Art Pyramid2006-12-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/12/08/art_pyramidSaw <a href="http://k9d.livejournal.com/61564.html">this over at k9d's livejournal</a>, and thought it was a nice idea, so here goes.
The first five people that leave a comment in this post are going to get a one of a kind piece of art, created by me, shipped to them. The only catch is that they also have to post the same offer in their webloggy thingy, or make an announcement in a public forum or whatever.
Ok, go!
[<em>edit</em>] just went back and re-read the original post, and it looks like you don't actually need to continue the meme, but it would be nice. I will be getting in contact with responders for snail-mail addresses soon.
crackheads stole my laptop2006-12-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/12/01/crackheads_stole_my_laptopLast night, I came home to discover that I could not find my laptop. Thinking that I must have just misplaced it, I went out to get some dinner. Upon returning, it was discovered that my other laptop which was hooked up to the TV was also missing. Clearly, our house had been robbed.
I also lost a backpack, my microphone, and the contents of my change jar. The biggest loss was my data. I had not backed up any of the music that I have been working on, nor did I backup any of my other projects. I guess I learned my backup lesson, and it would also appear that backing up to external disks that are in the same room with the laptop probably isn't going to do it.
So the result of all this is two-fold. One; I will need to purchase a new computer, which is ok, I think I can be happy with the crackhead induced upgrade cycle. Two; I need to start backing up my data to some offsite location. I guess the loss of all the music that I have been working on is the biggest blow, but it is never a bad time to start again.
As an excercise, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=crackhead+stole+my+laptop&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8">here are some other people who had laptops stolen from them, presumably by crackheads</a>.
Upcoming show2006-11-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/11/26/upcoming_showHello folks, everybody who both reads this blog and lives in pittsburgh has probably already heard this first hand, but just in case I missed anyone, I am playing a show at the Brillobox on December 5th, 2006. Here is the event info as a block of text for those that will understand it better.
Planned Parenthood fundraiser
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/brilloboxevents">Brillobox</a>, Friendship, Pittsburgh, USA
8pm, December 5th, 2006
I am currently in the process of remixing my old songs, and making some new ones. This is my first live show in about one and a half years, so hopefully it will go alright.
audio (and video) hopefully forthcoming.
[edit]
I just found out that the event starts at 5:30. I can't imagine that I will be playing music that early though. But I think that is how early you can start donating to planned parenthood by drinking.
Music to get the ball rolling to2006-11-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/11/09/music_to_get_the_ball_rolling_toJust finished a quick sketch of a track and uploaded it for you to take a listen. Actually, it took me about a week to get it done, I normally try to get things out of the way quicker than that. <a target="_blank" href="http://jonbro.tk/musicDump/mp3s/Iamforest_creature._arrange1.mp3">I am Forest, Creature</a>.
Also, recently, I have been going to a bunch of shows, specifically of musicians that not only use electronics as the center of their setup, but also provide an interesting stage show. If any of these musicians comes through your town, feel free to go see them, they are all fantastic:
<ol>
<li>Daedelus: wierdo electronic / sample based bedroom hip hop.</li>
<li>Dosh: Hip hop equivelent of Andrew Bird, plus very worn instruments. Down tempo warmth through looper pedals.</li>
<li>Zombi: This is the odd one out, a John Carpenter influenced prog rock horror movie extravaganza.</li>
</ol>
[edit: minor typos and grammar problems.]
Home Page Redesign - Badge Edition2006-09-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/09/26/home_page_redesign_badge_edition_I have been meaning to do a redesign of my homepage for a while now, and I just got done with it tonight.
<em>Quick!</em>Â <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jonbro.tk">Go take a look at it, and come right back.</a>
I have not really needed the college portfolio style site which has been living in my root directory for a while now, and I have been meaning to replace it with something that can stay more current with my life. I am sure the "all-feed" home page is not a new idea, but designing around all of those different forms of content was quite a bit of a pain.
After some initial forays into trying to get a unified theme on all of them, I realized that I can just do the old "use someone elses design as a crutch" and wrap it in my own mess. So that is exactly what I did.
There are still a few feeds that I would like to add there, and perhaps even build a few of my own services to help fill out my page (a self contained about box, perhaps a little shoutboard), but I am quite happy with my evenings work.
Let me know what you think, glaring oversights, etc.
P.S. The portfolio will be coming back, just in a more easy to maintain format, perhaps some type of wiki. But that is a project for another night.
iTrip dock LCD sucks.2006-09-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/09/25/itrip_dock_lcd_sucksI just got an iPod last week, an old mini that my roommate was unloading to make room for one of the new nanos. Excited to listen to something other than public radio sports coverage on my drive to work in the morning, I went out and got an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-9500-TRIPDA-Transmitter-Connector/dp/B000BREQN4">iTrip - the version with the dock connector and the LCD screen</a>. I should have read the online reviews first. This thing is seriously a piece of trash.
<strong>Specs?</strong> I only get signal when the iTrip is within a foot of my car radio, and as for the radio in my kitchen, the antenna wire has to be <em>physically wrapped</em> around the iTrip. The FM band is pretty crowded in Pittsburgh, but I have witnessed other portable audio FM transmitters working a lot better than this. In addition to the broadcast issues, with the iPod volume maxed, I need to turn my car radio up twice as loud as my normal (loud) listening volume. Once the broadcast is at a comfortable listening volume, so is the noise floor on my not to shabby car radio. I have never once noticed it before.
Ok, <strong>back to the store you go!</strong> hopefully I will get a better one on the next trip.
smdkun - another os x shmup2006-09-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/09/09/smdkun_another_os_x_shmup<img align="left" style="margin-right: 10px" title="SDMkun" id="image29" alt="SDMkun" src="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/sdmkun.thumbnail.jpg" />This one is a bit strange, not really a game so much as a trainer for different bullet hell scenarios. You can find the link to the download page nearly at the bottom of the <a href="http://shinh.skr.jp/sdmkun/">developers page</a>. I am not sure if this is a kenta cho production or not, but it is built using his bulletML package.
Once you get to the download page, you may find that you need some instructing as to where to get the file. Luckily, <a href="http://www.the2bears.com/?p=515">the2bears has posted a guide to downloading from the vector.co.jp pages</a>.
Once you manage to get it downloaded, there is a link in the english readme file to a <a href="http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5994">forum post that explains the basic play mechanics</a>. Enjoy!
<em>P.S. you can download a windows version at that same first link. </em>
Some updates2006-08-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/08/14/some_updatesOK! please excuse the lack of posting frequency, I have been very busy for the past month. During that time I completed a move with a few of my former roommates into quite the fantastic house. It has been very busy around here, what with the trying to fill up space and whatnot. I just completed setting up an old powerbook as a media center hooked to the t.v. I am sure the setup phase of this project will continue for a while as I add services (fileshare, webserver, etc.) to the computer, but as it stands, we can use it for music and dvds.
Also since I last posted, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTflJXs4qms">I had a very brief segment on the nbc nightly news</a>. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zqnASjunx8">I made a parody video of the "head on" commercial and posted it to youtube</a>, which was subsequently played on the final segment of the news as an example of the "instant parodies" that the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is3icfcbmbs">original commercial</a> generated.
Also since I last posted, I became an actual full-time employee of wall-to-wall studios, which basically means that I have a health plan, but it hopefully means that I have a bit more job security than when I was working for them as a "full time contractor". My position there is quickly moving towards flash developer, which is not a totally bad place to be, flash is a pretty intersting language, shrouded in about 4000 pounds of poor interface (read: I cannot quite comprehend it).
OK, I hope that gets you up to speed, I will post some pictures of the new house as soon as I find my digital camera.
Update: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/tags/newhouse/">Here are some pictures of the new house, as promised</a>.
Ruby game frameworks for OS X2006-07-12T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/07/12/ruby_game_frameworks_for_os_xThe other night, while surfing on the <a href="http://www.idevgames.com/forum/index.php">idevgames</a> forum, I found a number of game frameworks that are made for <a href="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/">Ruby</a>. While I don't expect to start writing games in any of these right now, I think that they may become more interesting as the user bases mature.
<a href="http://shattered.hastilymade.com/">Shattered Ruby</a> - An MVC framework for making games, something along the lines of rubyOnRails (for games!). In fact, I think that the creators presented this package at the RailsConf. In all likelyhood, this one will gain the most steam of all the packages here.
<a href="http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12037">Aerosol</a> - Accellerated OpenGL 2D framework. I really like this one because the author went a far way to make the syntax of the language really simple.
<a href="http://www.raschke.de/julian/gosu/">Gosu</a> - Another 2D OpenGL accellerated framework. This one claims to support FMOD, so there is probably alot of fun options for music in this one, but I have yet to install and try it out, so it is mostly included here for completness.
RubyGameCommon and RubyGameShellCommon - the <a href="http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8567">second post in this thread</a> has partial directions for getting these up and running. Seem to be <a href="http://www.swig.org/">swig</a> wrappers for <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gameshell/">GameShell</a> and something else, probably the most robust of any of these options, but at the same time, these would need the most work to get a frame for you game up and running in. Even so, this repository is worth downloading just for all the great code that is contained within. I felt pretty great when I got one of these games up and running.
If anyone finds any other Ruby game frameworks, feel free to leave them here in the comments.
Avoid, a game.2006-07-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/07/09/avoid_a_game<img align="left" title="avoid screenshot" id="image25" alt="avoid screenshot" style="margin-right: 10px" src="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/avoid.thumbnail.jpg" />I just made this little game in <a href="http://www.processing.org">processing</a>, I hope you enjoy it. This is the first arcade style game that I have made, other than a pong clone. I used the <a href="http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~traer/physics/">traer physics</a> library, and I think all in all it is a nice little casual game. The only controls are the left and right arrow keys.
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/avoid_win.zip">pc download</a> (1.5mb)
<a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/avoid_mac.zip">mac download</a> (1.5mb)
please leave a comment with your thoughts and suggestions.A multitude of comic strips (created by me and friends)2006-07-07T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/07/07/a_multitude_of_comic_strips_created_by_me_and_friendsI just finished uploading to flickr a batch of <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/sets/72157594189055780/">comic strips which were created by me and some friends during college</a>. These were recently unearthed by Eli (who needs a website so that I can link him) during a move to the D.C. metropolitian area.
If you are having difficulty reading them, be sure to use the "All Sizes" button so that you get an expanded size of the picture.
Some of the ones that I enjoy a ton are:
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/184340971/in/set-72157594189055780/">a beverage vampire claims another victim</a>, <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/183030105/in/set-72157594189055780/">depressed pretzel</a>, <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/183031676/in/set-72157594189055780/">flowers and mountainhead</a>, <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/183032910/in/set-72157594189055780/">science convention?</a>, and <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/184341939/in/set-72157594189055780/">x-rated movie in a toilet</a>.
A large number of these comics were created using the WTF method, which is <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/183032501/in/set-72157594189055780/">partially documented here</a>. The basic rules of the method are as follows:
<ol>
<li>artist Alpha draws a panel.</li>
<li>artist Beta provides text for that panel, and draws the next panel.</li>
<li>artist Alpha provides text for prior panel... and so on.</li>
</ol>
This method was expanded upon to create quite fantastic drinking games, or ways to pass the time as we waited for shows to start, or things to do instead of watching T.V. whilst hanging out.
Please do enjoy, and if you make any comics using this method (or just the first panel) please drop a link in the comments.
Radio show meta-data2006-06-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/06/18/radio_show_metadataJust a quick post today to see how I can cross promote both my radioshow (sundays at noon until 2pm on <a href="http://www.wrct.org">wrct</a>) and my blog (you are already here). Here are some links to the things that I played on my show that are free to consume...
<a href="http://blibbblobb.blogspot.com/2006/02/blibb-blobb-episode-005.html">the blibbblobb podcast</a> - amazingly fantastic chiptune remixes with no annoying talking on top
<a href="http://www.zymogen.net/releases/zym006/">bacanal intruder - modem</a> - awesome free net.label release, along the lines of nobukazu takemura, but cuter somehow, and with far less vocoders.
<a href="http://www.cockrockdisco.com/free.html">Audiogarde - Mardi Gras</a> - from the cock rock disco free compilation, most everything else on this comp is breakcore, but this is one tasty little disco nugget.
<a href="http://www.mono211.com/content/releases/mtkmp166.html">Tim Koch - Elk Meadow EP</a> - beautiful melodies and simple drum lines from one of the oldest net.labels
<a href="http://one.dot9.ca/2/releases.php?id=021"><font color="#000000">emil klotzsch - sandkorn</font></a> - collage sounds, nice melodies, interesting instrumentation
Finished an album.2006-06-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/06/03/finished_an_albumLast month I participated in a project called <a href="http://narmo.org">NARMO</a>, the participants of which attempted to complete a 31 minute long album in one month. I managed to finish under the deadline, and my offering is available now. It would be awesome if you could download the <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/JonBro-BossLevel.zip">entire album as a zip file</a> but if bandwidth concerns keep you from doing so, you can grab the individual tracks at the <a href="http://www.jonbro.tk/narmo/">project page</a>.
This album is a somewhat significant departure from what I normally do, due to the fact that I played some actual physical instrument on every track. I also tried to fit vocals on everything as well, and I think that it came out alright, if somewhat hesitant and <span class="p">melancholy.
</span>
Some of the other albums that I think are pretty good from the competition are:
the <a href="http://narmo.org/narmite/10">Chris Schwan</a> album, which is really intresting ambient and field recordings which duck into techno about halfway through all of the tracks ( <a href="http://cschwan.com/unafam/">Download here</a> )
the <a href="http://narmo.org/narmite/72">Fred Hamilton</a> album, which is pretty silly rock. I don't think it is quite ready for radio play, but it is encouraging somehow. ( <a href="http://www.yonkitime.com/sounds/NARMo/">Download here</a> )
<a href="http://narmo.org/narmite/21">the counterweights</a> for their totally fantastic cover, and the <a href="http://www.gibberish.com/">awesome blog</a> of the person that wrote it. I havn't really given this one enough time, but <a href="http://gibberish.com/misuba/narmo/31-Suitcase%20In%20Hand.mp3">this track</a> is pretty good ( <a href="http://gibberish.com/misuba/narmo/">Download here</a> )
<a href="http://narmo.org/narmite/37">d.edren</a> is well produced idm, but loses points because I have to open up an xml file to find out where to download the mp3s. Currently you have to <a href="http://a-dsr.net/NaRmOnICa">listen to it in a flash player</a>.
<a href="http://www.genlevel.com/14bits.html">14bits</a> is some techno stuff as well. nice and roomy.
ok, hope you enjoy!
Mac Shmups2006-05-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/05/18/mac_shmupsI have been meaning to start a database of mac shmups for a while now, as it is one of my favorite genres, but the lack of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dojin_soft">dojin soft</a> & the <a href="http://shootthecore.moonpod.com/Home.html">millions and millions of shooters that it brings</a> really lowers the number of games to something that can be covered in a few blog posts. Hopefully the development of shooters on the mac will speed up, but for the time being, here is a brief collection of the shmups that I have been playing to bide my time until I can buy a pc for a tax deduction.
<!--more-->I couldn't get by without at least a quick mention of Kenta Cho's ABA games, who releases his source, resulting in some <a href="http://shinh.skr.jp/osxbin/">awesome</a> <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/qtq/index_e.html">ports</a>. His <a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/mcd_e.html">latest one</a> just came out, and it has yet to be ported, so someone who knows their way around SDL and D has the opportunity to be my best friend, at least for a few minutes.
<a href="http://www.incitti.com/Blitz/">Gridwars 3</a> is a clone of <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/geometrywarsretroevolved/index.html">Geometry Wars 3</a>, which is itself a clone of <a href="http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9347">Robotron: 2048</a>. It is a high-scoring, high-speed shooter that you control with two joysticks.
<a href="http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/gridrunner.php">Gridrunner ++</a> is a hella dope psychotic mayhem shooter that is developed by someone who has been in the business for an incredibly long time. This one took up alot of my time in the design computer clusters in college and I am somewhat sad that I have rediscovered it, if only because I am going to lose a ton of time to it again.
I ran into some more fun ones tonight, namely: <a href="http://www.macgamestore.com/detail.php?ProductID=542">bullet candy</a>. It is another one in the style of Robotron, but with more bullet mayhem. It also has a pretty slick sound track and some nice particle effects.
I also ran across <a href="http://www.nether.org.uk/bad_mac_code.html#super_phoenix">Super Phoenix</a> tonight, which is not technically a shmup, but has some pretty nice graphics and pretty frantic gameplay so it comes close enough to qualify for this post.
Ok, I think that about does it for me tonight, sorry for the drunken blogging last night, but I hope this post (which has been far too long in production) more than makes up for it. Enjoy ignoring your work!
[edit] I have added an ad, because lots of people come to this post from google searches. I hope you find what you were looking for!
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Some stuff that happened today2006-05-17T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/05/17/some_stuff_that_happened_todayjust going to throw down a few ideas here real quick so that I don't lose them before tomorrow.
Today I had a pretty good day at work, I managed to get a reasonable amount of work done. I am starting to realize that everone else at this job is about as stressed out as I am.
after I got home from work, I spent some time going to radio shack and cvs to pick up components to trick out my bike. I bought a length of EL tape off of some classmates about a year point five ago, and I have been thinking that it would be pretty cool as a safety device for my bike since this weekend. After initial testing this evening, I think I can safely say that it is pretty sweet, and the only real problem with the el tape is that I need more of it on my bike.
I just got back from a doormouse show which was reletively great. It would have been nice to be able to stay later, because dj cutups, who came on right after doormouse was dropping some sweet ragga-jungle stuff.
My Albums2006-05-14T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/05/14/my_albums<a href="http://www.jonbro.tk/albums/">As a public <strike>dis</strike> service I packed up the two albums that I have completed into zip file and stuck them on a web page for you to download. Please enjoy.</a>
I suspect that this method of making little webpages without database backend, nor any method for organizing the urls is going to come and bite me in the ass someday, but until I get some free time, I am quite enjoying designing little tasty nuggets of throwaway html. This is clearly a discussion for some other time.
In other news, my life has been going pretty speedily recently and I havn't had much time to keep up with my blog. I feel like this <a href="http://www.nimblecode.com/articles/2006/02/16/original-blogging-content">article about slowbloggging</a> is pretty applicable to how I am feeling right now.
<em>Edit!!! </em>: I was just informed that none of the links to my mp3s were working. They are now. Sorry folks.
Avoid2006-05-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/software/2006/05/09/avoid!http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/images/avoidance.jpg(avoidance)!
My first game! Press left and right to swing from the different connection points. I am totally into the menu screens, the randomness of the game kinda bites it though.
"Avoid web":https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43672/avoid/index.html
"Avoid osx (PowerPC)":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/avoid_mac.zip
"Avoid windows":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/software/avoid_windows.zipBoss Level2006-05-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2006/05/01/NarmoAn album that I completed in a month in 2006 for NARMO.org. I tried to put vocals or a live instrument on every track. It turned out ok, all things considered. Please don't sing any of these songs to me though, it kinda drives me up a tree to listen to them.
"Boss Level - JonBro - Download":https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/jonbro_boss_level.zip
Interface woes killed my version control2006-04-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/04/23/interface_woes_killed_my_version_controlI had just completed 4 hours of work on my current freelance project when disaster struck. Tonight, while attempting to upload the latest build of <a href="http://pittsburghartreview.org">PGHArtReview</a> to my version control repository, I managed to nuke all of the changes that I had done.
Although I certainly was warned by the GUI program that I was using that I was about to 'revert' changes, I though that meant the changes that I had made to the server, and not to my local files. Actually, to tell you the truth, deleting all of the files from the current revision on the server was probably not a good idea either. I think that when I am presented with interfaces that start asking me questions that I am not prepared to answer, I start clicking buttons at random.
I really believe that version control systems are one of the best things to come out of the open source movement, but I really wish that there was one that spoke to simple designers/programmers like me. I am currently using svn which is supposedly easier than CVS, but I really can't tell. All the interface metaphores are greek to me, especially in the GUI that I am using. I think that I am just going to go with the command line from here on in (I need to finish this project with version control, so I am guarenteed to learn something).
Ah well, better luck next time jon. I hope you don't totally mess up everything!
Some music that I have been listening to2006-04-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/04/19/some_music_that_i_have_been_listening_toI saw this <a href="http://www.avclub.com/content/node/47257">interview with john hodgman</a> (of the daily show) that had a nice format, and having no great skill at coming up with things that I would like to write about I have decided to interview myself in the same style.
The way it will proceed is as such: I am going to set my itunes on shuffle, and for each song that comes on (except internet radio) I will describe how it made it into my life. Alright? Ready? here we go.
1.<strong> you still believe in me - blue t-shirt: </strong>this one is a remix of a beachboys track. I came accross it through the only forum that I have participated in on the internet (<a href="http://em411.com">em411</a>). Although I generally find that the beach boys make me really sad, this particular remix seems to have sucked all the sad out of the song. Probably because it subscribes to the method of remixing that say that running sound though effects is a good method of adding stuff.
<span style="font-style: italic">From </span><a style="font-style: italic" href="http://www.hippocamp.net/">hippocamp</a><span style="font-style: italic"> (the album that it was on is no longer available due to copyright issues). The rest of their music is free though.</span>
2. <strong>As I Come Back - Busta Rhymes: </strong>I just heard this song for the first time about 3 weeks ago, but Busta Rhymes is in all likelyhood the first MC that I learned rhymes from. I think that he is my favorite MC from the mid to late 90s. Probably because his style showed up in so much jungle remixes, but I am sure that his hefty posturing had something to do with it. I can definately hear some southern style stuff in here. I don't really know my history, so it could certainly be possible that he borrowed the style, rather than the other way around. RufFFF!
<a style="font-style: italic" href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bustarhymes/asicomeback.html">lyrics</a><span style="font-style: italic">, </span><a style="font-style: italic" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Busta+Rhymes/_/As+I+Come+Back">it would appear that the neptunes did production</a><span style="font-style: italic"> </span><span style="font-style: italic">(also, you can get a 30 second preview on that page)</span>
3. <strong>Doctrine - Autechre:</strong> This album used to turn me on way more than it does now. I heard it for the first time in the film pi, and it provided a "going to sleep soundtrack" for much of my senior year of high school. Something about the way it was written makes me feel like I am stalling out but upwards. That is totally unclear so let me explain it (this is a pretty long song). In my sophmore year of highschool I went on a trip to alaska with my mom and my sister. On second day in alaska (this was the third week of the trip, we had been in L.A. prior), it was decided that me and my sister should start flying lessons. I think the plan was that we were to chauffer my mom around. By the third lesson the instructor must have realized that we were not going to finish them, so he let me and my sister try some awesome advanced stuff (we flew seperately). Stalling the plane was one of these things.
I guess it would be best explained like going over a hill on a roller coaster. I got the same feeling from this album, and still sometimes do when I work really hard at it.
<a style="font-style: italic" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Autechre/_/Doctrine">another 30 second preview</a>
4. <strong>Lava - Collabs 3000: </strong>Hmmm, another really long song. I don't have much connection with this one at all, I just added it to my computer last week. I guess it is pretty straight ahead techno. Not really much to say here. I also don't really want to subject my roommates to it that badly, but I am sure I would enjoy it if I had some headphones on.Ok, I am back, now with headphones. I often think about the amount of music that I listen to compared to the amount of music that I am ashamed to share. This track is a pretty good example. I think that if I had left it on, someone probably would have asked me to "please change the music jon". I would really like to be able to share my music more confidently. This style of techno isn't particularly offensive either, or at least it is not as bad as bassdrive.com, where I get to listen to idiots from all accross the globe pretend to be Ali G while I get pumped by whatever R+B remix is the top of pops this week in London.
<a style="font-style: italic" href="http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=19568">some previews</a>
5. <span style="font-weight: bold">Caveman Skank - Lee Perry & The Upsetters: </span>My dub appreciation generally steers more into the king tubby or scratch perry heavy edits, this one is pretty light. I have also really lowered my dub intake for some reason or another. I don't think that I have outgrown it, but something has certainly changed in my appreciation of it. Actually, my favorite dub right now is dubby techno or dubby house.
<a href="http://www.jahtari.org/">my favorite videogame dub label</a>, <a href="http://www.deepspacenyc.com/albums/album02/lee_perry_arkology_2.jpg">a picture of lee perry in the studio</a>, <a href="http://www.infinitewheel.com/dubselector.html">dub creation flash game</a>
Life Updates (yann leaves, I get a new job)2006-04-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/04/09/life_updates_yann_leaves_i_get_a_new_job<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/125978636/"><img style="border: 2px solid #000000" src="http://static.flickr.com/54/125978636_6b43bb095d_m.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbro/125978636/">Rainbow from my front porch.</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jonbro/">jonbro</a>.
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This is the scene outside the house called partymode as <a href="http://theamazingrolo.blogspot.com/">yann</a> was leaving. Sad to see him go, but I know that he is off to better things.
I started my new job the same week, at <a href="http://walltowall.com/">wall to wall</a> here in pittsburgh, and the past two weeks working there have been quite the experience. I would really like to continue to work there for a long time. The office environment is great and really encouraging (I got <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/122766641/">employee of the week</a> already). I have some <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/tags/jonbrowalltowall/">photos of the office</a> posted up on the flickr stream, for your 'virtual touring' pleasure.
Next time, homebrew update! (hint: it is doing great)
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oldskooljunglemix2006-04-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/04/02/oldskooljunglemix<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dabalto/114845966/"><img style="border: 2px solid #000000" src="http://static.flickr.com/35/114845966_084115e9ff_m.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dabalto/114845966/">Condos-to-be</a> </span></div>
Hey there folks, I got a little jungle mix for you called <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/asterisk_mouth(oldskool_jungle%20mix).mp3">asterisk_mouth</a>. It is mostly oldskool jungle off of the <a href="http://www.discogs.com/release/365093">illegal pirate radio comps</a>, but I had a few slips and put in some new <a href="http://www.discogs.com/release/459865">trendy stuff</a>. I have not put together a tracklist, but if you would like one, just drop me a note in the comments.
Things have been pretty interesting around the partymode this week and weekend. Our house has gone from the normal payload of six, down to just three. Due to the fact that we lost our designated cook for the weekend, the remaining three had a dinner of whatever vaguely mexican stuff we could pick up at the grocery store. I am feeling pretty full right now.
Well, I am running out of things to say, but the file is still uploading. Urm, whatever, peace out!
Too many feeds!2006-03-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/03/31/too_many_feeds<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmiddel/112097659/"><img style="border: 2px solid #000000" src="http://static.flickr.com/54/112097659_f35eb51d64_m.jpg" /></a>
<span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmiddel/112097659/">2006-03-13-Trein-01</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mrmiddel/">mrmiddel</a>.
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I am trying to figure out where this weblog is going, as always. I would like to consolidate my feeds somehow, possibly on this page. Right now, they are all located at <a href="http://jonbro.suprglu.com/">this suprglu account</a> which is comprised of <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jonbro/">my flickr feed</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/jonbro">my links</a>, and various other junk. I think I am going to move it all here as soon as I have a free moment (unless there is a uproar from the crowd). More details to follow as to why I don't have any time.
hint: it has to do with my new job.
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Beach Animals2006-03-21T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/03/21/beach_animalsEarlier this evening I went to a lecture at Carnegie Mellon by <a href="http://www.strandbeest.com/">Theo Jansen about his Beach Animals </a>(<a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/05/theo-jansen-beach-animals">kottke has a nice roundup of links on his site</a>, <a href="http://www.strandbeest.com/movies.html">movies here</a>). While the smoothness exhibited by his mechanoids was really impressive, I was most struck by the pnuematic logic systems that he had built. I was not able to get a picture of them, but he had two versions, both of which could store numbers or release pressure based off of incoming pressure.
The logic gates reminded me of the turing machines that people build out of <a href="http://www.monochrom.at/turingtrainterminal/">model trains</a> or <a href="http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/cousined/lego/5-Machines/Turing/Turing.html">lego sets</a>. It was nice to see that logical gates can work with the absence of electricity. I would like to see more turing machines that ran on wind power or water power. The application of the logic gate to actual moving robots is also nice, it really shows the bridge between computation and motivation without needing to kneel to consumer objects, which is what I find is one of my biggest hangup as identifiying myself as a new media artists.
good bye world.2006-03-07T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/03/07/good_bye_worldIf it is not already clear from the montly posting frequency, this blog is no longer where I am going to be posting...<br /><br />keep your eyes on <a href='http://www.jonbro.tk/blog'>jonbro.tk</a> where I will be starting to blog within the week. thanks, bye, love... jonathan.<br /><br />p.s. if you want to keep this blog eli, or elijah, feel free. I am just going to leave it here, you can do whatever you want with it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">UPDATE:</span><br />the address of the blog is <a href='http://www.jonbro.tk/blog'>jonbro.tk/blog</a>. Once again, enjoy, and thanks for the fun.
Short term backup for netNewsWire tabs2006-03-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/03/03/short_term_backup_for_netnewswire_tabsLast week, I came across this application called <a href="http://listmixer.com/">ListMixer</a> that behaves like a short term memory dump for the web. For the most part, it is a functional clone of del.icio.us, except it dumps any links from your stream that have not been clicked in 30 days.
One of the methods that I was imagining using del.icio.us for was to dump articles that I didn't have the time nor the brainpower to understand, so that my esteemed colleages could summarize stuff for me at lunch the next day. But because of the permanence of del.icio.us, it has started to behave much more like a linkblog, where I need to determine the content worthy before posting it.
Long story short, I am going to post the zillions of articles that are jamming up my feedreader tabs to <a href="http://listmixer.com/list?acct_id=1045">my ListMixer</a>, and I wrote this <a href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/dumpOpenTabsToListMixer.applescript">little script that automajically does so</a> (if your feedreader is <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">netNewsWire</a>). You will need to open up the script and enter in your user data, but it is not to hard to do. Enjoy!
If I could only remember what I wanted2006-02-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/02/23/if_i_could_only_remember_what_i_wantedI just finished up this track that I have been working on for a really long time, which is a departure frommy standard method of working. Normally I finish a song in less than a day with either a nap or a nights sleep in the middle. I also changed up my working methods just a little bit, completing this track entirely in reason, instead of using my demo copy of <a href="http://www.ableton.com/">live</a> to arrange.
<img align="middle" alt="face.jpg" id="image10" title="face.jpg" src="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/face.jpg" />
It is a bit of totally synthesized dark techno / downtempo stuff called <a id="p7" onmousedown="selectLink(7);" href="http://jonbro.tk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/if%20I%20could%20only%20remember%20what%20I%20wanted.mp3">If I could only remember what I wanted</a>. I hope you all enjoy it, I like it quite a bit and it is probably the closest to approaching the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A//www.monolake.de/&ei=SDr-Q7TYKaLMqQK0nKDwCQ&sig2=8stb_xYDIZP-ZZcXx0ZP5A">monolake</a> sound that I have been trying to achieve in my recent stuff. I came up with the title on a whim, but I think that it describes my a.d.d. pretty well.
f*ck the implications, lets blog!2006-02-21T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2006/02/21/fck_the_implications_lets_blog<p>I am rapidly approaching the <strong>second</strong> self imposed deadline in this <a href="http://partymode.org/posts/show/289">blogging competition/support group pact</a> that I have entered into with <a href="http://partymode.org/elipousson">eli</a> and <a href="http://partymode.org/billbernstein/">billy</a> (my friends and roommates from college and beyond). As such, I am going to throw down the gauntlet and just vomit out whatever random crap is necessary to get rolling. My <a href="http://respectk.blogspot.com/2005/10/short-story-about-techno.html">prior blog</a> was a moderate success, but it never got to where it was really supposed to. It may have been the presence of implied rules that were setup before the <a href="http://respectk.blogspot.com/2004/06/what-i-respectk.html">first post</a> was ever made.<br /><br />
After some friendly <a href="http://partymode.org/">groupblogging/shoutboarding</a> (for those who are interested, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20011203055904/http://www.hyouden.net/">the board it was conceptually based on</a>) that I have been doing with my friends, I am starting to feel more comforatable with just keeping this blog as YASOC (yet another stream of conciousness). A large part of the reason that I am starting this blog is due to <a href="http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2006/02/blogonomics_my.html#001430">internet</a> <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/9184?wlg=yes">pressure</a>. If nothing else it will give me another place to jam my half finished projects, and perhaps garner larger user tests than <a href="http://moneybagz.partymode.org/">my last project</a> which had a test group of one.<br /><br />
There were some implied rules to the pact that I am not going to go into here, the important thing to take away from this post is that I have another feed that you may want to add into your feedreader. Unless you are one of the other people involved in the pact, in which case, I am letting you know that I am ignoring the implied rules from here on in.
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A short story about techno2005-10-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/10/31/a_short_story_about_technoI remember the first time that I heard techno music. I was in the back seat of my parents car on the way to a family event at my grandmothers house in north carolina. Any car that I could tell a story about would be my parent's car, but that is a different story for a different night. The reason that we were traveling to north carolina was a christmas party. The objectives of one of the games at the party was to guess how late my family would be.<br /><br /> Because it was a christmas party we were packed in the car with all kinds of gifts. Part of the journey had been spent with the lights on, because we needed the light to wrap the presents with. When the radio started playing techno the lights were off. It might not have been techno, it could have just been an electronic phenomena, waves canceling out waves. There was a beat there, and I begged my parents to leave it on.<br /> <br /> I remember the beats going on forever, my parents would change the station and I would ask them to change it back, and the clicking would still be there. My mother claimed that the sound was designed to induce a trance, that perhaps it was used in cults to brainwash people. I listened as long as I could. I wanted to hear the beat change.
c.j.t (2 of 6) - dumpsters and donuts2005-09-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/09/16/cjt_2_of_6_dumpsters_and_donutslast night I went with my roommate billy to get rid of a trashcan that the garbage men had not been emptying. The cops rolled up just as we were tipping it into the dumpster outside of his office and informed us that we were "stealing services". Later on, while coming home from the bar, I decided I wanted some donuts. the store that I went to had those same cops in it! I said, "do you have any donuts?", and the attendent said "you will have to wait until 4 or 5 am"
c.j.t (1 of 6)2005-09-15T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/09/15/cjt_1_of_6today I went through the motions of the first drunken conversation that I generally have with a person. family mental health history, drug usage, big plans. I suppose that it always ends up at the big plans stage.
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<br />(1) Today I went out for a coupla' drinks with my boss, and we ended up talking about the basics...
<br />(2) or at least I did, covered the mental health of my family, my drug use family, and my large plans.
<br />(3) [me sitting with my 3rd glass of beer (dark)]
<br />(4) she offered me to trade a painting for theknowledgeoftheweb.
<br />(5) I told her about my emo ass comics...
<br />(6) ...
big old idea hole update2005-08-28T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/08/28/big_old_idea_hole_updateactual bell attachements for cell phones.
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<br />we are the hell raisers of our generation, locking ourselves inside with our second personalities, doing nothing but gibbbing and fragging until we can't keep our eyes open anymore.
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<br />channel101 vs. em411 to create a sort of online version of mtv, one which is more open
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<br />can we use our dining room as a screening room?
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<br />the bronx equivilent of stephen hawking is like the way kids talk to each other on aim today.
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<br />getElementByClass() needs to be written. I know it can. I just need to write it.
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<br />we need a way to bankrupt the search engine spammers, those people that make the first 30 links on any particular subject totally worthless. I think just bots that click a ton on ads on sites that we like, then our friendly sites get the money, the spammers don't see any conversions off of ad clicks, done.
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<br />battery powered hand warmer, willing to recharge once every 16 hours, 60 to 90 seconds, every 15 minutes. credit to amelia
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<br />today I went to cvs, bought a can of iced tea, a bottle of tylenol with arthritis medication, and a wrist splint. I am slowly joining the cyborg legion.
on time.2005-08-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/08/19/on_timeshowed up to work today at 9:30 am, rode my bike in while drinking hot coffee out of a paper cup.
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<br />The orentation for the management school masters is occuring in the lobby and they have quite a spread, coffee, donuts, bagels, the works.
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<br />have to stay tonight until at least 7.
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<br />I am dressed like a clown. TGIF.
A little less conversation and a little more philosophical voyeurism (kottke.org)2005-08-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/08/16/a_little_less_conversation_and_a_little_more_philosophical_voyeurism_kottkeorgWhat Kottke hosted wasn't a conversation at all. It was nearly 80 people carrying on their own conversations with themselves while others watched. That's not a conversation -- that's philosophical voyeurism spiced with a hint of insanity.
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<br /><a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/08/not-conversation">A little less conversation and a little more philosophical voyeurism (kottke.org)</a>
idea hole 4k2005-08-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/08/13/idea_hole_4kwhat if avatars had been called avatarts? what if?
chreck - Google Search2005-07-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/30/chreck_google_search_another one for the idea pit...
<br />A camera on the outside of your closet door that records what you are wearing everyday coupled with a simple sorting program that allows you to easily build statistics on the clothing that you are wearing every day.
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<br />I am realizing how necessary this is as I fill yet another garbage bag with clothing during my moving process.
Anil Dash - How Do We Judge Our Tools?2005-07-28T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/28/anil_dash_how_do_we_judge_our_toolsOne for the idea hole:
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<br />As I was reading today about web applications, I noticed that one of the main complaints is that they are inherintaly unstable. This is due to the fact that the application exists entirly on someone elses server. I propose that some developer creates tools that will allow users to easily host their own version on their home computer, with total database backup of at least their own files.
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<br />It would need to be a one step process, and then the whole web 2.0 concept may really start taking off.
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<br />this is the article that I was reading. <a href="http://www.dashes.com/anil/2005/07/27/how_do_we_judge">Anil Dash: How Do We Judge Our Tools?</a>
Comics Web2005-07-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/19/comics_show<a href="http://comics.jonbro.tk/comics/show/1">Comics.jonbro.tk</a> is now up!!!
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<br />have a phun!
an album that I should find.2005-07-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/18/an_album_that_i_should_findraw like sushi
dude, there's a hand on your face...2005-07-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/13/dude_theres_a_hand_on_your_face<a href="http://andrew.cmu.edu/~afriedla/">this is aurelia...</a>
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<br />totally not helping your google rank at all. good luck making it to the top sister.;
Rails Cookbook | Hieraki2005-07-07T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/07/rails_cookbook_hieraki<a href="http://manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/chapter/48">Rails Cookbook | Hieraki</a>
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<br />this is the last tutorial that I will need to do for rails... I hope :)
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<br />then it is OFF TO THE RACES!
handface Index2005-07-07T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/07/07/handface_index<a href="http://handface.forumsplace.com/">handface :: Index</a>
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<br />OK< I lovadubadubadub...
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<br />see everyone on monday/tuesday/wednesday.
another comic2005-06-28T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/28/another_comic<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/22087832/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://photos17.flickr.com/22087832_dfaa9d2b1a_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="ivdrip" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/22087832/">ivdrip</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/45421817@N00/">jonbro</a>. </span></div>one last one before I go to sleep.<br clear="all" />
vermontmousetrap2005-06-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/27/vermontmousetrap<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/22057858/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://photos16.flickr.com/22057858_c52272d813_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="vermontmousetrap" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/22057858/">vermontmousetrap</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/45421817@N00/">jonbro</a>. </span></div>Today I discovered that our house had a mouse in it. Sadly, we do not have any mousetraps, and when I was talking about my roommates about it (while watching the daily show) <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/blog/DaveYoung">dave</a> suggested that we build the mousetrap illustrated here. <br /><br />He then suggested that we put a webcam on the thing so that we can record the workings of the vermont mousetrap.<br clear="all" />
Help with the redesign2005-06-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/27/help_with_the_redesignI just started working on the redesign this afternoon, and I would like to just have a little fun contribution session.<br /><br />If any of our multitude of readers (that is you yann) could write some one liners describing what this blog is or why you read it, I will include it in the redesign. It is totally like a magazine contest, except instead of getting moderately excited about winning, you will get a similar feeling to when you toss a bum a quarter on a street corner.<br /><br />some ideas to get you started:<br /><br />why read if it isn't the deep thoughts of a hot cam girl?<br />for your consideration: a link that I found on someones personal diary<br />we are all friends here. OR SO THEY THOUGHT. a new movie from jerry bruckhimer.<br />if you think you can't write or have nothing to say... check THIS out<br />aweblogbysomepeoplethatyoumayknoworenjoythecompanyof<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">anyways</span>... just drop them in the comments section.<br />and hold onto your pants for the upcoming redesign. it is gonna be a<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> scorcher.</span>
Boffins create zombie dogs | The Other Side | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (27-06-2005)2005-06-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/27/boffins_create_zombie_dogs_the_other_side_breaking_news_247_newscomau_27062005<a href="http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15739502-13762,00.html">Boffins create zombie dogs</a>
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<br />well the last one may have been a lie, but check this out! done right in our town no less.
<br /><a href="http://www.safar.pitt.edu/">Safar Center for Resuscitation Research</a>
Flag On The Moon - Writing down ideas2005-06-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/26/flag_on_the_moon_writing_down_ideasJack Masters has some comments about how he records his ideas. This blog is getting more and more interesting every time there is a post to it. I like it because it is surreal enough to be humorus but feels very genuine at the same time.
<br /><a href="http://flagonthemoon.blogspot.com/2005/06/writing-down-ideas.html">Flag On The Moon: Writing down ideas</a>
almost happy one year old2005-06-20T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/20/almost_happy_one_year_oldI was filling out this survey from mit about weblogs, and I noticed that this one is quickly approaching its 1st birthday!!! happy birthday!<br /><br />I don't yet know what I am going to do to celebrate. Maybe give it a new name and purpose in life? maybe post everyday for the next week?<br /><br />I wish that I could buy it a present, like a new host or something like that. I don't know if I can afford that though.<br /><br />perhaps I will make it something... like a redesign?<br /><br />and because weblogs need <a href="http://www.kidsparties.com/traditions.htm">links</a>.
surfinglessons2005-06-17T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/17/surfinglessons<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/19911189/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://photos14.flickr.com/19911189_8ed4416ed2_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="surfinglessons" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/19911189/">surfinglessons</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/45421817@N00/">jonbro</a>. </span></div>a comic that I wrote on the plane home from my vacation.<br clear="all" />
anarchaic unix problems2005-06-17T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/17/anarchaic_unix_problemsI am getting really pissed off at the fact that if I want to run my own server with web applications that I can access from anywhere I have to deal with innumerable problems. I don't mind the scripting, ruby and php and perl are all running fine, the problem that is really starting to piss me off is the fact that mySql is totally getting all up in my junx.<br /><br />should an application that appears to be 30+ years old really not have comprehensive help out there? perhaps it is the fact that I don't really know why I am having the problems that I am having.<br /><br />I guess there will always be a place in the world for people that are willing to bang their heads against these types of problems until they get a breakthrough.<br /><br />(the current problem that I am bashing my poor head against is <a href="http://www.mp3act.net/">mp3act</a>)
Boing Boing - Patent-leather thigh holster for cellphones2005-06-10T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/06/10/boing_boing_patentleather_thigh_holster_for_cellphones<a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/09/patentleather_thigh_.html">Boing Boing: Patent-leather thigh holster for cellphones</a>
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<br />are any women going to seriously wear this? I think it is hot, and I bet the guy that thought it up thinks the same.
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<br />but it really looks like some gun fetish comic book wear.
VGMix.com - About2005-05-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/27/vgmixcom_aboutA forum / release system that runs on the same type of principals that guide a MMORPG seems like it may be a nice way to develop content for a print journal mayhaps? I have never played a mmorpg, except for about 5 minutes of the beta version of ultima online, so perhaps something like this would only work for systems that expect a ton of people to participate.
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<br />about half way down the page, under THE VGMIX RPG STAT SYSTEM
<br /><a href="http://www.vgmix.com/about.php?about_id=1">VGMix.com - About</a>
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Flag On The Moon - How to get out of bed2005-05-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/27/flag_on_the_moon_how_to_get_out_of_bed<a href="http://flagonthemoon.blogspot.com/2005/05/how-to-get-out-of-bed.html">Flag On The Moon: How to get out of bed</a>
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<br />jack masters, an online artist and posible internet crazy person has a solution for how to get out of a bed in the morning.
EM411.com - [mixit_user] - Electronic Music 4112005-05-24T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/24/em411com_mixit_user_electronic_music_411a new release over on em411.
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<br /><a href="http://www.em411.com/show/mixit_user/634">EM411.com - [mixit_user] - Electronic Music 411</a>
beingproductive2005-05-24T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/24/beingproductive<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/15415634/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://photos13.flickr.com/15415634_26a18882ab_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="beingproductive" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/15415634/">beingproductive</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/45421817@N00/">jonbro</a>. </span></div>a comic for everyone.<br /><br />I find it is much easier to write this way than to write the comic before hand and write the pictures after way. <br /><br />or at least I get results that I am happy with.<br clear="all" />
respec.tk2005-05-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/19/respectk<a href="http://respectk.blogspot.com/">respec.tk</a>
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<br />I am wondering what to do with it. I know for a fact that it is high time that I buy my own webspace... in fact, after paying my rent, that is what I am going to do with my next paycheck.
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<br />if anyone has ideas about what this space could become, how to make it more useful / provocative / fun, please let me know. I want pie in the sky ideas people. really. let me know.
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<br />ok, peace out everybody, see you soon.
2005-05-132005-05-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/13/20050513The Unicorns say:<br /><br />'Look at the ants on the floor<br />They work real hard<br />lifting three times their mass<br />and sometimes more'
Caleb Carruth.COM2005-05-06T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/06/caleb_carruthcom<a href="http://www.calebcarruth.com/blogmeblogyou/2005/04/i-have-ignored-you-for-too-long.html">Caleb Carruth.COM</a>
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<br />All the cool people are moving to frisco, TX. apparently.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Cambodian troops Quarantine Quan'su2005-05-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/02/bbc_news_south_asia_cambodian_troops_quarantine_quansu<a href="http://65.127.124.62/south_asia/4483241.stm.htm">BBC NEWS | South Asia | Cambodian troops Quarantine Quan'su</a>: "Cambodian officials say that the outbreak has been contained and the public has no need to worry."
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<br />oh, just another zombie outbreak, no need to worry.
Two Items.2005-05-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/05/01/two_itemsI have had a similar reaction to two seperate and wildly different pieces of media that I managed to consume over that past 24 hours. The first piece of media was this bizzaro anime that is showing on cartoon network called <a href="http://www.absoluteanime.com/one_piece/">one piece</a>. Really what set me off about this animation was the opening, which laid out the plot as a boy trying to find the treasure of the king of the pirates. This opening also explained that the kid had super powers, and was done in a really shoddy pop - hip - hop style.<br /><br />I think I am outgrowing this stuff. Not even ghost in the shell excites me anymore.<br /><br />Something that I found today, however, made me super excited and happy. That is the booty bass that is coming out of the favelas in rio and sao palo brazil... This stuff is not that great, in fact it kinda reminds me of early 90s radio techno... but dang!!! it is fucking RAW!!! you can hear that this stuff was produced on no budget at all. The low fi samplers, the noise in the mics. It is SOOOO FUCKING GOOD. You can hear people having fun, and I don't hear that too much in the music that I listen to.<br /><br /><a href="http://evil-wire.org/%7Eampere/mp3/funky">a big collection of albums (in mp3 form) here.</a>
Bill Moggridge lecture at Carnegie Mellon University2005-04-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/25/bill_moggridge_lecture_at_carnegie_mellon_universityI only started about 20 minutes in, but here are my lecture notes from the IDEO lecture at CMU school of design.<br /><br />The thrust of the lecture was to get people to sign up for jobs at IDEO. An interesting lecture, but not really all that great, I guess not that surprising considering that it is a giant company.<br /><br />the one thing that I really wanted to know was if their designers came up with product sectors outside of the Zero-20 group (the toy designers). I feel like that would be a nice place for me to work, that is creating sweet ass product concepts for companies that don't even have an idea, just piles of money and engineers in the hallways and conference rooms.<br /><br />Also, I just stabbed live-blogging in the face. It is totally dead.<br /><br />YOUR LECTURE NOTES FOLLOW.<br />===========================================================================<br /><br />second section: prototyping...<br /><br />the have prototyping labs where you send your cad/cam models(traditional)<br />Experience Prototyping<br />we need a new way of creating things when we work with people, not just create things for them<br /><br />how to prototype an underwater camera<br /> spyfish (H2I)<br /> interaction design problem (HUD)<br /> Started as a game, control a person in a conference room holding a video camera, has a monitor outside to transfer the instructions in.<br /> team of 6 people to understand the problem (with out actually creating anything.<br /> <br />how to prototype a digital camera interface<br /> kodak built an experience prototype (big clunky, big display, large buttons, clearly a prototype)<br /> included all of their interface concepts.<br /> following this, IDEO made system concepts.<br /><br />most difficult prototype...<br /> for a museum piece dealing with how peoples workspaces look.<br /> created a personal sky cubicle, sit in a chair, pick up the phone and choose the sky that you wanted over your head.<br /> the chair would store an image of the back of your shirt and display it on the chair. <br /><br />make your product video like the product is actually being sold, except remember that you can make it as long as you want.<br /><br />also, sometimes don't do that, when the idea is "pie in the sky"<br /><br />also, prototypes can be crappy (like made out of trash), just as long as you have the potential users sitting around with you.<br /><br />SERVICE DESIGN::<br />experience prototype for a company without even a product.<br /><br />use existing products, and heavily show what the users will actually be doing.<br />(no voiceover)<br />show an entire story (resolve?) serveral uses of the service, even if identical different connotations<br /><br />WHORE! (it was just CBS was being really nice to them)<br /><br />KINda creepy video about hiring process, where each canidate is in a seperate room, and they are on CC video, one of the canidates decides to drink coke, and is forcibly ejected from the building.
winning the google game2005-04-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/23/winning_the_google_game<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=brodsky&hl=en&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&start=30&sa=N">I am number 36</a>...<br /><br />my eventual goal is to beat <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Brodsky">Joseph Brodsky</a>, and I figure that I can do it considering I use the internet quite a bit more than he does.<br /><br />I think that the first step is for someone to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Brodsky&action=edit">write an article about me</a> for wikipedia.<br /><br />come on you aspiring biographers, I know you are out there!!!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">UPDATE:<br /><br /></span>Actually, wait a second. Don't do that. Apparently wikipedia frowns upon people being promoted by using their system. I think that raising a google ranking is probably a pretty good example of promotion.
Strange internet happenings2005-04-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/22/strange_internet_happeningstonight I just discovered a phantom post. I assume that my readers already know about <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a> (but in case you don't, it is a nice method of increasing your short term memory, or maybe not; read on faithful reader) but anyways, I went to my list tonight and discovered something that I have no memory of linking to. I would like to think that it was some voodoo demons that got inside my compy while my internet access was spotty earlier tonight, but I know that gibsonesque fatasies like that are probably a little far fetched.<br /><br />even better would be some epic 2014 type stuff (you know, <a href="http://epic.chalksidewalk.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">link</span></a>, custom tailored news to the point where the recipient is so happy about the content that they no longer care about the source.)<br /><br />the most likely scenario is that I just linked it myself and forgot about it. Maybe this is some type of del.icio.us critical mass (I have been trying to reach it recently by posting every little thing that I find even remotely interesting). The contents of the post are this <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.olafval.de/mignon/english/index.htm">link</a>... and the word AWESOME!!!<br /><br />and that it is. a really cool project that I think I would care about if I were to read the site, but I guess because I have it linked I will just do that later.<br /><br />:)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">UPDATE: <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Apparently I was logged into a school computer and eli clicked the "post to delicious" link on it, and it happend to be something that I was interested in. No grand conspiracy. maybe next time.</span><br /></span>
long tail delicious exploit2005-04-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/22/long_tail_delicious_exploitContinuing the thread of ideas that I might be able to develop is an extension for delicious.<br /><br />I think that one of the major missing features is the ability to grab stuff that existed in the long tail realm. The only current solution for this is to constantly scrub the links of people that you cared about, or to just find the websites on your own.<br /><br /> It would be a "kind of popular" tag, which would grab the links that had only been posted by 7 other people. Once a page had been deemed worth the time of seven, than it would be passed on to me only if it met one other condition, which is that it got no more links to it for the next three days (to lower meme passthrough potential).<br /><br />Another way to solve the problem would be to check for tags that only had a very low number of posts to them (under 50) yet were crossposted with things that you cared about.<br /><br /><br />links to come.
REGARDING alarm clock.2005-04-20T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/20/re_alarm_clockmy dad sent me this response to my alarm clock idea... I think that it is a good one.<br /><blockquote><br />Actually the solution to the alarm clock problem is to have it shut off only by a key that is in the class room where the first class to be attended is. The Alarm Clock should be attached to the student permanently (Handcuffs or the equivalent). That will insure that the student gets to class on time. Alarm ringing all the way to class. Well Actually chaining the shut off key outside the dormitory door or somewhere down the street may be equally as effective. But I can imagine that some students might show up at class in pajamas, turn off the alarm clock,and then return home to sleep.</blockquote>BRILLIANT!
difficultclock2005-04-20T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/20/difficultclock<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/10147020/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://photos7.flickr.com/10147020_7eea192f72_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="difficultclock" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/10147020/">difficultclock</a>,<br />originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/45421817@N00/">jonbro</a>. </span></div>a picture of the difficult clock for those that need a visual help.<br /><br />click on the image for a larger version
Difficult Alarm Clock2005-04-20T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/20/difficult_alarm_clock<span style="font-weight: bold;">So, here is my next idea.</span><br /><br />I have been talking this one over with my roommate Billy b for a few weeks now, and I think that I am starting to approach something that may be a 1) feasible 2) useful and 3) pleasing product.<br /><br />basically the problem that Billy (and I, and I am sure many college students have), is that we are programmed to shut off the alarm clock and go back to sleep. Many days I have woke up and noticed that my class started 2 hours ago, and although I remember setting my alarm to wake up for it, I have no memory of turning it off.<br /><br />so there are several solutions to this problem both on the market and in the conceptual phase. The first one is an actual product called the <a href="https://wx15.registeredsite.com/user1041215/default.aspx">sleeptracker</a> waits for a light rem cycle to wake you. This is a supremely awesome product that takes into account the human body but I believe that it has two failings for the college market. 1) it costs too much and 2) I have a sneaking suspicion that its "off" button is just as easy to operate as the standard alarm clock. I think that we need a more brute force method of getting up, something that really forces our focus.<br /><br />So what I propose is an alarm clock that is exceedingly difficult to operate. There are a few student projects (<span style="font-style: italic;">read: vaporware</span>) that take this route.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/004283.php">Sfera</a> moves away from you as you tap it to gain more sleep time. It seems that the way to turn it off is just to pull it back down to the bed. I think that this would be just a little too easy for someone as sleep deprived as our target user.<br /><br /><a href="http://bicillin.media.mit.edu/clocky/index.html">Clocky</a> is an alarm clock that runs away from you after you hit the snooze button. I think that the challenges of building an AI system that could navigate the clothing filled wasteland that is the average college students bedroom take this one out of the running pretty quick.<br /><br />This one is getting there... and it is in production too.<br />the<a href="http://www.latestbuy.com.au/kuku_clock_gadget.html"> KuKu Clock</a> is an alarm that has a payload of 5 eggs that it releases upon alarm activation. To turn the alarm off, the user must replace the eggs. The only failings that I see with this design are losing all of the eggs (and not being able to turn it off) and the build quality making it extremely easy to smash (and turn off permanently).<br /><br />So my solution?<br /><br />Make an alarm clock that displays a randomly chosen integer and force you to type it back in. The cool part would be if the keypad changed its layout <span style="font-style: italic;">after every button press</span>. Have the display for the time and initial number string be cheap seven segment displays, and the entry key pad be seven segment displays with buttons underneath them.<br /><br />Wrap the whole thing in glavanized steel, and have it run off of a lantern battery that was held in with plate that was screwed in at 4 points. Even better a solenoid that ran off a separate supply that required a code to release the battery plate.<br /><br />I think that the logic for such a system would be pretty easy to produce on a 10 dollar basic stamp, and the rest of the components (at least for a prototype module) would run in the 70 dollar range.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Other Links about alarm clocks<br /></span><a href="http://futurewire.blogspot.com/2004/07/building-better-alarm-clock.html">building a better alarm clock</a> seems to think that alarms are good enough, but there is not enough home system integration, and also, it doesn't read your rss feeds to you.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/004300.php">another non-production model</a> that simply requires a squeeze of a teddy bear to snooze. These people have clearly not been pulling enough all nighters.<br /><br />This is a <a href="http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2005/03/25/snooze/">collection of clever alarm clocks</a> including a few that I have linked to, and some that I have not. Included for the sake of total completeness of this post.
Surveillance kites2005-04-15T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/15/surveillance_kitesMe and Eli have been talking recently about a project that is quite interesting to me, mounting a wireless surveillance camera on a kite and having it publish a live arial feed to a website (presumably, to offer arial surviellance to groups that could not afford it prior). So the main issue that we are dealing with now is the need for a low cost source of web cameras, with embedded webservers and 802.11x (or other alternatives). I was initially not sold on the plan of using a kite, because a balloon would offer a much more stable platform for the camera, but I am starting to realize that the cost of a weather ballon would be far to high, and the reasons for having a kite are stronger than just aesthetic, although aesthetic reasons are quite high.<br /><br />anyways, here are some links of related projects, interesting technology and so on...<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/kite.cam">del.icio.us tag kite.cam</a><br /><br />feel free to contribute.
an email to my dad2005-04-06T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/04/06/an_email_to_my_dadI wrote this email to my dad yesterday.<br /><br />you may be interested in it...<br /><br />Remember how we were looking at those head mountable displays for<br />virtual reality a few years ago? I seem to recall that they were a<br />little too expensive for a weekend project, but I ran across something<br />a few days ago, and realized that it may be applicable...<br /><br /><i><a href="http://www.ladyada.net/make/gamegrrl/index.html">link</a></i><br /><br />the project that she is using it for is not really the same at all,<br />but if you check out the ebay search for the screen that she<br />reccomends, it is only 17 dollars!!! (10 dollars less than the price<br />she quotes on her page)...<br /><br /><i><a href="http://search.ebay.com/hip-gear-screen-pad">link</a></i><br /><br />I think that it takes a standard composite video input as well.<br /><br />even if you were not going to build a wearable computer, or a head<br />mounted display, that is unbelivably cheap for a backlit lcd screen.<br /><br />maybe nice for a little cpu monitor / email alert / secondary monitor<br />for your desktop?<br /><br />(although, that virtual reality stuff is still super cool, and I think<br />it is getting daily closer to being way affordable)<br /><br />I think that the optics and the enclosure are still probably huge<br />hidden costs. I know that accelerometers are really cheap now.<br /><i><a href="http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,,ADXL202,00.htm">link</a></i> , need two placed at<br />right angles for 3 axis tracking, plus it is good enough for autopilot<br />for helicopters (model ones at least)<br /><i><a href="http://autopilot.sourceforge.net/accel.html">link</a></i><br /><br />this is what reminded me.<br /><br /><i><a href="http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/scalar-corp-7gram-wearable-screen-038164.php">link</a></i>
nice.2005-03-31T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/03/31/niceit seems that <a href="http://www.bloglines.com">bloglines</a> has added a way that you can track your packages through it. niiice.
the webternet2005-03-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/03/29/the_webternetI have been dicking around on the webternet tonight (instead of finishing up this paper that I need to submit to a conference tomorrow) and have been getting progressively more excited about <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.org/">ruby</a>. I know that tons of tutorials are not necessarily a mark of a good piece of software, but the ease that they demonstrate just makes me want to learn, learn, LEARN!!! it also seems that this piece of software is running quite a few of my favorite web applications, and personally, I really don't want to learn php (it seems ugly, just leaving all that code sitting inside of every page). <br /><br />I also really want to develop that web comic thing that I talked about earlier, and this may just be the perfect platform.
some things are italicized2005-03-22T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/03/22/some_things_are_italicizedElijahsays:<i> now lets change the topic to the usefulness of italics</i><br />Allansays:<i> Italics are useful to emphasize single words or to give whole sentences newfound authority.</i><br /><br />Also here is a segment on Lactic Acid from our beloved wikipedia:<br /><br />This lactic acid fermentation occurs in <a title="Red blood cell" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_blood_cell">red blood cells</a> since they don't have <a title="Mitochondria" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondria">mitochondria</a>, and in skeletal <a title="Muscle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle">muscle</a> during intense exertion when sufficient amounts of <a title="Oxygen" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen">oxygen</a> cannot be supplied fast enough. This lactate is released into the bloodstream. The typical lactate concentration in the blood is 1-2 <a title="Micro" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro">m</a><a title="Mol" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mol">mole</a>/<a title="Litre" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litre">L</a>. The <a title="Liver" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver">liver</a> takes up about 60% of the lactate and reoxidizes it to pyruvate, which is then reconverted to <a title="Glucose" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose">glucose</a> in a process known as <a title="Gluconeogenesis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis">gluconeogenesis</a>. The glucose enters the bloodstream and can be used by the tissues. This glucose → lactate → glucose cycle, originally described by <a title="Carl Cori" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Cori">Carl</a> and <a title="Gerty Cori" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerty_Cori">Gerty Cori</a>, is known as the Cori cycle. About 40% of the lactate is taken up by well oxygenated muscle cells and oxidized to pyruvate, which is then directly used to fuel the <a title="Citric acid cycle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle">citric acid cycle</a>.
2005-03-132005-03-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/03/13/20050313St. Augustine once said:<br /><i>I know not how I came into this, shall I call it a dying life or a living death?</i>
Cut My Voice On the Chorus2005-02-28T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/28/cut_my_voice_on_the_chorusI just finished watching an <a href="http://kembrew.com/documentaries/">ok documentary</a> on sampling and although 96% of it was old hat, right at the end, 3 artist suggested that it would be an honor for them to hear themselves over the chorus. So, I am gonna do that. I guess they would probably like it if I bought their albums, but I don't know if I am willing to go quite that far.<br /><br />wow, the post frequency has really gone down here.<br /><br />well, it was fun while it lasted wasn't it?
HIV vs. Cancer2005-02-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/18/hiv_vs_cancerI have been telling people about this all day. I think it is about the coolest thing that I have ever heard. <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=5921">So dope</a>. Essentially, HIV turns out to be a pretty good virus to use as a carrier for gene therapy. So some researchers are using it to fight cancer.<br /><br />Also, I made a little <a href="http://s5.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0KIXSCTRPTWWV2HR6QUUNBVC7U">music video</a>. It is part two in a series.<br /><br />Also, I would like to know if this posting method is working out for my readers. Should I do more of a one idea, one title thing? Or is this <span style="font-style: italic;">ALSO </span>method working out?<br /><br />respond in the comments section
Awesomeness2005-02-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/16/awesomeness<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment.<br />Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no<br />more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.</span><br /></div><br /><a href="http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=126649#121">link</a><br /><br />In other news, I told you so.
A barely annotated link, newssource, and art software politics2005-02-16T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/16/a_barely_annotated_link_newssource_and_art_software_politicsWarren Ellis, as one of my readers knows, and the other perhaps does not, has some interesting things to say about the future. He address the issue of where your jetpack is, and why we are not on mars yet with the following witty phrases.<br /><blockquote>People are disappointed with the future they’re living in. Since 2001, the refrain has gone up, louder year by year: “This is the future. Where’s my flying car? Where’s my fucking jet pack?” Pre-millennium, we were living in an unprecedented density of imagined futures, and we assumed it was all waiting for us around the corner. And here we are, around the corner, and none of it is standing here.</blockquote>well, acutally that block quote was totally worthless, but I assure you, the rest of the article is solid gold platinum, the only heavy metal worth dealing in.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.warrenellis.com/index.php?p=336"><span style="font-style: italic;">link</span></a><br /><br />Speaking of articles, I decided last night to become a contributer to the <a href="http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page">wikinews </a>project. I edited three drafts, and today they have come up on the front page (although they did not make it to the rss feed). I would love to just barely annotate this link, but I think that is in bad form, so let me let you in on what I think. I am not a newsreader by any measure, but I do enjoy finding out about interesting items in the news. I am not a newswriter either, but I do enjoy helping others find out about what is going on in the world. So therefore, wiki is for me, the one that does but doesn't.<br /><br />A third item that I would like to mention is that adobe software (specifically aftereffects) is really a pile of crap. Sorry, let me extrapolate that a little further... The aesthetic of much of the after effects work that I see is based heavily on the tool, a very plugin centric sort of game. The problem that I have is that the tool requires you to wait for a very long time to create these effects. Why can't it realtime render? Would that have been so hard? I have seen the effects that I am trying to create done in real time in video games, and at higher resolutions as well.<br /><br />I think that the reason that after effects does not render in real time is because adobe is in line with hardware manufacturers. Just an unsupported thought.
Holding it down2005-02-15T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/15/holding_it_downI would like to try a new method of posting that will hopefully create better posts for readers, and that will in turn make me happier about what I post to this blog. This method will be working on a post every day, but only posting every two days.<br /><br />I working on an animation right now (or should I say, I am trying to work on it, but this dang browser window is in my way) and while working on it, I am questioning myself about what it is worth and why I am doing it... I have yet to come up with an answer, other than, it is cool and maybe will help me get a job in the future.<br /><br />I also have finished up a little patch that controls audio playback based on how fast I play the drums, and it is a bit of a dope ass guitar solo type thing. I am going to make a music video for it tomorrow (or later tonight, perhaps, and post it on this blog).<br /><br />Sometimes I think that if I had worked a bit more on writing in school my writing in general would be better. What makes this writing bad? I think that perhaps it is both because I don't have enough questions, nor do I have enough answers, I just have a head full of globo-corporati caffine and a broken keyboard. This combination clearly results in some fustration, but I know you, fine reader (and friend) can deal with it.<br /><br />I would like someone to throw me a birthday party. I will provide links to all of my profiles on webbased personal services, if you would like. Really, what I am looking for is the opportunity for me and my friends to all drink ourselves into submission while listening to some good music. Ok, wait, I actually just want to have a dance party. I have some Dj friends. ok, lets make this happen. together we will stand strong, celebratory, with our fists held high in the air, sweat streaming off of our bodies, empty of all consciousness save for the fact that we remember that stupid post that we wrote on the internet (to our audience of 2) fantasizing about our party.<br /><br />also, I would like to have the type of mind that produces poorly formed thoughts suitable for printing on the back of japanese peoples t-shirts. There is something really good about the two words <a href="http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=fuzzy-robots.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2004-06-24">"fuzzy robot"</a>.
Vday.2005-02-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/13/vdayso, I did my week (was it two?) of blogging every day, and I think that I came up with a few good pieces of content, but it was really cutting into my time, and I could not keep up with it. I would like to do it again some week, but I am not really sure when.<br /><br />Zero Quality Control 2 is out now, and I have sold about half of the issues already. If you would like a copy, it is only a dollar, and I would be glad to accept your paypal payment (just make sure to include your address for shipping). I think I will release it on the web within the week, but you know, paper is cool!<br /><br /><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"><input src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but23.gif" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!" border="0" type="image"><br /><input name="encrypted" value="-----BEGIN PKCS7-----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-----END PKCS7----- " type="hidden"><br />I have been working a bit on a floppy disk album, which I hope will be about 10 songs and a music video. I think that most people are not using floppy disks anymore, but whatever. I will also release it on the internet simultaneously. It is quite the challange to fit a whole album on a floppy disk, but the methods remind me of the good old gameboy, so that is pretty exciting.<br /><br />I had a funny idea for a photoseries involving my webserver blowing up, after me hosting some delicious extension on it, but I don't have a digital camera. Hahaha, I remember those times when I tried to pass off the gameboy camera as a digital camera. oh, man, good times.<br /><br />Also, to contribute to the global metadata, I have <a href="http://www.fireland.com/box/000642.html">this link</a> for you today, connecting you to the always amusing Josh at fireland. He contributes some nice thoughts about where the web went, and coming from 2003 it is pretty insightful. Let me block quote a little for you, so that you can laugh along, and maybe even hit the hyperlink.<br /><blockquote>The weblog—and I’m using the original definition here, namely oft-updated annotated links—became the default personal site. I mean of course: it’s easy content. It’s like when you’re in the office kitchen trying to like maybe quietly enjoy a juice box for once and some guy comes in and starts reading the paper and saying <em>Can you believe that?</em> And: <em>What do you make of that?</em></blockquote><em></em>oh, man, this guy is smart. Feel free to peruse the rest of <a href="http://www.fireland.com/">his site</a>!<br /></form>
Tales from the Crypt2005-02-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/08/tales_from_the_cryptThis sounds cool:
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" >For those of you who have a car that can be unlocked
<br />by </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" >that remote button on your key ring: If you lock your</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" >
<br />keys in the car and the spare keys are home, and you
<br />don't have "OnStar," here's your answer to the
<br />problem:
<br />
<br />If someone has access to the spare remote at your
<br />home, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" >call them on your cell phone (or borrow one from</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" >
<br />someone if the cell phone is locked in the car too!)
<br />Hold your (or anyone's) cell phone about a foot from
<br />your car door and have the other person at your home
<br />press the unlock button, holding it near the phone on
<br />their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from
<br />having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no
<br />object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if
<br />you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for
<br />your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk, or
<br />have the "horn" signal go off, or whatever!)
<br />
<br />(Editor's Note * It works fine! We tried it out and it
<br />unlocked our car over a cell phone!) Distance doesn't
<br />seem to be a factor.
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>
<br /></span>
Not Quite Net.Label2005-02-08T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/08/not_quite_netlabelWhile watching a Cory Doctorow speach tonight on the web, I came up with a nice idea. He mentioned that asimov's science fiction magazine payed very small amounts to a very small percentage of the writers that submitted (i.e. the few writers that got published).
<br />
<br />So, what net.labels are able to pay artists for music that they host? I think that I could pony up a dollar per a release if I ran a net label. I guess what I am trying to say is that giving away hosting is not enough of an incentive for me to send music to other people to allow them to distribute. The net.labels are getting something out of it as well, right?
<br />
<br />also, how do you feel about this new text size? I like it.
Muzzik - Gangzta, Eskimo, Stuff by me.2005-02-05T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/05/muzzik_gangzta_eskimo_stuff_by_meso, I have been reading some stuff tonight about the death of dance (as in music that would be classified as such, not the movements). I know that most people don't care, but I think that it is pretty interesting that all these people grew up, or whateve. <a href="http://gutterbreakz.blogspot.com/2005/02/state-of-dance-music-ive-been-enjoying.html">Gutterbreakz</a> links to a few arguements and has some comments of his own...
<br /><blockquote>The thing about technologically-driven music is that, during those certain 'white heat' phases, it develops and mutates at such a ferocious rate that sometimes you feel that the original ideas didn't get a chance to be fully explored, as with Darkside Jungle. I spent nearly fifteen years telling anyone who would listen that the synthpop/futurist<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">*</span></span> period circa 1978-82 was ripe for fresh exploration...
<br />Yet when the revival actually began, I was horrified by the majority of it.</blockquote>As for myself, I am mostly interested with what the hell is happening in two places...
<br /><a href="http://gelandweave.blogspot.com/">Gangzta/krunk/hip-hop is dead and come back to life as a flesh eating zombie</a> and whatever the fuck "eskimo" is (<a href="http://stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1211">Grime/dubstep/NUSKOOL-UKG</a>). I like to think of whatever hiphop has mutated into is the most bizzare stuff to dance to. It is strange to see people dancing to tongue slap rythyms (snoop dogg - drop it like its hot).
<br />
<br />Eskimo it turns out, is not in fact music made for dancing to while wearing those silly eskimo looking jackets (although they can certainly dance to it), it is a track by a guy named Wiley (although according to some <a href="http://silverdollarcircle.blogspot.com/">sources,</a> it may be somebody elses track). I think that one of the things that I like most about all this grime stuff is what is written about it, but that may be because I don't have the inside perspective on the scene.
<br />
<br />I guess the best way to deal with it is just to start dropping some of these tracks the next time I am allowed to dj, and see how people deal with it. I think that it may just be too wierd.
<br />
<br />also, I was going to share some acid house that I have been writing, but I think I am just going to share the <a href="http://s12.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1DJ1ADY9NXFGP1IP72Q5G8EBME">eskimo track</a> instead.
<br />
birdyvsplane2005-02-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/03/birdyvsplane<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/4224902/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://photos4.flickr.com/4224902_62bb3bbcc3_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="birdyvsplane" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45421817@N00/4224902/">birdyvsplane</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/45421817@N00/">jonbro</a>. </span></div>This is a comic that will eventually end up in zero quality control issue two. I just want to remind everyone that submissions are still open (even though I am about half way done scanning what I have now, so you know, whatever). The format is going to be half of an 8.5 x 11 page so you know just drop them on me. The more the better...<br clear="all" />
2005-02-032005-02-03T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/03/20050203<img src="http://www.nga.gov/image/a0000e/a0000eb1.jpg" align="middle" height="390" width="317" />
<br />
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"> René Magritte's
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;" font=""> La condition humaine</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>
<br />linked from: <a href="http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=68966+0+none"> National Gallery of Art</a></span>
<br />
The computer as a door.2005-02-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/02/the_computer_as_a_door<blockquote></blockquote>I found this interesting article on the design constraints of social software. Right from the beginning it is fun...
<br /><blockquote><p> When we hear the word "software," most of us think of things like Word, Powerpoint, or Photoshop, tools for individual users. These tools treat the computer as a box, a self-contained environment in which the user does things. Much of the current literature and practice of software design -- feature requirements, UI design, usability testing -- targets the individual user, functioning in isolation. </p> <p> And yet, when we poll users about what they actually do with their computers, some form of social interaction always tops the list -- conversation, collaboration, playing games, and so on. The practice of software design is shot through with computer-as-box assumptions, while our actual behavior is closer to computer-as-door, treating the device as an entrance to a social space.</p></blockquote><p> </p>It goes on to describe and suggest social software art projects...
<br /> <blockquote><p> Jonah Brucker-Cohen's <a href="http://www.bumplist.net/">Bumplist</a> stands out as an experiment in experimenting the social aspect of mailing lists. Bumplist, whose motto is "an email community for the determined", is a mailing list for 6 people, which anyone can join. When the 7th user joins, the first is bumped and, if they want to be back on, must re-join, bumping the second user, ad infinitum. (As of this writing, Bumplist is at 87,414 subscribes and 81,796 re-subscribes.) Bumplist's goal is more polemic than practical; Brucker-Cohen describes it as a re-examination of the culture and rules of mailing lists. However, it is a vivid illustration of the ways simple changes to well-understood software can produce radically different social effects. </p> <p>You could easily imagine many such experiments. What would it take, for example, to design a mailing list that was flame-retardant? Once you stop regarding all users as isolated actors, a number of possibilities appear. You could institute induced lag, where, once a user contributed 5 posts in the space of an hour, a cumulative 10 minute delay would be added to each subsequent post. Every post would be delivered eventually, but it would retard the rapid-reply nature of flame wars, introducing a cooling off period for the most vociferous participants.
<br /></p><blockquote></blockquote><p></p> </blockquote> <p>This seems like a very interesting field of new media art, what I would like to see is projects that are slightly less text centered and take advantage of vocal buildups of social networks.
<br /></p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">via <a href="http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?best04">the best software essays of 2004</a></span>
<br /></p>
System specs, comics, ads---2005-02-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/02/system_specs_comics_adsTonight my mission is to write some system specs for a online collaborative comics writing system. I have been told that the right way to do it is in the <a href="http://www.uml.org/">Universal Modeling Language,</a> but after looking at the front page for a second, I think that project is bigger than tonight (although I find it interesting that you can write business models in UML). Tonight I am going to downgrade to just taking some notes...
<br />
<br />first, however, I have two announcements.
<br />1) Google ad words are gone... Apparently <a href="http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/">google</a> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/google_pr.html">is</a> <a href="http://www.google-watch.org/">evil</a>. In addition to that, the main goal of that little venture, to see specifics about the view logs, was not as successful as I thought it would be.
<br />2) Welcome to another friend, Eli. I think that he will be writing nice essays and helping the content of this site increase, and possibly make it a nice destination for links and that type of junx. Slightly related, my name is Jonathan Brodsky, and I will be working to make the site reflect that.
<br />
<br />WTF SYSTEM NOTES FOLLOW
<br />----------------------------------
<br />A system to allow collaboration in the WTF style (pioneered by myself and Josh Atlas in the Carnegie Mellon University Newspaper, the <a href="http://www.thetartan.org/">Tartan</a> [haha, that site is the result of a comic {not written by myself, Josh Atlas, or and of the contributors to this site}]). The WTF style is for creator A to draw a panel, then for creator B to provide the captions for that panel, and draw the next. This occurs until the comic is complete, either based on a predetermined panel number, or based on the paper size / number of drawings.
<br />An online system would allow for users to decide who they were going to work with and how long the completed comic would be (if in fact it was going to be completed at all). Average users would have thresholds for comics that would be displayed on them, based on completion percentage, contributing artists, and personal preference.
<br />The Basis of the system would be a page that showed the last completed panel of the comics that you were working on. Once you wrote a caption for it, you would have the opportunity to draw the next panel. Only once that panel was complete and submitted would it stay in the system.
<br />
<br />This system would allow comics artists to find others with styles, tastes, or humor, as well as improve their weak points in the comic writing duality. Of course you probably already knew that, because there are about 3 people that read this, and I write comics with all of them (except you elijah, but we can fix that).
<br />
Romancing2005-02-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/02/romancingSo, I know I should go to sleep, but I am puttering around the internet wondering what the hell is up with all this shit.
<br />
<br />First up, I don't think that the page rank system that google uses is really terrible. I just think that you should be able to do things like get the results in reverse order, or at random, or like flashcards. I also think that link ranking should somehow be based on the rank of what you link to, so that you could get search results that would run from <span style="font-style: italic;">links to respected </span>to <span style="font-style: italic;">links to disrespect</span> and then everywhere inbetween. This is clearly oversimplification, but I think that the real method of improving the problems with google is not taking away functionality or using subpar rating systems, but rather to develop new rating systems that take into account the fact that people really use this stuff.
<br />
<br />Second up, I can add your <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a> links to the side bar... Anybody in?
<br />
<br />Third, while googling my name, I discovered a strange thing, and that was my address came up with the second hit. This concerning fact was pointed out to me by Eli earlier tonight, and it makes me wonder what I can do about it. It also made me wonder who this person in first was, who is linking to them, and why they rate. I chalk it up to the fact that I have been using a pseudonym almost since the beginning of my service on the internet.
<br />
<br />Fourth, slightly further down the search results, I found this <a href="http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-1B3F-465773C2-3A4E20A2-prod3">disconcerting little album review</a> which I wrote near the beginning of my romance with the internet.
<br />
<br />notice the following...
<br /><blockquote></blockquote><span class="rkr"><blockquote>I have found that this music works best around middle-aged women, and people who just need to relax.</blockquote>and later on...</span>
<br /><blockquote><span class="rkr"> </span><span class="rkr"><b>Great Music to Play While:</b> Romancing </span></blockquote>uhhh, wtf?!?!?
<br />
<br />Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.epinions.com/user-jonbro/show_%7Econtent">my other reviews</a> on that site for a look into the life of an idiot 16 year old. The one regarding <a href="http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-3F1D-8B98A2F-39411C76-prod6">mission impossible 2</a> is possibly a high mark in the world of action movie criticism.
<br />
Rene Magritte is an artist2005-02-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/02/rene_magritte_is_an_artist<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>
<br />Corporate Lesson #2:
<br />A priest was driving along and saw a nun on the on the
<br />side of the road. He stopped and offered her a lift,
<br />which she accepted. She got in and crossed her legs,
<br />forcing her gown to open and reveal a lovely leg. The
<br />priest had a look and nearly had an accident.
<br />
<br />After regaining control of the car, he stealthily slid
<br />his hand up her leg. The nun looked at him and
<br />immediately said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The
<br />priest was flustered and apologized profusely. He
<br />forced himself to remove his hand. Changing gear, he
<br />let his hand slide up her leg again.
<br />
<br />The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
<br /> Once again, the priest apologized. "Sorry, Sister,
<br />but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the
<br />nun got out gave him a meaningful glance and went on
<br />her way.
<br />
<br />Upon his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to
<br />retrieve a bible and looked up Psalm 129. It Said "Go
<br />forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."
<br />
<br />Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in
<br />your job, you might miss a great opportunity.</span>
2005-02-022005-02-02T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/02/20050202<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/285/3367/640/Kkj0.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/285/3367/320/Kkj0.jpg'></a><br />Link <a href="http://www.niitholeinthewall.com/"></a> The "Hole-in-the-wall" home<br />Link <a href="http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/india/connection.html"></a><br />PBS Reportage<br /><br />Here's the idea behind this computer device via PBS:<br /><br /><em>Mitra has some provocative ideas on the connection between learning and poverty. "Poverty has two different definitions," he tells me. "Poverty of information is one kind of poverty; poverty of materials is another kind of poverty. The same method may not apply to solve the two problems."<br /><br />Mitra observes that the developed world has spent billions of dollars over decades trying to solve the problem of "material poverty" with little success. He speculates that if the problem of "information poverty" is addressed instead -- by providing poor people with access to information they need and can use -- then the poor "might just figure out how to solve the problem of material poverty by themselves."</em><br /><br />Here's how the idea got turned into a computer kiosk:<br /><br /><em>Like many great ideas, Mitra's was essentially simple. He cut a hole in the boundary wall separating NIIT from the adjacent slum, put a high-speed computer connected to the Internet in the hole, and turned it on. </em><br /><br />I'm intrigued by the physical metaphor of a window, in reality a rear window into a tech company, for people who have not had opportunities to be involved in India's ongoing tech boom. I hope it works as planned but I have a feeling that setting someone loose on the internet without guidance is like dumping a lifeboat in the ocean without a compass. I think I'll write about this more after I think on it for a little while.
yellow birthday cake2005-02-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/01/yellow_birthday_cake[verse 1]
G Am Am G
last night I had some yellow birthday cake, it was protected by a friend until it got ate.
I am on a plan to gain some weight by the end of minute or at least eight.
Dm E Am
please tell me, mister what you got there.
can you spare a change to spare.
hey there, buddy, what choo selling,
break some off and make a killing.
[chorus]
Dm Em (Dm transposed 3) E A7
find your self another pathway...
this ones been taken for a walk.
find your self another hallmark...
this ones been taken around the block.
[verse 2]
let the record spin out and play, I doubt they were listening anyway.
speakerboxes on the sidewalks, remaindered visions from somebody elses thoughs.
say is that ok,
the rip off?
I will keep my voice low,
so nobody hears...
[chorus]
[bridge... aka verse with retared ass solo]
[chorus to fade out.]
I am an undercover monk2005-02-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/01/i_am_an_undercover_monkIn early january upon my return from Italy I was invited to partake in a seminar on my friend's island, located on the Potomac River opposite of Old Angler's Inn. I spent a solid three day weekend there discussing how to preserve an individual philosophy in a world of perverse intrusiveness. The head of the seminar, Ed Binns, was an educated man who started this group of <span style="font-style: italic;">Urban Coyotes</span>, as he likes to call them, so that we would be encouraged to consider this damn important question.
<br />
<br />It just so happens that I am pretty stubborn in my religious beliefs and he just as stubborn in his areligoius beliefs, so arguing with him was lots of fun. It seems, ironically, that taking a break from society brings you only closer to your fellow man. Anyhow I won't bore you kiddies with my old geezer stories (and by kiddies I mean Jonathan Brodsky), but I will be posting a few 'corporate parables' which Ed shared with us.
<br />
<br /> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif;" >Corporate Lesson #1:
<br />A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is
<br />finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings.
<br />After a few seconds of arguing over which one should
<br />go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up, quickly
<br />wraps herself up in a towel, and runs downstairs.
<br />When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the
<br />next-door neighbor. Before she could say a word, Bob
<br />says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel that you
<br />have on." After thinking for a moment, the woman
<br />drops her towel and stands totally naked in front of
<br />Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her 800 dollars
<br />and leaves.
<br />
<br />Confused, but excited about her good fortune, the
<br />woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back
<br />upstairs. When she gets back to the bathroom, her
<br />husband asks from the shower, "Who was that?? "It was
<br />Bob the next door neighbor," she replies.
<br />
<br />"Great!" the husband says, "Did he give you the $800
<br />he borrowed from me?"
<br />
<br />Moral of the story: If you share critical information
<br />pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders
<br />in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable
<br />exposure.</span>
<br />
2005-02-012005-02-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/02/01/20050201<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/285/3367/640/birdhouse4.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/285/3367/320/birdhouse4.jpg'></a><br />Link to birdhouses built into buildings by Ottoman Empire architects during the 16th-18th century.<br /><br />http://www.turkishculture.org/architecture/birdhouses.html<br />http://www.kulturturizm.gov.tr/portal/tarih_en.asp?belgeno=3990<br /><br />Folks might be interested in seeing how different cultures throughout history construct different relationships with non-human nature.Constructing these additions required that the architects think outside their own experience, imagining what a bird might desire including "runways for landing and take-off, and even balconies where the birds can venture out and survey their surroundings." Although the ornate decoration reflects the convention for human architecture of the time it seems that it was meant as a gesture of respect for the importance of birds within Turkish culture.<br /><br />I liked this poem from the site:<br /><br />Mehmet Zaman Sacliolus poem, Bird Houses;<br />The outer walls of houses should be bird houses<br />That take wing when children laugh.<br />Even if its winter outside,<br />The summer sun should rise inside the walls<br />And happiness will also warm the birds.
Difficulty with music software.2005-01-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/30/difficulty_with_music_software last night I spent about 3 hours on di phone with my sister, helping her ta get ableton live up and running. live is di argueably di easiest piece of music software ta use, and without a doubt one of di prettiest, but deh was many a snag along di way. most of these snags were hardware related (turned out, her sound card would work in one usb port and not di other) and I just had some audio hardware snags dis ya morning, so I am ready ta filp out on dis ya business.
<br />
<br />I was over at di radio station, doing my thing, and I thought ta myself, hmm, maybe I will play some mp3z off of my laptop. I hooked it up, and did so, but I got ta tell I and I, di signal ta noise ratio on my laptops headphone jack is horrendous. wa mek oh jah wa mek couldn't toshiba just have built in a bad soundcard or barring that, wa mek has one not made it ta di market in di sub 100 range that has quarter inch jacks on it. I have had it up ta yahso with eighth inch. it is really truely crap.
<br />
<br />also, last night, I thought ta myself...
<br />
0wnzed2005-01-30T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/30/0wnzedI added ads to this blog. partially so that I can make some kizzash, and also partially because I think that they will give me better page view statistics. so, to all those that think making money on the internets is cool, hook it up, post, and we will split the dividends. ok, peace out.
<br />
short check up2005-01-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/29/short_check_upso, it is really late, and I need to wake up in 6 hours to run a LARPG (google it) for little girls, but because of my strive to post every day, I am going to drop something on you that I should probably just send to del.icio.us (check it out) ummm, and maybe I won't even hypertext it correctly. ..
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.burncopy.com/cc/archives/2005/01/on_to_the_next.html">click!!!</a>
<br />
<br />it seems to be part of some mp3 giveaway artist type thing, which I hope to become one of. Also, I just had an idea tonight, to make music that sounds like that first time you listened to an album at 45 just because you could. you know, because you can't anymore, and that was really sweet.
<br />
<br />also, I am starting to find this thread, you may see it in the comments there on the link that I posted, but it is also going on over at gutterbreakz, about ghettotech music and how electronics are fitting into that. I walked into my room tonight and was presented with a large pile of gear (mostly electronic, some customized stuff, some normal instruments, about 50 pounds [maybe more] altogether), and I wondered, what would someone who knows music only from top 40 and garage bands think of this horrible pile of shit.
<br />I would like to think that I am somehow bridging the gap with my prosumer approach, but it may be that the studio that gave rise to the 80s sound has finally made it home, and if so, why the fuck are we still listening to music that sounds the same as the cutting edge did in the late 70s.
<br />As I write this however, I should point out that <a href="http://www.adaadat.com/artist.php?artist=11">I am listening to</a> videogame music that has been expertly remixed into easy listening/makeout music. So, you know, catch up with this shit people, and accept my piles of ghetto ass electronic gear.
<br />
Internals.2005-01-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/27/internalsso, I know it is not professional to tell you all about the internal workings of the site, but this pertains to all of you.
<br />
<br />I fixed the comments!!! you can now comment on posts, so, please, do so!!! I can't wait to see what other people have to say about my short rambling statements about nothing.
<br />
Catching up2005-01-27T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/27/catching_upI spent some quality mIRC time catching up with an old friend. Also, Jon, you've been blogging like a lumberjack man, props to <em>that shit</em>.
<br />
<br />* Now talking in #blah
<br />* Topic is 'It's as Anne as the nose on plain's face.'
<br />* Set by Allax on Mon Dec 06 18:41:14
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] dude there are some light notebooks coming out
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] this fujitsu p7000 is 3.3 lbs
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] and its 1.1 ghz mobile processor
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] its crazy
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] soon we'll have some cool shit
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] but batteries arent becoming any more powerful
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] so we are eating up more and more power exponentially
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] but not matching up with the energy resources
<br /><elijaoutsijah>[Elijaoutsijah] so lets see.. <elijaoutsijah>burnout... civilization.. in a couple of years? =)
<br /><allax>[Allax] I can't wait
<br /><allax>[Allax] Going back to nature will rock.
<br /><allax>[Allax] I'll probably die fast
<br /><allax>[Allax] But the little time I have to enjoy nature would rock.
<br />
music that sounds like2005-01-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/26/music_that_sounds_likeWhen squarepusher was just learning to play the bass, and his friend came over with a harmonica, and then they built a robot drummer, but was made mostly out of a car that they had stolen earlier that week, so the snare drum never sounded quite right.
<br />
<br />the guy with the harmonica said, "hey, lets go to the liquor store and buy some 40s" but on his way through the front door he was shot, so squarepusher jammed the harmonica in his mouth while he was breathing his last breaths.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://s89783635.onlinehome.us/respectk/jonbro_trickery.mp3">this track</a> was recorded directly to the 911 emergency recording system.
<br />
Rules.2005-01-25T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/25/rules1. Don't post every day if you don't have something to say, it just cheapens the whole mess of words that are up here.
<br />2. If you don't have something good to say, make up some litigous statements, or something that you can spend more time commenting on.
<br />3. While adding to the metadata of the web is nice, it is also necessary if you are a poor writer.
<br />4. Only post links to songs if you can provide full length high quality mp3 or at least something by the same artist that sounds similar, or an artist with a similar sounding name.
<br />5. Having something better to do is no excuse for not posting.
<br />
<br />GOD I HATE WRITING!!! OMG! F.
<br />
<br />also, I have been commenting alot over on <a href="http://gutterbreakz.blogspot.com/">gutterbreakz</a>, so feel free to hit that up, and read what I have to say there.
comics2005-01-24T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/24/comicshey I know I am posting twice in one day, but I couldn't resist.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://toothpastefordinner.com/011905/christmas-cropping.gif">the funny.</a>
A few thoughts and possible directions2005-01-24T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/24/a_few_thoughts_and_possible_directionsToday as I was walking from my house to WRCT [my radio station] I realized the reason that I chose to study design was not from any super starz or books, but rather because I really liked <a href="http://www.hyperreal.org/raves/database/gallery/index.html">rave flyers.</a> well, I got to tell you, that was the most bomb ass decision that I ever made, because now I still have the opportunity to find a super star to inspire me. The thought that triggered this thought was about my uncle, who was supposedly inspired to become a doctor by reading a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553275801/qid=1106602626/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_8_3/202-6107618-7683864">"the lives of a cell".</a>
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<br />on a different note, I think that this blog may look like a live journal for a second now, because I will be posting daily. I think I may do some work on the backend of the site that is running on the server that I have managed to keep up for the past week, and then migrate my post from this blog, and a blog that I was working on about 3 year ago over to that box.
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<br />on yet another note, it seems like css is a bomb wild thing to do. so, maybe I will learn a little bit by hax0ring up a <a href="http://www.csszengarden.com/">css zen garden.</a>
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<br />well, that was some dumb writing, but my method at getting better at anything is just to practice everyday.
labelz2005-01-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/23/labelzI have been trying to resist posting this because it would almost make this feed seem as if it had a life, but I really can't resist.
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<br />my first ever interweb label release is out on <a href="http://floppyswop.co.uk/">floppyswop</a>. I don't know if anyone is reading this blog, but if you are, please go download.
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<br />on a only slightly related note, I think that maybe the point of these things are to write as if no one else is reading for the maximum potential energy of the folksonomy/emergent intelligence of the net to form. Or maybe not, but that is a nice thought isn't it?
Art gallery attendent2005-01-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/23/art_gallery_attendentI am an employee at an art gallery that is on my college campus, and for the most part I enjoy my job quite a bit. The artists that come through here seem to be interesting enough, and the masters students shows are always good (the last one had a psychadelic water bed that I napped on occasionally).
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<br />The current show, however, seems to be something different, or at least worth writing a few words about. I am currently sitting on the third floor, in the midst of an exhibit by david robbins. The exhibit is a collection of work related to his "ice cream social" a collection of different pieces including a tv show, some poetry, a movie, some bowls, and other stuff. The book that describes his work explains it by saying that he is exploring the events of one night during which he hung a painting at a baskin robbins. While I like his repetition, I find that with so much work that he has supposedly put into this, the floor could be a bit more than two projections, a few refridgerators and some vinyl lettering (god, someone needs to ban that stuff. at least ban artists from using it.)
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<br />I like the mood that is established, but really, it seems like there could be just a bit more here.
Sleepers2005-01-06T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2005/01/06/sleepershey floks, we all know you sleep. You don't have to show it to us to drive the point home.
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<br />I got really angry watching <a href="http://chapambrose.com/interactiondesign/mediacontrol/scenariosmall.mov">this</a> because it reminded me that almost every product demonstration video that I have seen a design student make includes a section with them sleeping. some times the whole video is about them sleeping. unless the sleeping actually proves something, don't include it. I think that one of my major complaints is the fact that no one ever performs that well directly out of bed.
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<br />I wish I had more examples to show, but sadly I have not collected design demonstration videos.
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<br />On another note, the wakeup scene was used well in "ghost in the shell" but that was only because you were like, what the hell is a robot doing sleeping?!?!
Cleanser2005-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2005/01/01/Dealer!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/dealercover.jpg(Dealer)!
Released on Floppyswop, a netlabel for releases that fit on 1.44 meg floppys. I was getting into acid house at the time, and I think it shows. Also with a nice little pixely cover.
"Download zip":http://floppyswop.co.uk/files/songs/JonBro_Dealer-floppyswop--co--uk.zip from "floppyswop":http://floppyswop.co.uk/song.phpsomething?!?!?2004-12-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/12/01/somethingI wanted to write something, but I forgot. It was really cool, but then I forgot. I should have visited the website, and I didn't and I know why... because I went to sleep, because I went to sleep, because I went to sleep.
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<br />In all likelyhood, it was something about music or technology or writing. If I can remember it, I will come back, I promise.
Slava vishe Gospodi2004-11-18T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/11/18/slava_vishe_gospodiPraise God in the highest. He has granted us:
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<br /><strong>Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 17, @01:00PM
<br />from the creative-misapplication dept.</strong>
<br />parasew writes <em>"Nanoloop 2.0 for GameBoy Advance is Out! The GBA-Cartridge features a 8-voice Synthesizer an 8-Track Sequencer, a Song Editor and a HD-Recording Option, rendering the GBA one of the most cool digital gadgets for musicians that travel a lot. Extra-gear is a GameBoy-MIDI-Adapter and a Lowpass Filter Cable. Some Reviews of Nanoloop are available in the Web from samplepoolz, HarmonyCentral, nanoloop.de and a German one from Parasew. Demo sounds in MP3 format can be downloaded from the site." </em>
<br />-Slashdot.org
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<br />Forget graduate school; I am hitting up the school of portable 8-bit sequencing.
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<br />Also: I love you Jonathan Brodsky.
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portability and the bard2004-11-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/11/01/portability_and_the_bardI have had something floating just behind my third eye for a while now, something which formed there around the same time I started thinking about performing electronic music. Maybe it formed there even earlier, like when I rented a playstation from blockbuster and brought it home and played it all night. It could have been even earlier, like when I upgraded my gameboy to a gamegear because it had a tv adaptor (which I never bought).
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<br />What has been lying there is the bard, the busker, the soundsystem and how it relates to this 8 bit / lo-fi electronics music attack that is happening right now. I don't think it is about nostalgia or interesting sound, I think it is about the fact that an amiga or a gameboy or maybe even a C64 are much more prepared to be musical instruments than any electronic instruments have been in the past. I know that the groove box that I bought certainly was not meant to rock in my backpack and my laptop is missing keys and the power supplys are falling apart. But my gameboy was designed to put up with the same kids that strap m80s to the back of their gi-joes.
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<br />I am proposing that the live electronic music performance needs to evolve. It is not about the fact that watching someone behind their laptop is boring, it is about the fact that you know that there laptop is just barely going to make it to the end of the tour.
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<br />What should you do???
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<br />two words...
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<br />smart phones
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<br />thanks...
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<br />and long live the portable toy audio attack system.
nothing2004-10-23T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/10/23/This country = crazy
<br />But for every 'poop' there is a 'pop.'
<br />Kohina = solution
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<br />www.kohina.com
interesting2004-10-17T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/10/17/interestingthe transparent press makes a prediction for the democratic canidate for 2012.
<blockquote>Obama was appearing berfore an audience of a well-heeled West L.A. crowd, but his message of lifting up the kid from the south side of Chicago lifted even the most jaded Santa Monican. It was a great political moment and I have no doubt that he will be the first African American with a legitimate shot at the White House in 2012.</blockquote>
"Via: the transparent grid":http://www.transparentgrid.com/wordpress/index.php
YO THIS IS MY FRIEND2004-09-15T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/09/15/yo_this_is_my_friend<a href="http://trashcadet.blogspot.com">e.dogg is hooking up the blog</a>
2004-09-102004-09-10T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/09/10/20040910interesting <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/09/alternative_energy_v.html">boing boing post</a> about alternative energy transportation systems.
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The faints2004-09-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/09/09/the_faintsHello?
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<br />the ignoring stops now, at least temporarily. I witnessed some astonishing events that occured this morning, but vow to keep radio silence on them.
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<br />ok, enough for now, see you later.
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<br />[edit]
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<br />I just spent two hours writing an on how to justify to placement of pain management clinics in locations that are outside the existing hospital structure, but my computer crashed and I lost all of it, so maybe another day you will get it.
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<br />damn and blast.
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globilization and the pain management industry2004-09-09T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/09/09/globilization_and_the_pain_management_industryThe subject of pain management and its related fields have generally been localized within the context of the hospital industry. While this localization provides for expediency with dealing with issues that require a multiplicity of cures, it also limits access and marginalizes methods of pain management that deal with non critical levels of pain. These methods are generally labeled as “alternative” and exist in a realm that is associated with the fringes of medicine. This segregation may perhaps allow these alternative, low power treatments to move into contexts which pain management techniques which are close to the core of the hospital industry are unable to move into. The most critical of these locals is that of the western global business model.
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<br />There are already several arms of the hospital industry which have moved into this context. The pharmacy and the optician are two examples that immediately spring into mind. Both of these specializations are just as likely to be found in a mall as they are within a hospital, if not more likely. In both of these cases there is a specific product which the business is able to provide, but the business must also provide some amount of specialized service to be able to sell that product. While in the case of pharmacology, most of the service is provided outside of the business, in optometry, and specifically in the case of lenscrafters all of the specialized service can be preformed on site and in most cases, by administrators with very little training.
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<br />To a large extent, technological development is what allows a doctor to work next to a food court. This technology does not however lower the amount of space required to perform the diagnosis, which cuts into space used to sell a specific product. When comparing the products sold by pharmacologists, and those sold by optometrists, the value of a certain volume of product goes up proportionally to the amount of space required to determine the which product is needed. It would follow then that the amount of space needed to preform the duties of an alternative pain management specialist would be sufficiently large to require the sales of an extremely valuable product.
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<br />Perhaps there is no necessary product that needs to be sold in conjunction with these pain management techniques. It may be possible that the alleviation of the pain associated with the onset of global industry and business may be enough profit. The only remaining issue is to find an method of pain relief which can not only be simple to train specialists in its practice, but also to be sufficiently sterilized of its fringe qualities that it can fit into nearly any social context.
something that brings warmth to my heart2004-08-26T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/08/26/something_that_brings_warmth_to_my_heart<center><img src="http://home.nyc.rr.com/brackets/images/sydneyface.gif" />
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<br />I made this for my baby. It reminded me of some things i have to get done: laundry, dishes, but also of the more productive and spiritually uplifting things. Like hitting up the ol' cubase sequencer and loading up some drum machine program. Learning languages. Being fiercer in my resistance of 'the man.' Exercising.
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<br />There was an interesting article published online at nature.com, <em>the best in science journalism</em>, which discusses a gene therapy discovered to eliminate laziness in primates (monkeys specifically in this <em>experiment</em>).
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<br />"The gene knockdown triggered a remarkable transformation in the simian work ethic," says Barry Richmond of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, who studied the animals. </center></em>
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<br />Translation: the monkeys started doing shit. But how?
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<br /><em><center>The team then injected a short strand of DNA into each monkey's brains, temporarily switching off a key gene in a region of the brain called the rhinal cortex, which is known to be involved in processing reward signals. The gene encodes a protein called a D2 receptor that makes nerve cells more sensitive to dopamine, a chemical that is also implicated in the perception of reward.</center></em>
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<br />Why the dopamine receptors? I associate dopamine with stimulants. Maybe the other person who reads this blog can explain this to me. I do know that SSRI -selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors- work in a similar way; they block surplus seratonin from the receptors me thinks.
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<br />-Until next time, much love my peeps
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Love Industry2004-06-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/hiddenblog/2004/06/29/love_industry<font size = "3">My old time <em>tovarish</em><font size ="1"> (comrade) </font> Jonathan Brodsky says it best: aint nothin in life bettar than communication 29893 !!expression. Why do we communicate? So we avoid bombing cultures we dont understand for corporate profiteering. So much beauty is to be found in every crevice of cultural friction. We want understanding between cultures and communities of a seemingly polarized nature. For me, the political aspect of communicative power is most prevalent in the politics of food industry. Not enough love! We need more love in the food industry! As it says in the ancient texts: <em>Sell to ye subjects not ye lowest quality crop to rip they moneys off, but Sell to ye subjects the highest quality crop so that ye subjects may proliferate and understand ye moral philosophies!</em>
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<br />The words of this tongue will become twofold as we explore the Industry. More Industry to follow! </font>
what I RESPEC.TK2004-06-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/06/29/what_i_respectkhello, and welcome. my mission and goal with this following comment, my thesis statement if you will, is to tell you what I plan to do with this communication outlet.
<br />I plan to tell you what I find interesting, what I am doing that is interesting, and what is going on that is interesting. I plan to bring more people on board, so that we can experiment and play with the weBLOG communi(ty)cation concept.
<br />word.
Love Industry2004-06-29T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/blog/2004/06/29/love_industry<font size = "3">My old time <em>tovarish</em><font size ="1"> (comrade) </font> Jonathan Brodsky says it best: aint nothin in life bettar than communication 29893 !!expression. Why do we communicate? So we avoid bombing cultures we dont understand for corporate profiteering. So much beauty is to be found in every crevice of cultural friction. We want understanding between cultures and communities of a seemingly polarized nature. For me, the political aspect of communicative power is most prevalent in the politics of food industry. Not enough love! We need more love in the food industry! As it says in the ancient texts: <em>Sell to ye subjects not ye lowest quality crop to rip they moneys off, but Sell to ye subjects the highest quality crop so that ye subjects may proliferate and understand ye moral philosophies!</em>
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<br />The words of this tongue will become twofold as we explore the Industry. More Industry to follow! </font>
Cleanser2004-04-04T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2004/04/04/Cleanser!(left_img)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/images/cleanserreleasepic.jpg(Cleanser)!
Released on GainLad, I wrote quite a bit of this while sitting in a car in california. Although gainlad is a lo-bit / gameboy music label, I actually wrote most of this in buzz and the demo version of renoise.
"Download":http://gainlad.com/releases/gld06/ from "gainlad":http://gainlad.com/Album 12004-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2004/01/01/album_1I made all of these tracks from 2003 - 2004 during a totally awesome relationship. There were some other tracks that I produced around this time period but alot of them were totally crap remixes of top 40 songs.
"Album 1 - JonBro - Download":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/jonbro_album1.zip
Album 02001-01-01T00:00:00+00:00http://jonbro.tk/music/2001/01/01/album_0I completed this album in high school. It contains most of my musicial creation from that period, except for a few choice tracks that I did with my band at the time.
All of the track titles have been lost, so you will just have to make them up yourself.
"Album 0 - JonBro - Download":http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43672/blog_static/music/jonbro_album0.zip