ze7a - Tumblr blog

[ze7a]

Koji Kondo’s ‘The Legend of Hyrule’, from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 

‘Before Time began, before Spirits and Life existed...’

... WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NOW?

[ze7a]

[ze7a]

It is converging.

In its beauty there’s chaos.

But also progress.

[ze7a]

‘You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?’

[ze7a]

Like a long forgotten promise, from the depths of Christmas 2012 (oh, that weekend of the 8th~9th...), comes a brief resurrection of my psychedelic drawing app CraZe, because I once promised that I'd make it multi-player ~ concurrent, but thought 'nah, seems very hard to accomplish such a thing, maybe in 90 years'. Now, in Christmas 2014, I was reading about SocketIO on the 28th, and remembered about that old promise, and just that morning and afternoon of reading about it sufficed for spending the night bringing the code back from the land of long dead~forgotten code (god my styling and structuring was nefarious back then), and adapting it for such simultaneous drawing purposes.

[Here is it, CraZe, made with jQuery + NodeJS, hosted at Heroku]

You enter a Lobby, with a predefined Guest username, the settings are at the right as usual, but now you have a row of buttons at the bottom, to see what other users are in the Room, to join another Room, or to change your Nickname. Its a bit sluggish, but it draws every line, every point, in real time! Also, someone told me that Heroku was also part of the sluggishness equation, but in my opinion its a good free hosting, very easy to deploy to, all of which fulfills all my basic needs!

[Github Repo]

[Imgur Gallery]

Have a nice time with it!

[ze7a]

I am a supreme procrastinator.

I also don’t spend my leisure time wisely. Stick me in front of a computer with an internet connection, and I’ll amaze you with my ability to make time evaporate with little or nothing to show for it.

Suffice it to say, it really bothers me. As someone who doesn’t...

[ze7a]

Hacker

'[...] Finally, I should mention that the term "Hacker" in the title is meant  in the original sense of an aficionado of computers—someone who enjoys making computers do new things, or do old things in a new and clever way. The hacker is usually quite good at his craft, but may very well not be a professional computer programmer or designer. The hacker's work may be useful or may be just a game. As an example of the latter, more than one determined hacker has written a program which, when executed, writes out an exact copy of itself. This is the sense in which we use the term "hacker". If you're looking for tips on how to break into someone else's computer, you won't find them here.'

Hacker's Delight H.S. Warren, Jr.

[ze7a]

[ze7a]

More on Experimenting with Music

At this moment I haven't got the money for the KORG nanoKEY2, but I've found someone to borrow me temporarily his nanoKEY1.

Now I'm waiting for Monday so that person will finally borrow it to me, and to start trying things with it using Processing. (Also promised that person that if some day this kind of project became anywhere near famous, I'd give him a truckload of whiskey).

So, the original idea was then to use the nanoKEY as input for a Processing program that would display a psychedelic visualization (using generative art patterns, geometry or random stuff) so that according to what key the musician is pressing, or the speed while doing it, or other knob changes, the visualization would change accordingly (and have that visualization displayed on some screen or have it projected).

But these days I got even more ideas beyond using a MIDI controller for this visualization-altering purposes.

Since Processing also works with Android devices, I've thought of learning how to use it to get values from hardware like the phone's own Accelerometer and Gyroscope, and then from a Processing app that is running on that Android phone, send it wirelessly to a Processing app running on a computer.

It could be the very same Processing app thats running the MIDI controller code! so now visualizations could not only be generated from data incoming from the MIDI controller (like the nanoKEY) but also have the visualization be altered based on what it is receiving from the Android device.

Why getting data like Accelerometer or Gyroscope values from an Android device? Because it could be strapped to a guitar, or to a musician's arm, and then when that musician starts doing some 'crazy moves', the visualization could be altered! So, while moving fast, or according to an angle, change the color of something being projected, or some shapes. Also, if its strapped to an arm, it could be easily set so when the person touches the screen, the visualization would cycle between different modes!

[ze7a]

Ja, ich bin viel stärker, als ich je gedacht hab Fliege höher! Laufe viel schneller! Vergiss die Wahrheit nicht! Ja, ich bin viel stärker, als ich je gedacht hab Ich entferne welke Blumen Wieso siehst du so traurig aus?

[ze7a]

We previously talked about setting clear goals and why it’s important. But… what happens exactly when your objectives are kind of blurry and you’re lost in time and space?

It’s common, when you’ve been working for a while on a game (or on anything you feel passionate about, really), to get...

[ze7a]

Science or Literature?

'The coexistence between science and literature has almost always been difficult. Maybe because science has looked with distrust the intimate, imaginative overflow of literature, before which it is not possible to quantify the experience, or because the literature, before the obvious effectiveness of technique, has conceived science as its most elemental adversary. More now than ever, in a time where science has shown with sufficiency its transforming power of history.

But isn't it true that the physics of the 20th century were an overflow of imagination? And weren't the same, in their own way, during millennia, the literature, including poetry, theology, and philosophy?

Centuries ago, it was not strange to find a poet who simultaneously practiced as a genuine and devoted naturalist. It would suffice to remember Lucretius. However, the version of reality inaugurated by Bacon and Descartes, to which we call 'Modern World', has made of its place, the place of reason. It seems that the ancient effort of creating a poetry of the natural world has been since then overshadowed. And since then, uncommon have not been the attempts of seeing science as the exact version of that original poetry that took shape in religion, philosophy and metaphysics' 

Aesthetics and Symmetry, Alonso Sepulveda

[ze7a]

Something... like this. 

So subtle, yet full of meanings. 

[ze7a]

Holidays of CraZe Times

Sometimes I wonder what am I doing with my life. Sometimes I am about to fall asleep, but have the resolution to do a thousand things, and other times I am very awake, but with no intention whatsoever to do anything productive, and just let time pass by, sometimes with the feeling of being left behind it.

Its like if my ‘resolution’ or ‘will drive’ clock peaks when my biological clock doesn’t and viceversa. Its like my mental and physical states were two waves, in complete destructive interference.

In between, is where things like CraZe (that drawing application), and those odd videos regarding algorithm generated animations happen, maybe as a distraction, or a temporal cure for boredom, in hopes that some ‘resolution surge’ come at the right time.

CraZe is an application that has been my boredom killer for the most of 2012. In January~February, I started working on a Java SE version for desktops, just curiously exploring what one could do using AWT/Swing GUI stuff, and trying to do a drawing application. In my childhood I liked a lot drawing some ‘tribals’ with symmetry and/or rotations. It was sort of a forgotten hobby, until I saw a iOS app that did sort of the same with touch, but it looked awful and had pretty limited functionality.

I wanted to make something a lot better from the concept and put a lot more things in it (variable parameters, brushes, effects, etc). It was a nice result, but the logic behind it was awful, lots of similar functions with very few things different between them.

Come September, I learned some stuff about Android programming (and perhaps the only Android programming I’ll ever do in the foreseeable future) just because I wanted to have the application for touch devices, I mean, its cool to draw with your fingers. Code was written from zero, and now did the ‘same’ than the original desktop version, in 1/4th of the code, similar functions were joined into a single general function with varying parameters, everything was as generalized as I could find possible at the time.

Come vacations, November 17 until January 21, I had this ‘resolution surge’, quite a big one. I wanted to code all vacations long, I wanted to start making up for the time I spent doing ‘nothing’, as in doing nothing really related to my fields of interest (Computer Science, Algorithms, and Maths/Physics) besides the ever decreasingly related University stuff. I wanted to start reading Introduction to Algorithms, Programming Challenges, do a physics related course in Coursera, and do some things regarding CraZe.

It started well, first, I wanted to give closure to the ‘CraZe’ application. I mean, its cool, but I don’t envision myself doing this kind of stuff for a living or delving deep into graphical interface or entertainment stuff, but I did get a lot of relief while doing it and while drawing with it, because it was not something very mentally-tasking, but still was doing some coding which was relaxing. It was way harder to learn about the interface and graphical side of things than the inner logic, something I kind of liked because at the time I couldn’t focus into serious thinking of stuff with hard logic~algorithms.

Also I learned some things, doing all the versions specially helped me a lot with the practice of optimizing/reducing code, it was even helpful ‘just’ because of coding, because besides it, I hadn’t coded anything else as a hobby, for a whole year, I mean, for a whole year, nothing about Competitive Programming, nothing about reading concepts of algorithms, nothing about doing something serious and not forgetting about it in a week, nothing.

There was the CraZe version in Java SE for desktop which some friends really liked (though many had problems running it because not having an updated Java Runtime Environments or other odd problems). There was a CraZe version for Android which some friends really liked, and even shared with their families and other friends (though not everyone had Android devices). Then I felt I wanted as much people as possible to use it.

Thought of doing an iOS version, but I find really fucking awful having to pay $99/yr first, just to ‘test’ on my device, and second to share it with the world outside of that ever increasingly restrictive App Store. Seriously, I’m just doing this for fun and to give my friends free copies of my app. In Android I just share my .apk with my friends, and I can test the app in my cellphone without paying for some bogus ‘developer program’. I even discovered by accident that I could run my app in my cellphone without requiring some special permission, usually included in what Apple charges for their developer program. I ran CraZe in Eclipse and had the cellphone plugged in, I was worried when the Android Emulator didn’t come up several times, until I realized the app was running in the phone. It was bliss.

Then I thought, whats more universally accesible than a Web Browser? That’s when I though, ‘hopefully the last of CraZe will be a browser version ’ I hope to keep adding functionality from time to time, but no more learning a new platform to do it. It took me a week to relearn the basics of Javascript and HTML/CSS, and a single night to learn to use Canvas2D. I didn’t rewrite the logic this time, because the code from the Android version was awesome as it was. I just copied it, and changed the syntax everywhere to fit Javascript. Then the only logic I really had to change (<10% of the code) was how to handle mouse events and how to draw lines between two coordinates (because thats what CraZe basically is, drawing a bunch of lines). It was the fiercest night of coding in the whole year and perhaps a bit longer. By the next day at 6 AM, it was a fully functional copy of the Android version, found a free hosting and threw it there.

The reception was, amazing.

Even more people than before became interested in it, even some people who I consider legends in our local environment of programmers liked it, and I felt really, really flattered, really, there was a point where I though I had fallen asleep during the night of coding and I was just dreaming it, but no, it was real, I mean, there was people, who I admired, liking something that I did!.

The following week, this amazing guy called Federico Builes (who is among the group of people I hold in really high regards because of their accomplishments and even a smaller group of people that has given helpful, personal and meaningful advice) offered me some help to do some refactoring in the code, and even using some JQuery to manage things a bit nicer.

I also started adding some small functionality that I had planned to do for the Android version, in both versions. Those ‘Coding Holidays’ I had hoped for were having an awesome pace, then I hit a invisible roadblock.

Really, I don’t know what happened. There was nothing ‘particular’ at the end of the first week of december, but by the time it ended, I just stopped. I did no more code, I suddenly lost all the ‘resolution surge’ I had got when I started vacations in November. During the time I felt sort of like king of the world, maker of whatever I wanted to, unlimited resource of willpower, whatever else, I was also reading/taking notes/seeing OCW videos of the Introduction to Algorithms book. A book that I had bought at the end of my first semester with hopes of start reading it in the summer of 2011 but didn’t because of reasons discussed in the previous post, I had also bought the Programming Challenges, both books sat unopened for a year and a half, then I stared reading them in the vacations after my fourth semester, and everything was looking out good, until for no reason by the time the first week of December ended, I stopped, with reading, with the further development of CraZe, with the course at Coursera, a period of 2~3 weeks that had more resolution than the whole year and a half behind it.

Its 2013, and now that the first week of January is ending, I’ve done almost nothing, its almost the same level of idleness I had for a long time. What caused such a ‘resolution surge’, or, what caused it to stop?

[ze7a]

Guidance

Hi there, if you are reading this, you are probably someone with interest in stuff related to Programming or Science, and I may need your guidance. 

My name is Santiago Zubieta, I'm 20 years old, and I'm finishing the 4th Semester of Systems Engineering (some sort of Computer Science mixed with Software Engineering and a bunch of Administrative/Business stuff). 

I love Programming, it has allowed me to create nice stuff and I think its awesome how with it you can make a Technological Device (Computer, Cellphone, Tablet, Microcontroller) do curious and nice things, and how it takes your head to its limits while designing and taking a idea from a thought to something real. Before entering the University, I had no knowledge whatsoever about Programming, but I loved Technology and had always wanted to understand how it worked, and how could I make awesome things with it. 

From the very beginning I knew that the University I started studying in had a heavy focus on Administrative/Business stuff, which I do not like so much (almost not at all), but it was a somewhat worthy trade-off because in the Programming aspect of it some close people had told me it was great and it really is, I have learnt a lot of things, and met awesome people while at it. 

When I started, I wanted to learn a lot of stuff related to different kinds of Programming. I wanted to know about everything, like some sort of 'Jack of All Trades and Master of None' (or maybe mastering some!). I started reading some stuff on Mobile Development (iOS back then), also some stuff on Web Development (mostly basic HTML/CSS/JS) and was addicted to Programming Contests (those from the ACM/ICPC) and to Online Judges (like UVa and Sphere Online Judge).

The first semester had passed quickly, then vacations came, I was eager to keep growing my knowledge of Programming, but then something sad happened, and I entered a very sad period of my life which left me depressed, emotionally distressed, and academically unstable for 2 whole Semesters and a bit longer. 

The whole 2nd semester of University I was very sad, I did not read a single word on anything related to Mobile (iOS) development, nor Web Development, lost all the interest I had in Programming Contests / Online Judges... I was on a Mental free-fall that affected my grades and well being, I just sticked to the University courses and nothing else outside of them, and even underperformed a lot at them.

From the very beginning I had a thought, and it was that when I had settled a bit in the University, had got a grasp of how things worked there and had accustomed to the pace of it which is really different than School, like at the 3rd Semester (beginning of 2012), I'd also start with Physics, another almost life-long passion of mine. Since I was really young, I've had a really huge interest not only in Technology related things, but also in Physics and Scientific stuff, specially The Universe. Thats why I don't like the Administrative/Business stuff so much, I profile myself more like a Researcher or a Thinker. 

It was late 2011, and by the time Registrations for 2012 programs were open, I chose not to get into Physics, because everything inside me was pure disorder and I had to get that shit back together before taking on the challenge of studying a new thing besides my current program. It took even another Semester and a bit more to get that stuff back together, at least to a stable point.

Now that the 4th Semester is ending, and I have found myself in a bit more of a stable position, I have decided it was the time to start Physics, so I'll start it in the beginning of 2013. I feel like if I had lost a lot of time, two Semesters staying almost completely Idle (just going with what the University taught, nothing outside of it).

The 2nd and 3rd Semester were a disaster emotionally, I felt as if I had no motivation to study, and there were some cool courses regarding Computer Science which I didn't pay too much attention to because my loss of focus. Then, by the 4th Semester, when I had overcome a lot the emotional distress, came another kind of distress, and it was that the courses of this Semester were almost not Computer Science related, and really Business oriented. So this whole semester I felt as if I was studying forcefully, without any kind of enjoyment, and thats something that can also affect one's well-being a lot. I had regained some interest in learning things on my own, so I started learning again some Mobile Development (Android this time) and some Web Development.

While at this, something came to my mind. Doing that was awesome, but I didn't really see that kind of stuff as contributing to my long term goals of being a researcher and getting my knowledge in Computer Science and Physics together into something curious, nice and awesome. (But it was still a nice hobby, specially the Android Programming, that kept me sane for most of this awful 'Business/Filler' semester).

About Programming Contests / Online Judges, I feel as if I had got back to 'Square 1' in that regards, a lot of time had passed since I had taken part in any of that, and the friends I started and get along well with, have either left, or have got insanely advanced, so I feel as if there is no room for me there... But I feel as if the critical thinking and algorithm designing skills involved in that kind of activity is really important in the Computer Science foundations I'd like to build in my head. 

Now, after that insanely long writing, here is the deal.

I have no idea of what path should I follow for my endeavours. I know that I want to be a great Computer Scientist, not a Businessman, and a great Physicist, a researcher or scientist who mixes both things. I think there is a promising future in stuff like Quantum Programming, or Astroinformatics. But even if those are sort of my goals (one or both), or if some new goal in that line of thought appears in the future, I have no idea on how to get there..

I have recurring thoughts like what should I be focusing in and what should I leave aside, what should I read, what should I be particularly wary of, that kind of questions that everyone has.. Obviously there are a lot of questions that the only one who could answer is oneself, but there are some others where there is a definite need of guidance, there are instances that provide help precisely for that, but I have no instance to resort to for my questions. My program doesn't have that kind of instances, at least for my interests (They have some emphasis on stuff like Software Engineering, Technology in Education, Business/Administration and Networking) not even a pure Computer Science emphasis...

And I don't know about anyone involved in that kind of thing, someone who could be sort of a mentor, or anyone from whom I may get any sort of advice or guidance regarding my future in Computer Science and in Physics. I feel as if I were walking sort of blindfolded, and as if I had stumbled around for almost 3 whole Semesters without a clear definite path. 

So, if you are that kind of person, or know about anyone who could be, could you please be that person, that sort of a mentor, that guidance, or at least help me a bit on the course I should be taking for achieving those goals, whether you are focused on Computer Sciences, Physics, or both? It is something that would be really, insanely, greatly appreciated. If you have some word, I'm santiago.zubieta in gmail.

Thanks, 

Santiago Zubieta.

[ze7a]

[Welcome]

For the past two weeks, I've been working on a program, written in Java

The name of the program is CraZe, this is the download, and here you can find the commented source code.

The premise is simple: Its a program to draw stuff, nice and perhaps crazy stuff

This is the window appearance, separated into the panel with the options, and the drawing canvas. The center is always visible, though it can be moved, and it won't be present at the image generated when saving 

Horizontal symmetry can be freely toggled

Drawn stuff can also be rotated n times (as in rotating what is drawn in 360/n degrees steps) If 3 spins are selected, each thing drawn will be rotated 120 degrees a couple of times 

In that image, Symmetry was disabled. Given the case that both symmetry and spins are both being used, the ending result will be a nice n-axis symmetry 

Also, when a number of spins is selected, the rotation angle isn't restricted to a default value. Let's say the amount of spins is set to 3, the rotation angle is set 120 as default 

But it can be still be freely modified, thing that can be done by enabling the Alter Angle checkbox, and setting the desired angle (it allows precision to 3 decimal places) 

By setting the rotation angle to 21 degrees, everything drawn will be rotated 21 degrees, but only three times 

Again, symmetry was disabled in that image, but it can still be enabled at any time 

Of course the program isn't this monotonous, as the brush's color can be changed by using 3 RGB sliders 

And when a new image is created, it also gives the option to set a background color to the new image 

Next to the 'New Image' button, there is a 'Save Image' button, to save the current drawing on the folder the .jar file is located on. And of course, there are a couple of buttons for undoing and redoing image states. The program will store up to 10 image states 

Now, one nice thing about the program is that you are not limited to only one brush. For now only the 'Line Drawer' brush has been used, but there are plenty of other ones 

The 'Lines From Start' brush works by connecting lines between the point where you first made a click, and the point where the pointer is located. If the cursor is moved around, it will draw lines from the original starting point up to the position of the cursor, until you stop pressing it. You can apply parameters to this brush, such as "Draw Borders", which will connect the outer edges of the lines, "Connected Center" which will connect the center of the lines, and the mix of both (or none selected) 

The 'Vertical Line' brush works by drawing vertical lines, with their centers at the point where the cursor is. The total length of the line is determined by the 'Brush Size' value. It has a twin which is the 'Horizontal Line' brush, which works pretty much the same. It can be altered by parameters such as "Rotating Brush", "Connected Center", "Variable Size", "Draw Borders" in any combination. The "Variable Size" parameter will range between twice and half the value of 'Brush Size', for all brushes.

Pretty much that image  

The 'Great Cross' brush works by drawing a vertical and a horizontal line at the same place, resulting into a cross shape. Every parameter that could apply to the horizontal/vertical line is applied to this brush 

The 'Triangle' brush works by drawing triangles, where the height of them is determined by the 'Brush Size' value. Applicable parameters are "Rotating Brush", "Connected Center" and "Variable Size" 

The 'Triangle From Start' brush works pretty much like the 'Lines From Start' brush, one vortex is fixed to the place the cursor was pressed on, and when the cursor moves it will draw equilateral triangles with their centers at the place the cursor moves to.  

The 'Square' brush works by drawing squares, where the side length of them is determined by the 'Brush Size' value. Parameters that apply are "Variable Size", "Rotating Brush", and "Connected Center"

The 'Square From Start' brush works pretty much like the 'Lines From Start' brush, one vortex is fixed to the place the cursor was pressed on, and when the cursor moves it will draw squares with their centers at the place the cursor moves to.  

The 'Diamond' brush is the twin of the 'Square' brush, its just like it but with a tilted original positon 

The 'Circle' brush works by drawing circles, where the diameter of them is determined by the 'Brush Size' value. Applicable parameters are "Variable Size", and "Connected Center". "Rotating Brush" seems pretty redundant here 

The 'Freestyle Fill' brush works by drawing simple lines while the cursor is pressed, and when its released, it will join the first point and the last point, and fill the shape comprised by the resulting closed line. No parameters apply to this one. If the polygon overlaps, it will cancel the overlapped area, think of it as an XOR operation 

The bucket fill is insanely unestable, it Stack Overflows so it will paint only a part of the screen and in a weird way (use only if weird filling is subjetively considered artistic).

It uses a very lazy recursion, which is checking the four neighbors of a pixel, and the four neighbors of those, and so on, changing the color of the traversed cells.. In small zones it works perfectly, but in huge ones it exceeds the Java recursion stack size limit. There are interesting methods such as the Flood Fill and the Scanline Fill around to research

The default image size is 960x960, but a if new image is created, not only the new background color can be determined, but also the new dimensions. No matter how big (or small) the resolution is set, the image will be centered, and it will be cut equally on each pair of sides, but the drawing is still there. Tools like 'Drag Image Around' lets you move the image (while the center of reflection/rotation remains fixed at its position relative to the dragged image, and 'Reset Image Position' will return the image to the center of the window.

When you select 'Change Center', immediately the center will display its current coordinates in respect to the image's real center, and it will only move while you click it

The center will always move with the image, so even if you select 'Reset Image Position', the only way to reset the center to [0,0] is to select 'Reset Center Position'

Thats pretty much what CraZe does.. for now

Planned stuff: - "Rainbow"(Name pending?) toggle, so as you draw, the brush color goes through most of the spectrum, by mixing up to two colours at a time. Predictably, trippy results ensued - Being able to save images not to the folder the .jar is in, but to any place you want - Viceversa, being able to open a file dialog to load almost any image you want - "Draw Borders" for the Square and Triangle families (Maybe even Circles) - That thing that MS Paint had to grab the color used at a certain position - Different Brush Size value for the Line Drawer - Have something on 'Spiral Power' - A working bucket fill. Seriously. - Hotkeys

And seriously, thanks to this post, I was getting seriously worried on why the hell did all my images on the Undo/Redo stack got altered by altering just a single one of them.

By the way this is the image displayed at the beginning. Thanks for your time reading this. Or... TL;DR, Download this and learn the empirical way!

-Z

[ze7a]

Z7

There is some Madness, 

In the vast dark Universe.

And there is Love too.

-

There are some Bad Jokes,

But there are Good Ones as well.

Well, just not that much.

-

There is a Time Flow,

Math, Physics and lots of Code

It can get you Fun.

-

So, as there is Love,

Chocolate likewise they've got.

Its a Lovely Song.