I have a computer which I’m willing to donate to the collective, the specs are-
Compaq Pentium II, about 300 Mhz, 128mB Ram, 6gb harddrive, integrated graphics, ethernet card, serial and USB 1 ports. It runs on Suse Linux 8 and has Java installed.
Chugs along at fair pace on Linux, wouldn’t want to try Windows on it though, too slow for video or 3D graphics but could drive some kind of hardware.
Not in Ipswich yet but will pick it up this weekend.
Much better suggestion from Fabrice Saffre - use votes to indicate your commitment/enthusiasm. I have changed the guidance correspondingly, and used my 100 votes like this.
Mail me your votes.
Assignments are all now in this table
Three tasks for those whose names are in the table. One task for everyone.
A) Vote for your pieces. You have 100 votes to spend. Your votes should be an indication of the enthusiasm you have for each piece. Mail me with the number of votes you wish to cast for each piece.
Your voting could be based on which is the easiest to get done, or the one you like the most, or a direct indication of the effort you’re willing to put in. People are concerned they’ve taken on too much, and this is intended to be used to work out what we do first. You can change your votes whenever you like during the development of the pieces.
E.g. for me
B) Take the time to edit the page describing your favourite piece(s). Detail how it will look, how it will behave, how it will be built, some of the options you’re considering for tools and techniques.
C) Talk to the other people who are listed against that piece. Arrange a get together with them to actually hack stuff. We aim to run some of the first piece-hacking sessions at the next meeting, but there’s plenty of scope to arrange breakaway events. This will also help to engage the guys like Gavin Churcher and others who can’t make it for Wednesdays.
And for everyone…
D) Tell me if there is a piece missing or a person missing. If you wanted something else to be up there, or if you want your name against one of the pieces, then let me know. [Isley do you want to do your ‘standing in Ippy‘?]
Had a really simple idea for a curiosity piece last night. It probably bears no relation to the other work we’re planning on, but its only a ‘quick’ piece, so thought i’d post it anyhow, so here goes ..
It’s basically a video piece of a person standing in ipswich town square staring up at the nothing in particular (the sky/ a corner of a building..). i’m thinking we could film them for 30mins or something, mayb an hour. and we just see how many members of the general public that stop and look to see what this person is looking at ...
old gag i know, but thought it might b quite fun 
PS. went to see “History of Violence” last night, starring Aragorn from LOTR ...
absolutely cracking film, thoroughly recommended!
A kind of intelligent music and visuals maker, driven interactively by the viewer screenshot here
N.B. On the Max MSP website ‘A new version of OvalTune by David Zicarelli is under development’
see blog entries about this piece
A fun old-style painting game which we could get running on some ancient Mac hardware.
The application program this refers to is KidPix:
KidPix ( from http://www.kidsdomain.com/down/mac/kidpix.html )
- KidPix is easy to use (even for grown-ups) and fun (even for grown-ups).
- It is monochrome (black and white!), which may be very unfamiliar to today’s youngsters!
It seems that KidPix is now available as freeware, and it runs on any Mac from a Mac Plus (128K RAM, 68000 running @ 8MHz (this is NOT a misprint or typo) upwards - which probably means Macs that run any OS before OSX).
- I will download it and check compatibility(martinsan).
- Maybe there is the possibility of a wider theme here: an exhibit based on old Mac software… There are lots of HyperCard stacks and other old programmes that should still be interesting (or offensive: there is lots of politically incorrect HyperCard material).
- Old Macs, particularly the single box Plus and Classic versions, are so different to today’s desktop computers or laptops, that they surely have curiosity value…
An opportunity for people to experience online fridgemagnet fun…
Could get an old fridge and back project onto a surface.
Video tracking plus augmented reality exhibits. Holiday misfits. Moustache tracker. Realtime cartoons.
People have been talking about wind generators, self-powered artwork and sheds. This is a placeholder for these pieces.
A harmonograph - oscillating pen and an oscillating piece of paper - rotational oscillation creating pretty things.
Traditionally, the ‘oscillation’ is achieved by having two separate pendulums (more correctly ‘pendula’ (I think), but correct latin seems to be out of fashion these days): one with a piece of paper on a platter; the other with a pen on the end of an arm (so that the pen is positioned on the paper).
One alternative thought would be to use two X-Y plotters driven by simple harmonic oscillator programs. Since X-Y plotters are old (70s vintage) and out-of-fashion, then they have curiosity value and ought to make a rather neat visual exhibit.
Some people have tried making their own plotters:
DIY XY Plotter
LEGO XY Plotter!
Whiteboard XY Plotter
It seems that second-hand x-y plotters are not very cheap, so I then wondered about mis-using cheap printers - use the linear cartridge movement to provide X and Y axes, and mechanically couple two printers to a pen…