Random Web Comic

Just a random web comic idea I had the other day and finally sketched up.

CS5 is out and it has fully adopted Cocoa, which means it should perform faster than CS3 or CS4 on a Mac, but there are non-Adobe options for image editing and web development that been running well on Macs for years.  I have tried Pixelmator and Coda and I am impressed with both.  Although Pixelmator lacks some important Photoshop features, it’s a much faster and leaner image editing application.  Coda vs. Dreamweaver is a completely different situation.  Coda is leaner and easier to use than Dreamweaver and I don’t think I’m ever going to go back.  I’m particularly impressed because Coda incorporates Webkit into it’s preview mode, a property inspector that resembles Firebug and also provides built-in language documentation. And for $99 (Coda) and $59 (Pixelmator) they’re worth considering.

This site is truly amazing. Wonderfl is an online ActionScript compiler with an interface that encourages code-sharing. It’s an online community for ActionScript developers. The game above is as sophisticated as the old arcade game that inspired it and you can peek under the hood at the code that makes it work ( to play us the move;arrow or wasd/shot;ctrl,z,n/slow;shift,x,m). The projects on Wonderfl currently shared range from simulations, experiments to games but there’s no limit to the kinds of Flash apps that could be collaboratively developed on the site.

This is absolutely incredible, being able to make a copy of anything so quickly will revolutionize how 3D models are built. This 3D scanner is another development that will interface the virtual and physical world. Functional AR applications that recognize gestures and respond to GPS coordinates presage a natural user interface that will eventually make mouses and keyboards obsolete and blur the boundary between the real and the virtual.  There will be all sorts of ways to leverage 3D scanning technology, but the most important will be those that will advance science, medicine, education and communication.  Maybe researchers will use it to scan and share important artifacts.  Crime scene investigators could use it to share data more quickly with the lab.  Maybe it could help doctors diagnose patients from far away.

We go into a store, we get what we need and then we’re on our way.  Very few of us stop and get to know the people who help us behind the counter.  Corner Store is a documentary that tells the story of one particular corner store in San Francisco and its proprietor.  I created this little mircosite to help promote the film.  Hopefully it will be on the film festival circuit soon please check it out.

Sometimes art isn’t a tangible object but an experience. Since installation and video art emerged in the 90s, these artists have embraced digital technology. Toby Joe explains how the frameworks for animation are evolving in a cross-posted blog post Toward the Bare Metal: From Flash to Processing, OpenFrameworks, and Beyond, “A lot of people moved from Flash to Processing – a great Java-based framework and IDE – as their interests moved away from wide distribution (via the Flash player) towards lower-level access to the hardware.” OpenFrameworks is a C++ library for creative coding. An artist collaborative called Field showcases the video above with some information about their processes. Code has created art, but coding is an art in itself.

Augmented reality technology might one day be ubiquitous. Everybody might walk around wearing heads-up display glasses projecting directions, emails, text messages, various widgets and tags onto their field of vision. Will this technology liberate artists and their audience from billboard advertising or isolate and confine them into their own little worlds?  Will augmented reality create a space for free expression or an opportunity for targeted marketing messages?   I’m sure this technology could enable advertisers to deliver personalized billboard messages. Maybe we will opt-in to socially augmented reality groups in order to view art or advertising? Let’s hope augmented reality will make cool things possible and make life easier.

Heads-up closed captioning goggles for deaf people?

Heads-up subtitle-style translation goggles for traveling over-seas?

I blogged a while ago about Follow Your Instinct shortly after it came out.  It opened up amazing posibilities because it was the first creative use of buttons embeded in Youtube videos.  BooneOakley’s new website is another example.  What’s incredible is that BooneOakley has completely committed to Youtube as their format.  Their youtube site will reach people browsing youtube who aren’t in advertising and demonstrate that they understand the power of social media sites like youtube.