Life@ITP

We were asked to look for three different manipulated images. I especially like the first photo. It’s a picture was taken from a manga and the effects were done in PhotoShop.

Dream Like Effect

Flowers

Evil Liv Tyler

I know this entry is a bit late but, I only started my first CommLab class on the third week. So this is my review of the article I read.

I found the Associated Press article to be very interesting. I’m quite impressed to say the least that Empire High School took this brave step, to have all their students working and studying with laptops rather than the traditional text books.

I’m from Malaysia, and not having to go to school with big bulky heavy textbooks are just unheard off! Most of the school kids in Malaysia do carry backbacks that weigh a ton and to makes matters worst. We don’t have lockers. So no…we don’t have the luxury to keep our folders or notebooks or whatever in a a separate place once we reach school.

I’m not so sure if something like what Empire High School did will ever be accepted in Malaysia. It probably will, but it will have to take alot of time and convincing. The Malaysian school systems thrives on standardized exams and textbooks, creative forms of learning aren’t to popular. Which I have never really been able to accept. But that’s just me. I guess it’s coz I had my early childhood education in the States.

Anyways I really feel that having the kids at Empire High School exposed to the vast amount of information that is readily available online is just wonderful. They have the flexibilty to learn more on their own by searching the internet and get more out of the school’s curriculum.

Anyways…that’s just my two-cents. If only Malaysia would consider something like this!!

‘ PicBasic Pro program to display result of
‘ 10-bit A/D conversion through serial at 9600 baud
‘
‘ Connect analog input to channel-0 (RA0)

‘ Define ADCIN parameters
DEFINE ADC_BITS 10 ‘ Set number of bits in result
DEFINE ADC_CLOCK 3 ‘ Set clock source (3=rc)
DEFINE ADC_SAMPLEUS 50 ‘ Set sampling time in uS

ADCvar VAR WORD ‘ Create variable to store result

TRISA = %11111111 ‘ Set PORTA to all input
ADCON1 = %10000010 ‘ Set PORTA analog and right justify result
Pause 500 ‘ Wait .5 second

main:
ADCIN 0, ADCvar ‘ Read channel 0 to adval
serout2 PORTC.6, 16468, [DEC ADCvar, 13, 10] ‘ print it to serial out,
‘ with linefeed and carriage return (10, 13)
GoTo main ‘ Do it forever

This week we were asked to wire the board so we could see some output shown on the PC Hyperdrive. I had the worst time soldering the serial connector (i ruined two!!), and it turned out the serial connector I was trying to solder wasn’t the ones with the little cups. I was using the serial connectors I got from my PComp pack and those were sooooo not solder friendly. Steven Jackson finally what was wrong and I finally got everything solder and programmed and done.

Greg and I had some time issues on getting this assignment done, so we put our heads together and decided that the best place to do this observation project was Broadway and Waverly Place, right in front of the Tisch Building. We thought that this street corner truly represented New York City. Our subjects consist of an everlasting, everchanging flux of pedestrians & motorists, chaotically jumping in and out of our metropolitan microcosm.

Like any space, there are laws governing it. Obviously, we have the general laws of physics governing the earth, which puts restrictions on the subjects’ movements within the space. And we also have civil rules (such as personal ethics & city laws) which govern the actions/interactions of our subjects with each other and with the space.

From the info above, it can can be concluded that:

- Subjects move at varying velocities -

The experience within the space will vary depending on the velocity of the subject. Different speeds and different directions will produce different interpretations of the space. Because our space is rather small and finite, a motorcyclist zipping by in a straight line will not have enough time to absorb the detailed information that a zig-zagging, pit-stopping dogwalker can.

Though the movement of our subjects is by all means chaotic, there is a general traffic pattern followed by the majority. The crosswalk signals and traffic lights dictate the commencement, direction and cessation of most of the movement across the street, putting motorists and pedestrians on an intermittent schedule. The sidewalk movement, however, is a bit more unpredictable and varies according to personal motives.

- Subjects are always changing -

Our space does not move and does not alter its shape. It is constant. In contrast, those passing through the space, never stay the same. Each one of our players is genetically, racially, religiously and emotionally different. And they are different every time they pass under the spotlight of our Broadway stage. Our space has no windows, no doors and is open to everyone. Therefore our sample size, just like our big city, is the personification of variance. Whatever methods or design we choose to implement for our project, they will have to explore the diversity of our space and illicit some sort of meaningful response from its inhabitants.

- One Possible Prototype -

One possible prototype we are considering is installing a device that can record “YES/NO” “TRUE/FALSE” statements from our subjects, which would be controlled by physically pressing 2 buttons. The device would be attached directly to the corner lightpost, with the 2 functional buttons set at eye-level. We could then hang a “TRUE/FALSE” question above the buttons and record data. For example, we could pose the following question: “How are you feeling today?” and our subjects would either press “Happy or Sad”. By recording and analyzing the results over the course of a week, month or better yet, an entire year, we could make generalizations about the emotional status of NYC residents (e.g., what is the general consensus, when (what days, months, seasons) are people most happy/sad) . We can also look at any pertinent historical context that has occurred within our timeline and see how local and global events shift people’s moods (e.g., political agendas, natural disasters). The “How are you feeling today?” question is just an example of a topic that I am personally interested in. We could ask our subjects a variety of questions and change them up regularly just to maintain their interest and keep them interacting with our device. And because the location is so convenient and easy to access/monitor, we could check our device daily to make sure it is operating correctly.

What sets this apart from an ordinary poll someone can take online is that ours requires a physical touch from someone who was really there at that specific moment. And that is a special quality that gives the collected data a genuine validity. The results are real feelings/opinions from real New Yorkers. Installing such a device would definitely alter the velocities of the subjects passing through our space and at the same time record valuable information we could all learn from. In the least bit, I think it would help break-up the congestion of students blocking the entrances and exits to the Tische building. Maybe this would give them something more constructive to do and somewhere less constricting to go.

So yeah…my website is finally complete…well sorta. Last week was my first CommLab class, and it was great to see what the other students did for their ITP journal.

Anyways when I realized what I had to do for class, my first idea was to do what Steve did, which was work on Moveable Type. To like play around with the codes to create my own design template…but then I realized…it takes too much work.

I mean, yeah sure the pages have already been built for you…and basically you don’t have to change much, maybe a few images here and there, but I was thinking of making my site more personal. More my OWN.

So this is what I came up with. It’s not one of the BEST design in the world, but I like it. It’s sorta annoyingly colorful, but I think it looks cute. Hahahaha.

I usually tend to designs things using minimal color, and it’s usually WHITE, or white with like another color or two but the color discussion we had in class last week sort of made me think of using more colors.

As you can see I’m into pastels. So I worked with that scheme. All the colors I used are pastels and I know, it’s just so girly girl, but heck that was how I was feeling when I created this thing.

I know one thing…I’ll definitely get bored of the design sooner or later, and probably work on something less flowery!

Since I was not here for the first week of classes, I missed alot. Probably the crucial thing I missed was how to solder. Anyways, I knew it would be impossible for me to get anything to work without some help, so I managed to get Megan and Pollie to work on their Phys Comp Lab assignment with me.

After many many attempts to get everything soldered I finally I managed to get my board to work and light some LEDs yea!

After I did that…my next attempt was to get my L.E.Ds to blink, using a PIC Chip! I managed to get 3 L.E.Ds to blink using this code.

main:

high portd.0
pause 500
low portd.0
high portd.1
pause 500
low portd.1
high portd.3
pause 500

goto main