Synapses On Fire

Forecasting The WWDC 2012 Keynote

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 22:49:00 +0000

This year I'll be attending WWDC, so I think it will be fun to forecast what I suspect will happen.

So, here goes my forecast for the keynote...

Probable news at WWDC 2012:

1. iTV - Apple reveals a 32, 46, and 55 inch (I pulled these numbers out of thin air) flat panel television running a version of iOS, along with an App store that will allow users to download and run their iPhone and iPad apps in a specialty-render mode (the same way iPhone apps run on iPads), and will run iTV apps at the new native scale. It will begin selling this year in time for the holiday season, $999 and up. They will introduce a couple key Apple-made apps showing off some of their vision for the iTV. The resolution will be 1080p+.

2. iOS 6 - including Siri API, and Apple Maps API, and Facebook integration (akin to Twitter's).

3. The New iPhone will feature a new form factor that looks similar, but is longer and thinner. I believe the resolution will remain retina, at the new dimension, so icons and control graphics will not require developers to do much different in regards to graphics. They will continue to create retina images @2x scale. I do not see something like @3x images right now.

Plausible news at WWDC 2012:

4. iTV with Siri voice control (talk to the TV (or your remote device) to control it)

5. iTV runs iOS interface from the user's perspective, but behind the scenes it is a powerhouse hybrid of iOS and OSX and comes with the Steam App Store that lets you purchase and run full OSX games on the iTV, just like a console - control the games with any iOS device. The 3rd party game controller market goes berserk. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony collectively soil themselves June 11th.

6. Thunderbolt everywhere. Apple replace the 30 pin connector on iOS devices with the thunderbolt connector.

7. iWallet. Transaction. Patent (~~NFC~~ Bluetooth 4.0).

8. Enhanced speakers on iOS devices (This could be in the next version of the iPad, if not in the new iPhone at this WWDC).

Of Course

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:16:00 +0000

How to open the finder window at your current directory from within the Terminal on OSX.

open .

Tron Legacy Software Art

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Josh Nimoy wrote a fascinating post about the software art he created for the movie Tron Legacy.

He worked at Digital Domain (founded by James Cameron) with GMUNK and other crew members. Nimoy's post also links to a very interesting interview with GMUNK here.

Fritzing

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Fritzing is an Electronic Design Automation software for anyone who has interest in physical computing and prototyping.

The Fritzing workflow:

1. Build a real circuit
2. Rebuild the circuit virtually in Fritzing
3. Design PCB in PCB Layout view
4. Document Project (and share through export function)

Multiple Kill Vehicle

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:47:00 +0000

You may have seen the MKV in the animated action short Ruin. Or as the "jetpack" in Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride. But it is more impressive and intimidating in its real life manifestation. The real Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) is made to intercept and destroy the bad guy's warheads.

Check out these awesome real MKV videos:

Northrup Grumman

Lockheed Martin

Raytheon

Japanese Missile Defense

IDEO's Tech Box

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:16:00 +0000

All major IDEO offices maintain a duplicate Tech Box, each with its own curator who oversees the addition of new materials.

My favorite IDEO innovation is their own in-house innovation tool called the Tech Box.

Each Tech Box has several drawers holding hundreds of objects, from smart fabrics to elegant mechanisms to clever toys, each of which are tagged and numbered. Designers and engineers can rummage through the compartments, play with the items, and apply materials used by other designers and engineers within the company to their current project. - IDEO

In my own somewhat sporadic, long-term effort, I've been building up my own Tech Box, looking forward to a concrete opportunity to invest the time and money into a full fledged IDEO-style Tech Box completely loaded with all the goodies on my wish lists from places like Inventables, Sparkfun, and MakerShed. My problem would be keeping the size of the Tech Box in check, as I can see myself adding in everything from MEM micro motors, to big blocks of transparent bricks, panes of switchable glass, and... I'm going to need a big box.

Pop-up Fabrication of Microelectromechanical (MEMs) Robots

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:05:00 +0000

Imagine a pop-up book where instead of clever props made of paper, you get a fully assembled electromechanical vehicle the size of a quarter. Engineers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a fabrication technique inspired by origami and pop-up books to create a monolithic assembly scaffold (and machine) that allows a robot bee (Mobee) to be assembled in one movement.

The final board that serves as the scaffold and the machine that will be popped-up and detached from the scaffold, is made of multiple layers of material sandwiched together. The layers are designed and cut to come together to create flexible joints that make the movement possible - just like in pop-up books. Layers with brass material are cut and exposed to serve as glue points which will lock solid during a chemical dip phase. Electrical components and circuits can be integrated into the board, as with a printed circuit board.

The Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering published an article, Pop-up Book MEMs with an extensive description of the process.

Neverwet Super-hydrophobic Awesomeness

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Restoring 3-finger vertical swipe to XCode

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:44:00 +0000

After upgrading to Lion and XCode 4.2, the beloved 3-finger quick switch gesture for jumping back and forth between interface and implementation files was removed (or left out). After some diligent searching, I found the solution for restoring this gesture. Credit for discovering the technical solution goes to Anthony Herron. I'll accept some credit making it crystal clear on Stackoverflow since it was such a muddled issue before, with people claiming all kinds of ridiculous things. For convenience, this is what you do:

From your terminal:

Change to appropriate directory

1. cd /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/ByHost

List files so you can see the .GlobalPreferences.XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.plist

2. ls -lah

Open that plist file in xcode

3. open -a /Developer/Applications/Xcode.app ".GlobalPreferences.XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.plist"

Set value to 1 for the key "com.apple.trackpad.threeFingerVertSwipeGesture"

Save the plist file

Restart machine

VIOLA!

Corning Envisioneering

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:18:00 +0000

Corning's A Day Made of Glass shows off the company's vision for the future.

Corning’s vision for the future includes a world in which myriad ordinary surfaces transform “from one-dimensional utility into sophisticated electronic devices.” -- Corning CEO Wendell Weeks

I'll take that glass iPhone, please.

Also see Corning's timeline of Innovation.

Art and Tech Installations

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:40:00 +0000

The Barbarian Group created this cool exhibit exploiting creative features like a wall painted (projected) with digital swaying grass, dynamically affected by passers-by; Also, check out the images of car-innards projected onto automobiles, creating the illusion of something like those cut-away illustrations in real life.

Torch Source

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:26:00 +0000

Here's my Torch class for hassle-free manipulation of the iPhone's LED Torch.

1. Drag Torch.h and Torch.m files into your project

2. In your implementation file in which you will access the iPhone torch, import the torch header:

#import "Torch.h"

3. To turn on the torch, simply send the start message to Torch:

[[Torch sharedInstance] start]; // light me up!

Then for fun, play around with the strobe method.

Enjoy.

When The Real Desktop Printing Revolution Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:10:00 +0000

This (via Hackaday) is how the real desktop printing revolution will begin... this and a cheap sub-$200 dollar machine that you can buy (just like a Cricut but for 3D printing) at target or walmart.

Most people aren't going to make their own 3D printers. But as soon as some entrepreneur makes the 3D-equivalent of the Cricut, toy companies will experience a sudden disruption to the toy markets when people start printing their own dart guns, frisbees, action figures, dolls, building bricks, and everything else our hearts desire.

Some smart companies will start selling and licensing toy and other templates for people to print out. Some will probably even start manufacturing their own affordable 3D printers using proprietary templates and material kits, enabling them to retain a little bit of the control they are used to. Regardless, free, cheap, and open templates will abound, rights-protected templates will become a commodity. A few template formats will surely emerge - probably OBJ.

As soon as there is a low cost commercial 3D printer. It'll probably take another 10-20 years to cycle through products that get some really high quality sophisticated print-and-paint 3D printouts at the affordable prices of the less polished earlier days.

That means that by the time I'm a grandpa, I can expect to have some fun making high quality desktop-printed original toys, models, and inventions with my kids and grandkids.

Visual Programming On The iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:53:00 +0000

Processing is so appealing because it enables you to rapidly sketch out and play with visual programming ideas without all the overhead of a traditional graphic programming language, which is why Processing projects are often referred to as sketches. Until now this was done on your PC and required a download of the native Processing application.

Programming on my iPad, directly in the web-based IDE, then testing out the sketch by running right in the web page, no plug-in needed, thanks to HTML5's canvas element and processing.js

You can now code Processing sketches right in your browser, even on your iPad. As the Processing.js website explains:

Processing.js turned your once Java-based code into JavaScript, and your graphics into HTML5's 'canvas'. As a result, anything you read on the web about dynamic web programming, AJAX, other JavaScript libraries or APIs, all of it applies to your sketch now. You aren't running code in a box, cut-off from the rest of the web. Your code is a first-class member of the web, even though you didn't write it that way.

I love it!

Try it out for yourself (on your iPad!) with the code below (via Processing.org). ~~Copy and paste into the code area here and press the run button~~. Use the internet Wayback machine to go back in time to the Web IDE that worked on the iPad (why'd they change it?!) here, and then copy code into the text area and press the run button.

int number;
int rectWidth;
int offset;
void setup(){
  size(245,245);
  background(255);
  fill(0);
  noStroke();
  number = 1515175624; //magic constant!
  offset = 5; //ofset from the edge of the window.. sort of
  rectWidth = height/8-offset; // width of the boxes
}
void draw(){
  background(255);
  int temp = number;
  for(int y = 0; y < 8;y++){
   for(int x = 0; x < 4;x++){
   if(temp%2 == 0){
   fill(255);
   }else{
   fill(0);
   }
   rect(offset*4+(width-height)/2+x*rectWidth,offset*4+y*rectWidth,rectWidth,rectWidth);
   rect(-(width-height)/2-offset*4+width-(x+1)*rectWidth,offset*4+y*rectWidth,rectWidth,rectWidth);
   temp = temp >>1;
   }
  }
//number = int(random(-(MAX_INT)))+int(random((128))); //uncomment this - spit brix
}
void mousePressed(){
  number = int(random(-(MAX_INT)))+int(random((128)));
}

iPad Pro Mockup

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:54:00 +0000

While checking out the iPad 2 at the Apple store a few days ago, I wandered over to the Macbook Air. As I held the lid I realized if you take away the macbook air's beautiful body, leaving only the screen lid in your hands, you've got an amazing iPad that is strikingly thin as well as substantially solid. This is what I want in the super iPad. So I mocked this up. I'd buy two.

Figuring out how to fit MacBook Pro level components in this impossibly tight space is what someone in a secret bunker at Apple ought to be working on right now.

iPad Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Following on my previous post about iMovie and the film industry, here's my prognostication on a future iPad, as envisioned coming to an Apple Store near you in 2013.

Meet the iPad Pro - it performs at today's macbook pro speed, and is nothing less than a super iPad. It will have an edge-to-edge screen (at least 2 of the edges), 1080p, and is thinner than any other iPad to date.

It'll ~~cost between $1199 - $1799~~ be priced starting at $999. A Thunderbolt port has already replaced the 30 pin connector on all iPads.

Scenario A:

Indy P. Filmmaker pulls out his iPad Pro. He plugs his RED EPIC into the iPad's Thunderbolt port. Connecting the iPad Pro to the RED EPIC automatically launches iMovie (this was set up in iMovie app settings under the Devices section). He now views the RED EPIC camera feed directly on his iPad Pro. He can drive the RED EPIC camera straight from the iPad if he wants with a 3rd party app developed by RED. Though the much higher resolution is captured on his RED EPIC's storage, his iPad Pro is capturing in 1080p for on-the-fly experimentation on the just captured clips right in his lap as filming takes place. Indy is able to select clips he wants to show to other crew members and share them instantly to their iPads. Indy's other camera teams are at the bottom of the hill 200 yards away, but they've already received the clip Indy wanted to show them illustrating exactly how his nearby shots were ending up. After a discussion with the distant second camera crew, Indy decides he needs to see what they see from their camera, so he pulls up the 2nd camera's feed remotely on his iPad Pro. As they film their footage, he sees it instantaneously over the air (thanks to the wireless connection to an adapter daisy chained into the thunderbolt hub which is plugged into the bottom of his iPad - the same hub that the RED EPIC is connected to).

Scenario B:

Indy P. Photojournalist is on the set documenting Mr. Filmmaker and his preference for using the iPad Pro as an integral tool in his production process. Photojournalist opens up Photoshop on his iPad Pro (this is the full version of Photoshop for the iPad) and makes some color adjustments to his newly-captured image, and posts it directly to a media client for sale and publication. Mr. Filmmaker was watching him use Photoshop. "When did they release Photoshop for the iPad?", he wondered. "It's been out for a few months, but man is it expensive. $199!" The director blinks. "I think I'll stick with Aperture for my iPad. $4.99. I love it." Under his breath Photojounalists mutters... "cheapskate."

Scenario C:

Ima Bigg Director is at a meeting with his art director and creative staff working on next summer's blockbuster (of 2014). Every team member has their iPad Pros in hand. They're brainstorming ideas for an intense action sequence. Mr. Director pulls up an app called PrevizPro, a 3D-based application letting him easily set up and play out realistically rendered scenarios on his iPad Pro. He shows the crew something he thought up in the middle of the night. He sends the "previz" to everyone to view on their own iPads and they collaboratively manipulate the scene over the course of the brainstorming session.

Note: I mentioned the following real products: RED EPIC, Aperature (not yet on App Store), Photoshop (not yet on App Store) , and Previz (not yet on App Store).

Follow up note: If an iPad Pro materializes, many of the "pro" apps will be more pro-oriented in price. If Apple released Aperature on the App Store, I could see it being $15 - $20. If Adobe does Photoshop for the App Store, I just can't see it being $4.99, though that would be amazing. I think Adobe would try to sell for at least $150. Some of these apps would probably be $4.99 universal apps with upsell pro capabilities through in-app purchases.

iMovie Will Change The Way Movies Get Made

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:39:00 +0000

iMovie for iOS 4 delivers a streamlined method to capture and edit video anywhere, anytime

I have a hunch. I predict that iMovie - Apple's new iOS software for the iPad 2, iPhone 4, and iPod 4 - will have a game-changing impact affecting yet-to-be-made big budget films that will come to theaters. While I predict that we'll see at least one low-budget quality independent movie filmed and edited entirely on iOS devices, this is not what I'm talking about.

I predict that the film industry, as well as every burgeoning young film student, will be using iOS devices as essential tools in their process, including and especially conceptualizing and designing scenes in real-time with on-the-spot previz exercises; Real-time exploration of their vision and ideas; Experimentation at any place and any time. I think that imaginary camera lens that directors make with their fingers will be replaced by the iPad 2 overnight. And now they'll play with that formerly-imaginary clip right there on the spot, in the same breath, instantaneously. Anyone care to bet this doesn't happen?

With the combination of iMovie and an iPod, iPhone, or iPad 2, the factors that stood as barriers of entry to easy and instant moviemaking exploration are really absolutely gone. This is momentous.

I'm predicting that in a short amount of time, what we see in many movie screens will have been conceptualized, visualized, imagined, and experimented with on an iOS device before it was ever actually shot on film.

I'm also predicting that iMovie will be so significant to the pro and indy Film/TV industries (as well as students and hobbyists) that a category will eventually be created on the App Store for Moviemaking tools, because apps targeting this industry are going to boom; apps will be made to improve and support every aspect of the production process, all because of iMovie.

I'm no Charlie Sheen, but I know some little bit about the film industry. I don't know the music industry nearly as well, but I also happen to have the same hunch about GargageBand and the effect it will have on the music industry. That is because these tools are creative incubators; They are content laboratories.

These tools are going removing the barriers to entry in these fields, which will increase the amount of creation that goes on, and hopefully, the amount of quality-based competition resulting from that will produce higher quality, innovative content, and more interesting ideas will see daylight than ever before.

This is going to be really amazing.

iPad 2 & Steve Jobs' Message

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:49:00 +0000

The iPad 2 comes to stores in 7 days. Dual core chip, 9x faster graphics, 10 hour battery life, front & back camera, 1/3 thinner than original iPad, iMovie and Garageband, smart covers, video mirroring, same price

What makes the iPad situation different this year is that everyone already knows that this time it's a home run. It was a home run last year too, but many wouldn't see it. This time, there's no arguing. Apple has invented something amazing.

Steve Jobs wrapped up the event with an explanation of what is the essence of Apple.

"This is worth repeating. It's in Apple's DNA that technology is not enough. It's tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it's the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are pos-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive."

This is why Apple has been so stunningly successful, time after time after time. It isn't really a statement about Apple's DNA, but an awareness of our DNA. This statement reveals a human-centered awareness of why we really even want technology in the first place. This way of thinking resonates with people at a very core level. We are humans, not robots... not droids. We seek technology that conforms to us at our human level, not the other way around.

Imagineering The Home

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:51:00 +0000

The Disneyland Railway was inaugurated on July 17, 1955. The live steam railway was constructed for $240,000; each of the original two locomotives cost $40,000. (source: wikipedia)

I wonder if Disneyland would be Disneyland without the Disneyland Railroad. The train is a defining factor that makes the place magical. The railroad encompasses the park and is infused with that famous imagineering spirit. That same imagineering spirit embodied in Disney's unforgettable locomotives and railroad is also chugging around a few homes on living room ledge railroads and outdoor home garden railroads.

I think running the tracks through the living room might be pushing the boundaries of good taste. It'd probably take some ingenious chops to to make that move work without getting tackied-up. I can see perhaps going through a play room, or through a loft and some kids rooms.

The line between tacky and wonderful can be dangerously thin with a creative backyard endeavor like this. I think committing to go all the way is key. Perhaps intensely studying Walt Disney and park projects and his attention to detail could provide added safeguard against ending up with a tacky-flavored project. This example is a pretty good one (except for the above ground pool in some of the photos, that kills it and screams taste-lapse).

A UML Tool I Actually Like

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:49:00 +0000

After a very frustrating week full of wrestling with junk tools to muster out quality UML sequence diagrams, I stumbled upon what in hindsight seems an obvious solution for UML sequence diagram creation: Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.

VS 2010 Ultimate is extremely costly (relative to the other Visual Studio editions), and the only one of the Visual Studio 2010 editions that provides great architecture capabilities such as the UML diagramming tools. My understanding is that pricing for this edition of the software with a new MSDN subscription is about $12,000. Seeing this pricing reveals to me the wisdom of Microsoft initiatives such as Bizspark, which allow startup level businesses/developers MSDN access for up to three years for next to nothing - a smoking deal. But it also underscores a real contradistinction between the business models of Microsoft vs Apple, and why I think Apple's strategy is brilliant and Microsoft's is unwise in the long run.

Nothing highlights the difference in approach to making and selling software between Microsoft and Apple as much as the convoluted mess that is Microsoft's multitude of editions of their OSs and Developer Toolsets. Ultimate, Professional, Semiprofessional, Psuedoprofessional, home edition, apartment edition, outhouse edition, basic edition, free but limited edition, homeless edition, etc. Contrast this to Apple's one-edition OS and one-edition development platform, XCode. While Microsoft has an amazing development environment, one can only wish that it was a consolidated edition, rather than at least 4 editions. Not only does Apple have a rock solid world class rockstar development environment (see XCode 4!), it has only one edition, and is free; not four different editions with various limitations and price gradations.

But back to the VS 2010 Ultimate UML tool. I love it (insofar as one can actually love a UML tool). It is done the way I had hoped anyone would have developed it, but no one else did. I'd suspect that many companies who fail to use good UML tools in favor of the lame free ones are spending far more money in time lost than they would have in purchasing VS 2010 Ultimate edition.

Inventables: The Innovator's Ice Cream Sampler Buffet

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:01:00 +0000

It took me about 3 minutes to add over $1000 to my shopping cart. Despite the urgent desire to push "Proceed To Checkout" to get myself some squishy gel magnets, translucent metal foil, or talking tape, I canceled the order. But one day. Some day...

But until I garner the courage for such a purchase, I'm considering spreading my Inventables taste-testing over a larger span of time. Maybe I'll just pick up a hand-moldable plastic sample here and a permanent switchable magnet there.

But to provoke the cravings of a madman, the Inventables website provides a tantalizing product catalog searchable by properties (like abosrbent, magnetic, liquid, crushable, elastic, heating, etc) or by ingredients (flavors, fragrance, inks, soaps), or by fastener types, or coating types, or electrical types, etc.

Inventables calls itself the "innovator's hardware store", but to me it's more like a big ice-cream shop where you can sample all the flavors (for a small-scale fee) by the spoonful before you decide to commit to the quadruple-stack cone.

I love it!

Robotics Developer Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:24:00 +0000

Microsoft's RDS lets you design, simulate, and program robots using C#. RDS has built-in direct support for iRobot's Create or LEGO's NXT, as well as other robotic platforms.

RDS Simulator lets you prototype new robot designs enabling you to rapidly change and refine your design, then test straight away in the simulation.

To make the most of your experience with RDS, you'll want:

1. iRobot Create or LEGO NXT
2. RDS installed on a windows machine (RDS is a free download from Microsoft)
3. XBox 360 controller
4. A child (one or more) to justify (to self and wife) that your expensive toys are ultimately "for the benefit of the children"
5. Ability to let the children actually get involved and do more than just watch you play with "their toys"

RDS also comes with sample code packages, such as a Sumo bot sompetition/simulation (designed for iRobot) and a Soccer bot competition/simulation.

I think I know what we're doing for family night tonight...

"It's for the kids!"

The Sad State of UML Diagram Editors

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:52:00 +0000

Why is there not a single bearable software tool for creating UML sequence diagrams!

All I need:

1. Give me a complete set of symbols. Don't ever ever ever leave out the loop structure symbol! Why would you do that?

2. a) Give me the ability to input my data directly on the visual diagram, and b) via template forms where I can populate my diagram without bothering with the visual design, and then see the diagrams generated for me.

3. Don't even bother making this tool unless you're committed to knock people's socks off. Why not approach the effort as if you were Google or Apple. Figure out what kind of tool they would deliver, and then do it.

Always Processing

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:36:00 +0000

There's always good stuff to see from the processing crowd. http://www.openprocessing.org/

Data Visualization blog

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Hopkinson) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:34:00 +0000

http://flowingdata.com good site with some nice examples