The new issue of Scientific American has a neat article on The Neuroscience of Music, which summarizes some of the recent studies regarding how the brain processes music. In particular, I'm into the emotional response to music; I have a lot of analytical mental processes that run constantly in my head, which tends to de-emotionalize a lot of my responses to external stimuli. However, well-crafted and emotive music rises above the intellectual static and puts me into a profoundly different mood. So next time you're talking to me and I'm making too much sense, stick an iPod in my ear and initiate a logic override.
Most people will find this article a bit dry (Scientific American is the kind of magazine that never seems to have enough gravy). For you hedonists out there, here's the juiciest excerpt:
[...] Blood and Zatorre added a further clue to how music evokes pleasure. When they scanned the brains of musicians who had chills of euphoria when listening to music, they found that music activated some of the same reward systems that are stimulated by food, sex and addictive drugs.
Sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll...cognitively, it's all the same :-)
Spied via BoingBoing
Jeff over at Scintus forwarded me this FastCompany article about the most innovative company in America. Is it Apple, with their amazing string of products? Pixar? IBM? Nope! It's W.L. Gore & Associates, the company that makes GoreTex:
Gore is a strikingly contradictory company: a place where nerds can be mavericks; a place that's impatient with the standard way of working, but more than patient with nurturing ideas and giving them time to flourish; a place that's humble in its origins, yet ravenous for breakthrough ideas and, ultimately, growth.
It's an interesting article...thanks Jeff!
After taking on a tight project that had already slipped by a week, I've been too busy to blog very much. With travel, projects, and my Dad coming to visit on Thanksgiving day, I have to get a lot of stuff out of the way. I'm a little stressed out by it. Hopefully thing will settle down by Christmas.
It's been a while since I've watched any good Japanese television animation. Today, however, I stumbled upon Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (GITS:SAC) on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
A lot of people have seen Mamoru Oshii's movie version of Ghost in the Shell. I didn't much like it because it was, tonally, a deviation from the original manga from creator/artist Masumune Shirow. I found the movie to be aesthetically slow and ponderous...while it was interesting philosophically, I felt like my eyelids were being forceably strapped open with "art tape".
Shirow's original manga featured characters that were part of an ensemble, and delivered the philosophical themes through action-oriented plotting balanced by moments of introspection. There is a tension between events that just doesn't come across in the movie versions. Television, with its episodic nature, is probably the better delivery medium for a faithful interpretation. As I watched the episode "Testation", I was struck by how close it captured that feeling, and particularly how good the action detail was.
The production values for this episode are not like those of the movie, of course... this is television animation. However, being for TV didn't limit series like Cowboy Bebop, where every frame exuded character. A lot of the shots in GITS:SAC were somewhat dull, except when there's mecha or action started. Even then, the animatin had a sense of detail, sequencing of action, and timing that captured my attention. The character designs, though, are an improvment: a compromise between the movie and the manga character designs that I prefer.
What's particularly interesting is to see Shirow-style mecha designs animated. They're quite different from the usual humanoid mecha. Seeing the tanks in action was a revelation. I didn'understand the urban mobile tank concept before, but now it makes sense.
There's some interesting cross-pollination of production talent too:
* The music is by Yoko Kanno, who also composed the music for Cowboy Bebop and Macross Plus. It's a very pleasing cut above what you'd usually get in an anime series (particularly in the case of Cowboy Bebop, which my very-particular cousin Ben also enjoys, so that's saying something).
* The production company is Production I.G., which is Mamoru Oshii's company, having done the two Ghost In The Shell movies and the animated sequence in Kill Bill Vol 1 among other things.
I've only seen one episode so far, but I'm hoping for more. It's the most faithful adaptation of the original Ghost in the Shell manga out there, and to Shirow's style of storytelling in general.
My sister sent me an authentic Joyce Chen "Dumplings Plus" non-stick plastic dumpling press. Makes Postickers! Empanadas! Kreplachs! Poroshki! Raviolis! and Pasties! I have no idea what these last things are, but you can make them quicky and easily! It's a plastic form that allows you to crimp perfect dumplings. Can't wait to try it. Pictures later.
Since Sis likes themes, she included a Pocket Guide to Dim Sum, with a picture of every dish and a pronunciation guide. It's awesome... I had been toying with doing something like this myself with some friends, but now we can just concentrate on eating.
Lastly, she included Volume 1 of Iron Wok Jan. So far it's great...and no crotch shots yet either.
PC Magazine has this fall recommended list of freeware / shareware. There's a number of free PDF-making software, image editors / viewers, alternative word processors, and odd things like "thing databases". I'm always encouraged to see the little guy approach the same problems in software...helps keep the gene pool diverse!
Wikis have been on my mind lately, tangentially through some posts on the Markdown mailing list regarding the addition of tables, images, and so forth to its syntax.
I came across this posting regarding productivity tips via Weblog Without Honor. The suggestion that a personal wiki or Wiki-like editor to help organize on-the-fly is very compelling.
Think of it like this: Markdown makes it easier to seamlessly write and format as you go, without a lot of clicking around with the mouse. It's even better than most keyboard shortcuts, because you don't have to grapple with the control and alt keys in awkward ways.
Awkwardness kills productivity, and it pervades modern software. Don't get me wrong, keyboard shortcuts are great, but there are very few software application that have keyboard/mouse interfaces that really feel seamless. In fact, there are only two pieces of software that I've used that really achieved this:
* The pixel painting program DeluxePaint, published by Electronic Arts
* The word processor WordStar from MicroPro International
Both these applications had a unity between keyboard/mouse interface and the task at hand. The shortcuts chosen and philosophy behind tool mix allowed you to keep your hands working over the home keys and mouse. Because of this, you could keep your eyes focused on the exact space that you're working. It seems like a small thing, but you drop into "the zone" faster without the hundreds of tiny interruptions caused by looking for a button, shifting your hands to reach the control key, and so forth.
You might argue, "Yeah, but you eventually learn the shortcuts it's not that much time lost really. Just look at the screen!" You're right. But you're missing the point. I don't want things to merely work...I want to achieve work-fu... the fluid execution of creativity and productivity. Every glance that takes you from the task is a wasteful glance; it is better to excise it from your habits. Every extra inch of movement is a waste of energy and time. Excise these wastes from your habit, and divert that energy into production action!
There's a similar concept in military aircraft called HOTAS -- Hands on Throttle and Stick -- that puts essential task-oriented functions right on the primary flight controls. You know, things like arming weapons, selecting targets, and so forth. You could mount those controls in a very logical and easy-to-read panel on the dash, but the time it takes to take your HAND OFF THE CONTROLS to manipulate them forces you to not control the aircraft fully for that time. Of course, you end up with a potentially confusing cluster of buttons and knobs on your controls, but they've been shaped by years of experience and (hopefully) do not alter their primary function of controlling flight.
So back to the task at hand: What is my Primary Task? It's thinking and writing. What's the problem? Structuring and connecting more than a few pieces of information because more of an exercise in finding things than actually structuring them. Authoring a good hypertext document takes a lot of cutting and pasting of different kinds of information all over the system. My ideal information management system would allow me to write, organize, and link text with other media by keeping my hands on the keyboard 90% of the time.
Speaking of Patterns, I picked up a book called Head First Design Patterns at Borders. It's written to be very informal, and has something of a conversational cheeky tone compared to most programming books; it's part of their educational philosophy. Sort of like a Mr Bunny book that is actually teaching programming technique. Instead of being a turn-off, I ended up learning something about better Object Oriented Programming design in the first few pages, so I grabbed it. I'd heard about these Pattern thingies, but didn't think much of them at the time. But they're useful approaches that work. Like many newbie-ish OOP coders, I've implemented / rediscovered many of these principles in isolation; programming patterns have codified the behavior to some degree so you don't make the kind of conceptual missteps I've made in even a relatively simple game. Good stuff.
Hardcore macho programmers probably won't like this book much, but if you're looking for a lighter introduction to just the concepts, it's not bad. The downside is the book is $44.00, which I think is a little pricey for a CD-less book even if it is 600+ pages.
I've been working on the winter game again, putting in the screen logic. My initial "elegant" design has been crumbled into a spaghetti-like mess, with meatball-like moments of clarity. This is largely because I wasn't quite sure how to handle chained sprite sequences. For example, saw a bear needs to throw a rock at the screen. There are several animation sequences associated with the throw, each of which can be considered a state in itself. I'm coding it all manually with a series of ugly switch statements to just get it working. After I get the body of the program working, I'll review it and derive a new set of animation classes, with behaviors implemented using the Strategy Pattern.
So I went to the local Barnes & Noble in Nashua to browse around. As I was skirting the Starbucks cafe, I heard some awkward-sounding intonation from a couple near me. I realize that they're on a first date! How cute! I just heard a bit:
Girl: Do you do any other artistic kind of things? You know, like mumble mumble?
Guy: Mumble Mumble
Girl: Oh (Slightly-disappointed) Mumble Mumble.
Guy: Mumble Mumble Photography Mumble Mumble...
Girl: (Perking up) Mumble mumble! Mumble!
Guy: Mumble (Misses Cue) Mumble Mumble, probably Mumble the Red Sox.
(Awkward Pause)
