Last Updated 26.02.06

The Origami Group in Santiago de Compostela is a cheerful community of enthusiasts of paper folding. There´s no “membership”, as no special requirement is needed to join other than curiosity and interest towards learning new figures (and making friends, of course!). Read the rest of this article »

“It’s Christmas time!”. Many of you will remember Jack Skeleton, the main character in a wondrous tale created by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Sellick, “The nightmare before Christmas”. So, you’ll also remember when Jack found the Xmas town, singing the rhythmic and funny “What’s this”, (composed and sung by Danny Elfman), cheering on the new discovery and shouting out loud “It’s Christmas time!”

I’m going to be a Jack’s “alter ego” for a moment, in order to give you some arguments for loving Xmas, not in a usual way, but based on the film that we are reviewing. Read the rest of this article »

http://aiplanet.sourceforge.net/

The next evolution will be leaner and meaner, with some cool features you might not expect.

Finally, after two years, Dave Kerr has released an update of aiplanet, the open source dynamic ecosystem simulation. Furthermore, he has also announced that a new version is in the works, one that, in his own words, will be “a radical improvement on the first version”. For this to happen, he´s working on a new engine, called AIR, which will not only add new features but also make the development much easier. Aiplanet V2 will probably take many months to be released, but it is already very good news to know that new work is being done.

Besides this announcement, it also worths to read the interview that Tom Barbalet, from Biota, made to Dave just a few days ago. The interview gives an excellent overview not only on the underlining principles behind aiplanet, but also on the development process of an amateur project. Read the rest of this article »

First of all, I would like to wish you all the best in these days and the following year 2006.

I am also pleased to announce that from tomorrow on this site will feature articles written by author Ángel Nogueira. Here is a little about him:

Ángel is an enterpreneur who works in his own consulting company, edan xestión. He has written many short stories and articles for magazines and the radio, and is a talented songwriter too.

Look forward to Angel´s articles, starting with “Christmas: a lovely bad dream”.

The ancient ones tried to avoid any superfluous word, to prevent that their actions reflected this same sterility of the useless words.

The human brain is specialized in finding patterns and shapes; that´s the reason why we recognize the faces of people we know, organize time in regular cycles, and also explains why it is so difficult to make a convincing seamless loop of ambient sound from a short recording. A side effect of this ability is that we often find them where there are not, like when we look at the clouds and see dragons, lambs or synthesizers (actually very few people see lambs ).

However, while nobody would say that a cloud is actually a dragon, some things are more controversial. Is it really a face what the Viking orbiter photographed over the surface of Mars? I guess that the safe answer is that it looks like a face, though some people have taken the issue much further.

This said, I would like to share two findings that quite surprised me a few days ago. These are satellite images of two spots on Earth, as found in google maps and windows live local. I have asked some people for their opinion, and while some of them stared at the images the same way I did, others didn´t see anything at all, so I won´t bias you (or your imagination) by telling what you´re supposed to find. I´m most impressed about the first one, since the surroundings of the “feature” are very interesting too (I´ll just say that you may find it better by tilting your head to the right).

Here are the links:

First Shape:

http://maps.google.com/

http://local.live.com/

Second Shape:

http://maps.google.com/

http://local.live.com/ (Unfortunately the zoom doesn´t go further, but it is still possible to see the “feature” around the center of the image).

Update: If you don´t see anything, try comparing the images with the ones shown here.

http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSkZlOyYGs

My song “Arguments 04″ seems to have received enough good reviews as to be chosen to be yesterday´s “Track of the Day” at Garageband. Thanks!

Last Updated 10.02.06

…and I do what I can

Two days ago I decided to make a small change in the site. I wanted to change the “print” and “send” options for two neat little icons, like the ones shown in simplebits. Actually I was about to buy the Stockholm Mini set, but in the end I decided to make them myself (cough).

Then, while testing the new icons, I discovered that they only worked properly when accessed from the front page, so I went back to the site where I got the plugins, GaMerZ, and exposed my problem in the forum. The developer, Lester Chan, answered very soon and not only helped me find a solution, but also showed me an issue with the permalinks I wasn´t aware of. Thank you very much, Lester!

In between reply and reply, I decided to go over another thing that had been around my mind for quite a long time: the background. The “shadow border” has become very popular and is perhaps overused, but I think that it is still a valid solution and so I spent some time this evening creating one (there´s an example here).

A quickly easy explanation on how to do it: (on how I did it)
1.Create a new image, 2000 pixels wide, and say 100 high. Make it a grey background.
2.Create a new layer, draw a filled rectangle 100 pixels high and give it the width of the body of the blog. Center it.
3.Give the rectangle a shadow.
4.In my case, I also added a gradient in a new layer (from transparent to black in the sides).
5.Merge the layers and cut a thin stripe (mine is 4 h x 2000 w).
Save it, and you´re done.

By the time I got the new background I also had a solution for the “print and send” options, and several other minor aesthetic changes. But then, I realized that the place where the icons where, right over the articles, was misleading…

…and so, little by little I continued changing things up to the point where they are now. I tried to keep the same “feel” the site had, but at the same time I retouched almost everything, from the position of the title image to the fonts (you can see how the original black-letterhead theme looks like here). I´m kinda happy with the new look, and at least everything´s working fine, plus I´m starting to understand how CSS works.

Well, I hope that you like the new look either if this is the first time you come or if you have been here before.

By the way, this is the original article which inspired the title; don´t hesitate to read it, it´s really interesting.

Update 31.01.06 I have added an Archives section: now it is possible to browse through the contents in a variety of ways which I hope will effectively improve the site´s usability.

Update 10.02.06 I added a TopLinks section to the site. Since we write articles on various topics, I thought it would be useful to give the option to add content via links to the readers´sites.

While your parents live, don´t go far from them. If you must depart, tell them the country where you are going.

(It seems obvious that Confucius´mother didn´t knit).

ps. I found the quote by chance this morning, which is indeed curious given the article I had just written!

If your mother loves knitting, don´t tell her you´re going to visit Canada in january.

I did.

http://www.kurtwenner.com/street/

Wenner’s unique and innovative use of anamorphic perspective creates unforgettable images that combine the painted surface with its surroundings into a single composition.

After the interest shown in a former article on Julian Beever´s anamorphic pavement paintings, I decided to complete it with more materials on the topic. Julian´s site included several pictures of his chalk paintings, but I remembered to have seen some more, so I made a little research to see what I could find -and I found myself surprised by the (re)discovery of another great painter and master of the anamorphic technique, Kurt Wenner.

I say rediscovery because in fact I already knew several of his pictures, though I thought they belonged to Julian; actually, besides the fact that they use similar methods, it´s easy to see differences in between these two artists. Both of them are figurative, and draw the contours of the shapes they paint. However, if Beever tends to paint contemporary and often quotidian people and objects, Wenner´s imagery is neoclassical, in between Renaissance and Baroque. My favourite paintings of his are those where he works the scenography and composition in order to enhance the pathos, giving the pictures a strength that outperforms that of Beever… yet Julian has got a sense of humour, a “human touch”, which make his paintings great even when the subject is not. In other words: Human people in a picture by Wenner tend to become objects, statues in the picture. But when Beever poses with his creations, he brings them out to the world.

In all, I would say that Beever and Kenner, both great artists, complement each other very well, and I hope that they keep on bringing us many more marvellous paintings.

Related Article: Julian Beever paints in 3D

I have always heard that a worthy man must help the poor, but not augment the goods of the rich.

http://www.kingkongmovie.com/home.html

a movie by Peter Jackson

With his newly discovered star and coerced screenwriter reluctantly onboard, Denham (…) heads out of New York Harbor… and toward a destiny that none aboard could possibly foresee.

When I knew that Peter Jackson was working on a remake of King Kong, I remember to have doubted that it were a good idea. After the 1933 classic hit the theaters, several versions have been made with more or less fortune, and I wondered if it was too soon for a new one, if there was anything new to show, besides the awesome special effects that the remake would surely bring.

Now that I have seen the movie I wouldn´t say that I was wrong, though I think that it well deserves to be watched and will probably stand out as the most accomplished version to date, only second to the original. Its greatest value is the cast: all the main actors, and many of the supporting ones, have worked their characters as to make them credible, even memorable. Adrien Brody composes his Driscoll with expresiveness and ellegance; Naomi Watts shines (literally, indeed), portraying an Ann Barrow as brave as fragile; Carl Denham (reminds me of Orson Welles), shows us the many facets of Jack Black, who would do anything to achieve glory and wealth, always conscious of the results of his actions, often pursued by guilt, never able to admit his defeat.

Then, of course, there´s Kong, which if not the greatest is surely the Read the rest of this article »

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

Julian Beever is a very special painter. He has mastered the technique of anamorphic painting, which he applies to pavement paintings to render awesome, stunning images that pop out of the floor. Anamorphic painting has been used since the Renaissance; great examples are the ceiling and cuppola of St. Ignatius, by Andrea Pozzo, in Rome, or “The ambassadors“, by Holbein. However, what I like of Julian Beever is not only that he literally brings the technique to the streets, but also the sense of humour that he shows when he poses with his paintings.

More on Anamorphosis: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/artofanamorphosis/

Related Article: Kurt Wenner paints in 3D

Create millions of Mozart musical masterpieces. Start with the flute and add in the piano. Drop the piano and bring in the violin. It’s that simple!

Since after twenty something years studying music I´m not even close to that, I guess I should be clever for once, quit school and buy one of these . Jokes aside, if I had babies I would probably get them a magic cube (or any of the other musical cubes available). The difference between this toy and a normal music box is that while playing a tune the child can mute the different parts by pushing the buttons with the pictures of instruments, exploring the different combinations and “analyzing” how they blend together in a piece. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say “explore several Mozart famous tunes”, rather than “create”. In order to create, young one, you must become a conductor by studying for many years. And then, even then, you´re just recreating, because composing is a different issuBWAAAAAA I WANT MOMMY!!! (yikes, I guess I´ll leave these things to her).