I had always relied on auto-login to use Skype. Then the day came.
The day I was asked for my password. After years of auto-login, I had no clue.
Not only did I not know my password, I had no idea which email address I used to create my account. My collection of email addresses was not being particularly helpful.
Desperate to find my password, I went digging through the ‘dark zone’ of program files. What resulted was one of those simultaneously awesome and unnerving discoveries.
I came across this great two part tutorial on C++ by JT Nimoy.
It’s brief, but covers a lot in that short amount of time.
Bonus, you get to learn C++ from a member of the team that worked on the amazing VFX of Tron Legacy.
Here’s an article by JT Nimoy on the software they wrote to render some of the VFX seen in the movie.
I decided to fork Meatspace (see previous post) because I wanted to host a private chatroom that I could use with friends.
As usual, it was not as straightforward as just download and use.
I ran into a few hurdles. What follows are the steps I took to get it working on Heroku. Heroku allows you to host your apps for free, so feel free to use this as a guide for setting up your own chatroom.
I came across this webapp called Meatspace. It’s a chat system with a twist. In lieu of a profile picture, each message you send is accompanied by a two second gif captured by your webcam.
Though not unique to Meatspace, two more things add to its charm. First, the messages are “ephemeral”. If you weren’t there when they were posted you don’t see them (the server doesn’t store conversations).* Second, anyone can drop in to the conversation. There is no need to create an account or login.**
I think it’s an awesome idea!
I find myself way more confident than I would be in real life talking with people I am meeting for the first time.
I’m not sure where my interest in programming began. However, this PBS video was a distinct turning point,
When I first saw it, I thought it was the most amazing thing ever! I didn’t know coding could be used to create art!
My mind was blown with this whole ‘creative coding’ thing.
I have been hooked ever since!
:D
Magic!
Did you know Blender uses Python?!
I had created a shape on Blender and wanted to export its vertices for use in another program. Not sure how to go about it, I Googled for ideas and came across this StackExchange answer.
It was a small Python script that did just that. And, I understood it!? And even tweaked it!
I was inspired by the first person to port the SVG Doge to Khan Academy (the link might be to a clone and not the original). I deduced from the highly detailed image that it must have initially been an SVG file because it’s essentially impossible to create it using just the Khan Academy environment. Creating such a detailed image necessitates the use of vector editing software like Illustrator and Inkscape. Also, the decimal precise coordinates were a giveaway that it was imported from somewhere.
I Googled around for a copy of the Doge SVG file, and came across this one shared on Reddit.
After messing around for a bit, I was able to port a portion of it to Khan Academy.
I was watching this video on phone hacking,
And there was this part at around 12:45 where he was reading the password and email sent. Except what he was reading looked awfully familiar…
It was a simple HTTP POST request! I had to try it out.
I was curious if I could scrape share information from the Toronto Stock Exchange website using Mechanize.
After quite a bit of regex, I was able to write a script to do so.
How it works
I came across this video,
And was curious if I could get it working on my computer. On his website, Memo Atken shares download links for the app. After 4 hours (non-continuous) of trying to set it up, I finally got it working. 
The real point of this post however is to get you to checkout Open Frameworks.
There’s a lot of cool stuff people are making with it.
I created this tool to help with drawing using bezier curves. You can draw freehand or upload* an image you wish to trace.
It outputs the relevant coordinates (sX,sY,c1X,c1Y,c2X,c2Y,eX,eY) for each curve used to create the drawing. The coordinates can then be used with any number of programs.
* Uploaded images are not stored. Ain’t nobody got money to pay for that!
Came across this site and was blown away by its design!
After spending an inordinate amount of time browsing through it, I decided to see if I could duplicate one of the pages.
I made a game.
It’s a combination of two tutorials. The game mechanics are based on the LED Game tutorial by PyroElectro. The use of Processing to show the score and time is based on Jeremy Blum’s tutorial.
Gameplay,
Looking inside a digital photo gallery.
An oldie but goodie Hello World tutorial for the Arduino,
Here are some videos from working through it,
Enter the iron box.
What’s inside a typical vacuum cleaner?
Did you know RStudio’s IDE runs on a web browser?!
I am taking the Exploratory Data Analysis class on Udacity which uses R and RStudio to visualize data.
I noticed if you right click when using RStudio, you are presented with the option to “inspect.” What opens up is something strikingly similar to Chrome’s web inspector,
