jcmorrow @jcmorrow@merveilles.town
Joined Nov 2019
Pinned toot
I'm a programmer interested in using computers creatively. I make things both visual and audio. To that end, I'm serious about tooling, and I'm always looking for ways to make my tools feel more like an extension of my mind. Other things that interest me are:
- Cellular automata and the nature of time
- Design Patterns (and really everything Christopher Alexander has ever done)
- Distributed systems and how they reflect the basic challenges of reality
- Sustainability/human-powered transit
rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's comforting to be reminded that time is not nearly as accelerated as it sometimes feels these days. Pirsig's thoughts feel timeless to me, and the questions he poses are the sort that can't be answered as much as basked in, or lived. It's a nice feeling.
jcmorrow
boosted
@jcmorrow Partly interested in creating my own audio production tools and instruments. Only have experience with JS so far but not really interested in Electron right now and don't want to be stuck in the browser either.
And partly to try something new and challenging. I haven't done much structured learning in the past couple of months and need a new topic to help fill some hours of the day.
@paul I'm kind of curious about VST development, it seems like a fun way to get into some DSP stuff. Should I just start going through JUCE tutorials? You seem like you would have opinions here.
jcmorrow
boosted
i think my advice to new software developers is: don't
jcmorrow
boosted
Look the web is great, we have just lost track of the important bits and ceded a bit too much control to Google.
The web we lost is still here, thriving on the fediverse and hosted on personal servers. The fact we even know about and trivially use Plan9 is a testament to that.
Browsers are largely open source google/netscape/apple wanted to sell ads, servers and laptops. But got distracted with ads. You can still build webkit, we can still build chromium, we can still build firefox.
I've been taking a music production course, it's been really hard! There's a *lot* of stuff I don't know, and I'm not super happy with what I've made so far, but it's longer and more coherent than anything I've made before, so that's progress!
jcmorrow
boosted
10 modern layouts that show off how powerful a single CSS rule can be - By Una Kravets
jcmorrow
boosted
Happy with how this one turned out.
Pretty soon I'll start composing sketches with background elements. I think that will help bring them to life.
jcmorrow
boosted
Every wanted to know how a table-lookup oscillator works? Here's a classic design of one, written as a literate program. It is a full implementation that outputs to portable ANSI-C code: https://pbat.ch/wiki/osc/
Our HyperJam way back when sort of broke my brain, or at least my brain's relationship to computing. I started wondering why it's so hard to harness the computing power that we theoretically have at our fingertips, even decades after an elegant tool like HyperCard was born. I've been really enjoying http://worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/ and it's got me excited about computing again.
Hey music folks (maybe @paul?): What's the best software for editing MIDI files? I want to change the key that a song is in, but I'm also just curious because I haven't found any that are built for mac
@somnius I just got the Merveilles swag and your awesome note, thank you! You're the best!
"The first argument is that software development should be based on scientific manners, and so should employ procedures similar to scientific methods.The flaw of this argument is the assumption that there is such a thing as scientific method and that it is helpful to scientists."
- Peter Nauer, Programming as Theory Building
jcmorrow
boosted
Need help finding some #n64 #emulation trivia about #OOT. It was some graphic I found on twitter that showed how the devs took advantage of the peculiar texture interpolation method used on the n64 to make textures with crisp straight lines. Really cool bit of trivia. Wish I had saved it.
jcmorrow
boosted
For those crazy enough to try:
Don't build a workstation, build an ecosystem.
Scope aggressively and specialize. Learn to say no. Less is more.
GUIs are a black hole of productivity, don't sucked into them.
Make sure offline rendering happens on day one.
Do NOT multi-thread the audio rendering component.
Choose standards you intend to support very, very carefully.
Question every DAW design pattern or paradigm. Don't ever do anything by default.
Make sure everything can work headless or without a GUI.
Emphasize extendability. When in doubt, just build a canvas.
Manage your dependencies. Don't go crazy with packages.
jcmorrow
boosted
Hey Merveilles! A while back I bought some stickers, and I have 98 to distribute to other folks in Merveilles. Shipping from the US to other countries is somewhat limited, and they will be delayed, but if you would like to get a Merveilles sticker please fave this post and DM me your address!
I'm limiting this to folks who are currently on or have previously been on Merveilles sites (slack, masto, etc). I can't ship to some countries through USPS, here's more info: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm
So to you, Friend, I confide my secret:
to be a discoverer you hold close whatever
you find, and after a while you decide
what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,
you turn to the open sea and let go.
- William Stafford
Tomorrow will have an island. Before night
I always find it. Then on to the next island.
These places hidden in the day separate
and come forward if you beckon.
But you have to know they are there before they exist.
Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.
So far, I haven’t let that happen, but after
I’m gone others may become faithless and careless.
Before them will tumble the wide unbroken sea,
and without any hope they will stare at the horizon.
It's been a couple of days since I've posted a daily. I feel like a bit of a slacker but I've felt really unmotivated recently. Anyways, glad to feel like I had a second of inspiration today:
Joined Nov 2019
