Chris McCormick

The software makes two different beats and two complementary melodies using random number generators and some carefully tuned algorithms for using those random numbers. The melody shaping rules involve applying a low dimensional random fractal effect on very basic seed melodies, producing a type of self-similarity which seems to sound interesting to humans. The beats are created using a variety of custom rule sets, much like my previous work with algorithmic hip-hop in CanOfBeats and my algorithmic drum-and-bass generator, GhostWave.

After that I manually control how loud each of the parts are present in the mix, what effects are being applied to the different parts, and the parameter values of those effects. I use a midi controller to mix it in real time and record it.

Soon I will make the latest version of the Pure Data patches ("GarageAcidLab") available online under a Free Software license.

Enjoy the first tracks!

P.S. Some other music I've released on the net previously is Cryptolect, end-of-millenium style chopped-up breakbeats.

This is my favorite cafe in Perth, Western Australia, for the following reasons:

• The coffee tastes really good
• Free wifi
• Nice, agreeable, pleasant staff who leave you to your own devices
• Walking distance from Northbridge, Mount Lawley, and Perth
• The coffee tastes really good
• Coffee is slightly cheaper than most other places in Perth ($3.80)
• Organic, sustainable, fair-trade, and vegan friendly
• The coffee tastes really good

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I haven't tried their food, but it looks tasty and generally reviews well.

Here are some links:

• Google info page
• Source Foods Homepage

The Robusness Principle is a good principle for writing network server/client software. If you follow it your software is less likely to fail when interfacing with other software. I also find it to be an optimal heuristic when it comes to interacting with other human beings.

Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.

-- Jon Postell

I wonder if there is a formal proof that it is an optimally efficient algorithm for interacting entities who don't completely know eachother's context/protocol, from the perspective of information theory?

If you want to have some Python libraries installed in your system somewhere other than the standard place ("site-packages"), here's how to do it. This can be useful if you don't want them to interfere with your operating-system installed path, or if you don't want to become root/admin in order to install them.

This problem is solved by things like virtualenv and buildout, but I find that this will suffice for a lot of cases, or if you don't want to learn the ins and outs of those systems.

First, create a directory somewhere for your alternative Python libraries to go into:

$ mkdir ~/my-python-libraries/

You only have to do that step once.

Next, tell future Pythons that we have an alternative path where libraries live by setting an environment variable:

$ export PYTHONPATH=~/my-python-libraries/

This means that Python will check that directory for Python libraries when you try to import them. If you are always using that library path, you could put it in your .profile or .bashrc file so that it is set on login.

Now when you install new libraries, make sure they go into that alternative path:

$ cd some-library
$ python setup.py install --prefix=$PYTHONPATH --install-purelib=$PYTHONPATH --install-platlib=$PYTHONPATH --install-scripts=$PYTHONPATH/bin --install-data=$PYTHONPATH

One good thing to do is make a handy little one-line script which sets the PYTHONPATH variable when you want to start working on a project which needs those libraries. You could put it in ~/bin or in your project's root or scripts/ subdirectory.

You can also make a script in your ~/bin directory which runs the python setup.py command with those command line arguments set and call it something like "install-python-library".