One of the practical consequences of using proprietary software is that your right to use that software can be revoked at any time. Recent conflict between Ebay/Skype and the founders of Skype is an illustration of this. Ebay themselves, and millions of Skype users who rely on Skype for their day to day communications with family, business associates, and friends, have put themselves at risk by choosing proprietary software and protocols. Another illustration of this was the music software Logic Pro which alienated its Microsoft Windows user base when Apple bought the product in July 2002, and discontinued the Windows version. Quite apart from events like that, companies often close down, get bought out, go bankrupt, or discontinue a former line of software. This is as true for modern "cloud based" companies like Google as it has always been for companies like Apple and Microsoft. When you invest your time and energy in proprietary software, and software with closed formats, you are disempowering yourself. Free and Open Source Software is, practically speaking, a much safer bet.
I am playing two gigs in London this week. The first one is a livecoding gig, which will be my first time livecoding, so I'm a bit nervous that I will be really boring. I will basically be constructing Pd patches and sequences from scratch.
The second one is an Ill FM gig which will be broadcast on the radio. I'll be doing my normal Pd-with-the-laptop-lid-closed-and-a-midi-controller set.
Wednesday night
++ PUBCODE2 ++
Part two in the first series of livecoded music events in London.
Live coding is a new direction in electronic music and video, and is starting to get somewhere interesting. Live coders expose and rewire the innards of software while it generates improvised music and/or visuals. All code manipulation is projected for your pleasure.
When: 7pm - 11pm, Wednesday 5th August 2009
http://toplap.org/uk/event/pubcode2/
Featuring: chr15m (making machines that make machines make music) MCLD (beatboxing + livecoding, is it possible?) Yee-King + Click Nilson (algorithmic choreography) openSlub (crowdsourced livecoding)
Place: The Roebuck 50 Great Dover Street London SE1 4YG
Door tax: Free
Tube: Borough (5 mins walk) London Bridge (9 mins walk)
More info: http://toplap.org/uk/
Thursday night
"You understand and agree that Apple may, in its sole discretion, [...] reject Your Application for distribution for any reason, even if Your Application meets the Documentation and Program Requirements".
-- Apple developer documentation
"The certificate does not need to be signed by a certificate authority: it is perfectly allowable, and typical, for Android applications to use self-signed certificates. The certificate is used only to establish trust relationships between applications, not for wholesale control over whether an application can be installed."
-- Android developer documentation
I was having a really dull time trying to port my GameJam0509 entry to anything other than the development platform, Debian GNU/Linux. I managed to get it running under Mac OSX 10.5, but Windows was giving me a really hard time, so I've done is what any self-respecting internet slacker would do and made a game trailer instead. This is all ingame footage (sorry about the low framerate but the game is heartily unoptimised).
The Infinite 8-Bit Platformer concept is an idea I had ages ago, and the basic game design is this:
- There is no shooting or killing in this game. The primary game mechanics are exploratory and social. You can run, jump, go through portals to new levels, and collect things.
- Content is user generated. As you can see in the video, the game includes an in-game editor. You can edit levels, portals (connections between levels), and items.
- It's massively multiplayer in the same way that a MUD is massively multiplayer. As you explore the levels you can see other people doing the same, and you can stop and chat with them, give them items, etc. (this bit isn't implemented yet).
So basically I was hoping that if enough people used the game enough we'd end up with a massive, social, network connected platformer which you could explore for hours and hours, always finding new and interesting things, places, and people. Maybe I'll finish it one day, we'll see. In the meantime, all there is is this trailer and blog post. :)
Anyway, one things that GameJam0509 taught me is that the old way of making games kind of bites, and the web based entries kicked butt. From now on I think I'm going to try and do game development in the open, on the web.