Blog  |   Puzzles  |   Books  |   About

Archive for 2011

The World’s Ugliest Music?

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Fibonacci Flim Flam

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

I recently posted a tutorial on how to draw circles, spirals and fibonacci spirals (that pattern you see on sunflowers). I thought it would be only fair to post this critique of the notion of the “golden ratio”, in which mathematical curmudgeon Donald Simanek takes sacred geometers to task for overstating the importance and pervasiveness […]

Blue Monster

Monday, November 7th, 2011

Sean Bogg’s Blue Monster contains a very slowly rotating spiral full of googly eyes, inside a ring of blue monster fur. As it rotates, the eyes shift, in their sockets in a charming and alarming way! Here’s a link to Sean’s page, where you can see a movie of the artwork in action. I found […]

Keaton Music Typewriter

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

A rare music typewriter that was patented in 1936, there are only about twelve Keatons known to be in existence. This one is going for $6000, which puts it out of my league! It was marketed in the 1950s and sold for around $225. The Keaton music typewriter was intended to make it easier for […]

The Ins and Outs of Slitherlink

Friday, November 4th, 2011

One of the most difficult Slitherlink puzzles I publish is the Laves Slitherlink, which you can find in its own collection, as well as in my variety slitherlink collection. I recently helped a reader, Billy, solve one of these monsters, and I thought I’d share the tips here. We explored a handful of advanced solving […]

Krazydad’s Sound and Audio Workshop

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

My next workshop “Processing for Musicians” (or “Cool shit with Sound in Processing for Musicians and Non-Musicians alike”) is tomorrow night at Crash Space in Culver City. There are still a few open slots available! The workshop is 60 bucks, and the money goes towards a good cause (Crash Space). Among the topics covered: How […]

Björk’s Gamelan-Celeste

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

The Gameleste – a custom instrument for Björk from Andy McCreeth on Vimeo.

Double Rainbow!

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

I’ve added a companion piece to the Circles, Spirals and Sunflowers tutorial I recently published. This new tutorial explains how to draw a double rainbow in javascript (with a little more finesse than the usual). You can use these highly sophisticated rainbows for good or evil. The choice is yours! A processing version of the […]

How to create a fake language in one day

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

An interesting blog post from game designer Mikael Säker, in which he explains how he created a fictitious language (for a game) in one day. Qewo rotawine kuzo osinita tasikisuina. reopise qokotasi duma mo kime qodutioja, ruzeerure titazeso nejo rosojo tasikisuosi nitariso owetati raroqo kimosi diro zesesoaja osi oqatisoso sereneo. I would argue that this […]

Circles, Spirals, and Sunflowers

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Long time readers of this blog know that I am obsessed with circles and related things, like donuts, and cups of coffee. As a result, I have amassed a small arsenal of techniques for producing them. If you know Javascript, and would like to develop your graphics chops, you may enjoy my new tutorial, which […]