Some Random Dude is a blog by P.J. Onori that covers design & technology in the broadest sense possible.

Archive for March, 2008

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Processing Motion Experiment – Meander

Posted on 30 March, 2008 at 11:32pm with 5 comments

Processing Experiment MeanderI have really fallen in love with Processing, but I had been had hit a bit of a plateau in terms of progress in the past month or so. I never really have spent too much time with algorithmic motion/drawing. When I jumped into Flash, I went straight towards the Tween class and never spent much time trying to work in the EnterFrame-loop based motion design. Because of this, learning how to work with Processing’s draw() loop has been a bit foreign and one can only find so many ways to implement sine/cosine motion treatments.

Luckily, I ran across the simply stunning work of Robert Hodgin who just happened to offer up his source code. After looking through one of his projects and banging away at it, I ended up learning a quite a bit on how motion can end up looking more organic and sporadic. This particular project used the noise() method as its basis for motion jittering. I had not even known such a method existed. After hacking up Robert’s source, I came up with some really interesting form experiments using Robert’s general motion concepts.

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New Grassroots Campaign Aims to Save Some Developers

Posted on 25 March, 2008 at 12:13pm with 5 comments

As a former front-end developer, I know the horrors of building HTML/CSS sites that work across all browsers. Frankly, the whole cross-browser conundrum was one reason why I got out of it a year or two ago. While I may not get paid to build static websites anymore, I obviously am still vulnerable to these problems with the sporadic interface/visual revamps I make to this blog and other minor web projects I take on. As the months go by, I see my ability to (reliably) develop HTML/CSS that will work in older browsers. That is why I really like the notion of what the Save the Developers campaign is trying to do.

The idea is extremely basic – get owners of websites to put a small amount of Javascript on their sites that encourages Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade to a more standards-friendly browser. The organizers of the project were smart not to make this some evangelist movement for their favorite browser; rather opting users to choose any modern browser that fits their needs, including the mixed-bag which is Internet Explorer 7. I have decided to participate not only to save the blood pressure of front-end web developers across the world, but for my sake as well. I am a sucker for grassroots campaigns as many of you may know by now. For those of you who are front-end developers yet less fascinated with this sort of thing, may I suggest that the sooner we can get users off of obsolete browsers, the better our (professional) lives will be.

www.savethedevelopers.org

Experience Poster Project

Posted on 16 March, 2008 at 11:07pm with no comments

Experience Poster

After looking around at this blog for a while, I really got the impression that it had been stuck in a rut for a while. So, after a bit of pondering, I thought it may be fun to push a micro-viral poster project. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember the 1 iPod project I did a couple years ago. The whole idea was to create a downloadable and easily printable poster for the public to distribute in any way they saw fit. I thought it would be fun to do something along those lines for the presidential primary…

If you have not done so already, please download one of the posters. Feel free to modify as you see fit – that goes for Clinton supporters as well. I am much more interested in seeing how people use these posters and how they are distributed than anything else. If you do participate in this project and put these posters up somewhere, make sure to contact me. Also, if you like this idea, make sure to email your friends the link and submit it to your favorite social bookmarking sites. I would be so cool to see this get to the front page of Digg and/or Reddit.


Remember, do not be a jerk with this. That is not what this project is about.

Download the Printable Posters

YouTube Opens Up, Levels Video Playing Field… Almost

Posted on 12 March, 2008 at 10:53am with no comments

Say what you want about Google, they are the gargantuan multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, but the news from YouTube to radically open its platform has Google written all over it. With the features they have opened up, developers can (almost) essentially use YouTube as a free video hosting/serving solution. As expected, the videos will also be viewable on YouTube, but for people with little wallets and big ideas, this does not seem like a bad tradeoff. Services like Brightcove are going to no doubt lose some clients with less hefty pocketbooks.
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Google Reader Has Changed My (Online) Life

Posted on 10 March, 2008 at 12:15pm with 5 comments

I really fail to understand how long it took me to start using Google Reader, but it is frankly changing how I consume content/information online. In the week or so I have used it, the amount of articles I have digested has taken off exponentially. I previously had a hard time regularly checking my favorite blogs as the process was cumbersome and plagued with too many steps. As usual, Google nailed the process and made something which previously was a pain into something I thoroughly enjoy.

I have noticed that I already have been commenting on my favorite blogs more frequently (which still is not enough) as well as getting ideas for new content on this blog. It is truly amazing what a good tool can do to impact your daily life.

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