(codename: in your phase)

Falasol 1.2 is out. After UI revolution finally there is time for new features to shine. And there is performance improvement as well :) 

Side-by-side UI comparison (click for full sizes):

Falasol 1.1

Falasol 1.2

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I bought kinect last weekend (right after releasing the official api) and I’m really amazed by its possibilities. New ideas keeps popping up each day, so stay tuned for more vids :)

Have you ever experienced this strange feeling when watching photos that you took last night during all-night-long acid trip? Suddenly you realize that the Eskimo you were talking to for couple hours is just a toilet seat. And the amazing cocktail you were sipping consists mostly of herbal shampoo with vodka and glass cleaner. I know how it feels like. But fear not – it’s just the logical part of your brain trying to trick you. This app will help you release psychedelia hidden in the photos and show everyone how it REALLY was. Stay away from “Trippy Inverter“!

This is a quick Windows Phone 7 application for image processing. Whole project took 1 day, half of which was setting up the dev environment. Main goal was to figure out the WP7 release process & collect stats – in case I’d like to make a more serious app.

You can also check that out from various download sites.

Those happy times, future was bright
Great presentations, sounds of applause
Lively discussions, everyone’s right
Drawing diagrams was so much fun

Now you are screwed with shitty design
Layers of crap with ain’t no plan
Frickin’ solution that just won’t scale
Countless regressions and no one care

From the Equation OCR front line…

Problem:

Splitting up handwritten calculations into single lines.

Algorithm description:

First map all the strokes on the y-axis. Then travel along the axis and record the the ink density (number of strokes underneath). Remember local maximums. If the density falls below a certain percentage (tolerance) of a last local maximum – insert a break line.

C# code:

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A TED talk presenting 4 ways sound affects people. Really interesting and much in the spirit of the post I wrote some time ago.

…you can look but you better not touch

Recently I’ve started working on a new project with my friend, so development of Falasol will be slower for a while. But fear not – I’m not going to give up on that. Falasol is my long term plan and what you can see so far is just a little part of it. I expect to get back to it next year. Meanwhile I’ll be occasionally posting stories from EqOCR development. You probably guessed that it will have something to do with equations & math – that is correct.

It was back at school when I discovered the charm of equations

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Darling, would you merge your code with mine?
Your recurrence overflows my mind!

Let’s go crazy without breakpoints
Strings like yours is all that geek wants

Check my bigint, in a while…
We’ll have private double func

In library
At run time
Let’s join threads and override
With your 0 and my 1
We’ll ignite a great bit bang!

Winter wake up plan

Morning time-bomb

This setup was on my mind since I was a kid. But it was recently when I found the missing device to make it happen. Couldn’t believe when I saw it on the shelf at my usual shopping market: THE POWER STRIP TIMER.

So here it is: my geek’s dream wake-up scenario!

1. Evening

   • Set-up the turntable with an LP to be played in the morning
     Can be classical Vivaldi’s Four seasons, jazzy Amy Winehouse, Sabaton‘s battle-metal, chilled out Air, Fink Flooyd‘s psychedelia, dark vibes of Black Sabbath or what have you…
   .­
   • Start a quiet playlist from the laptop for good night via surrounding 5.1 speaker system
     Before falling asleep I usually have some wine & read a book in bed for a while. It’s nice to have something playing in the background. Happened few times that a song was able to ‘incept’ a cool dream :)

2. When sleeping

   The scheduled task on the laptop stops the lullaby music around 1.30 – 2 o’clock. REM sleep phase is better with as little outside stimulus as possible.

3. Morning

   7.30 – power cord timer kicks in

   • Sun-imitating lamp gently warms up
   • Vinyl gets a spin – for an extra kick the turntable is connected directly to amplifier =:]
   • After soaking up the music for a couple of minutes ain’t nothing gonna break my stride!

The LP usually finish about the time I leave. Automatic timer turns-off the lamp & turntable few minutes after.

How cool is that! :D

Sound Of the Month Edition

Music of the prime numbers

Each harmonic corresponds to one prime number. A note is played on its beat-multiplication

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Zipped project

This idea was on my mind long before starting the whole Falasol project. What kind of cacophony would it be if each note is assigned a prime number and played only on the number’s multiplication beats. Total chaos? Or would the mind be able to recognize some hidden patterns?

It’s both. The brain can grasp 2 & 3-beat notes and arrange them into 6-beat tact ( 2 * 3 = 6 ). Next 5-beat harmonic creates a 30 beat verse (consisting of 5 described tacts). That’s the rhythmical clocking in the background. Next prime harmonics (7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37) add nothing more than chaotic wind-bells effect. The resulting patterns are way too long to be digested by the regular brain, but who knows, maybe some savant would do. Anyway, quite a good accompaniment to get insane :)

Come get SoME!