The exhibition room has some panels where you can take a leaflet samples of each one of the fonts displayed. There are also some great books about typography and its central theories mostly from German speaking countries. The curators also blended in debates in the history of typography mostly about legibility and digitalization.

Some of my favorite fonts of the exhibition:
[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]Replica / Bold[/tabtext] [tabtext]Generika / Regular[/tabtext] [tabtext]Reuter Mono / Regular[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]

• Dimitri Bruni & Manuel Krebs
• http://norm.to/

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• Alexander Meyer
• http://xyz.ch/

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• Peter Brugger
• http://www.peterbrugger.net/

[/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]

It is not allowed to take photos of the exhibition therefore I am placing a link to the official Flickr account of Marcel Häusler.

I was surprised to see a lot of free software and open Internet related talks, some of them included:

• Why Free Software needs Network Neutrality by Hugo Roy.
• Defending the Free and Uncensored Internet by @RaineyReitman.
• Free your Android: Reclaim your phone by Torsten Grote @t_grote.
• Uncensorable, Untraceable Search Engines for Freedom of Information by Michael Christen.

Other interesting talks which I enjoyed were:

• Accessible HTML5: Tips & Tools by Mike West @mikewest from Google.
• Mobile Web Testing & Debugging Best Practices by Andre Jay Meissner @klick_ass from Adobe.
• Building multiplatform mobile apps with HTML5 / CSS 3 / JavaScript and PhoneGap by Piotr Walczyszyn @pwalczyszfrom Adobe.
• Firefox OS and You – Freeing the Desktop was Just the Start by Christian Heilmann @codepo8 from Mozilla.
• Faster than Agile – Hack Culture and the Future of Software by Philip Su @philipsu from Facebook.

Well the place was packed with friendly people, it was great to at least once visit one of the Campus Party events. If you want to check the full online videos of the conference, you might want to check out their YouTube channel.

Video of the Event:

Photos

The 3 screen video projection showed the technical data complexity of the car which outputted some stunning visuals, mixed together with Ryoji´s incredible sounds and composition. The Muma Kraftwerk Berlin location added its charm to the artwork as well.

Concept, Composition: Ryoji Ikeda
Computer Programming: Tomonaga Tokuyama

Fotos:

Below you will find a list of very interesting tools that might help you create music online directly from your browser. I started the list with some music production tools from the most professional to the most basic one’s. I also added some multimedia apps at the end of the list I am sure you will like. I really enjoyed playing around FNK an incredible online visual programming environment that uses a dataflow approach for the analysis, processing and synthesis of image, sound and other data in real-time.

Extensions for Chrome

Back on December 6, 2010 Google officially released the Chrome Web Store, there were only a few apps available to run with your chrome browser, specially for music. We saw a very nice revamp of the store this passed October and since I’ve been seeing a very reasonable amount of audio apps and extensions to make music and sounds in the cloud. One of the first apps I did try was Audiotool, blew my mind the first time I used it and really recommend it to you.

For the more classic music lovers I also added some online guitar tuners at the very bottom of the list.

Production Studios

• Studio One
• Audio tool
• Audio Sauna
• Ujam
• Aviary Music Creator
• Beatlab
• BreakoutBand
• Musicshake

Audio Editors

• Aviary Audio Editor

Audio / Multimedia

• Fnk
• Pulsate
• Pulsr

Audio / Multimedia / Games

• SoundCloud App
• ToneCraft
• Isle of Tune
• Chime
• Doremi

Beat Counter

• Beats Per Minute

Guitar Tuners

• Online Guitar Tuner
• Free Guitar Tuner
• Guitar Tuner

[Español]

Apps y Extensiones Musicales para Chrome

El 6 de Diciembre del 2010 Google abrió oficialmente el Chrome Web Store, comenzó con solo unos pocos apps y extensiones para poder utilizarlos con tu navegador Chrome. La tiende fue re-diseñada el pasado Octubre y note que han agregado una mayor cantidad de apps y extensiones para crear música y sonidos en la nube. Por lo que decidí probar algunos de ellos, uno de los primeros que instale fue Audiotool, me pareció un app muy estable y con características muy buenas para crear música.

He creado una lista de herramientas que te podrán ayudar a crear música directamente desde tu navegador. La lista comienza con algunas herramientas de producción desde las mas profesionales a las mas básicas. También he agregado otros enlaces a otros apps y extensiones relacionados con multimedia que estoy seguro te gustaran. Me divertí mucho con FNK un increíble entorno de programación visual que utiliza el flujo de datos para el análisis, procesamiento y síntesis de imágenes, sonidos y otros datos en tiempo real.

Para los amantes de la música que les gusta componer música de una forma mas clásica también he agregado una pequeña lista de afinadores de guitarra hasta abajo.

Producción de Musica

• Audio tool
• Audio Sauna
• Ujam
• Aviary Music Creator
• Beatlab
• BreakoutBand
• Musicshake

Editores de Audio

• Aviary Audio Editor

Audio / Multimedia

• Fnk
• Pulsate
• Pulsr

Audio / Multimedia / Juegos

• ToneCraft
• Isle of Tune
• Chime
• Doremi

Beat Counter

• Beats Per Minute

Afinadores de Guitarra

• Online Guitar Tuner
• Free Guitar Tuner
• Guitar Tuner

Pros

• Light weight
• Very nice LCD screen
• Battery life is awesome
• Sleek design, very user-centered
• No need for antivirus software
• System constantly updating

Cons

• No Ethernet port (Need to carry a USB ethernet adaptor very useful when traveling)
• Very tricky to manage files, copy or move them
• Not to many Apps in the Chrome Web Store
• The mouse pad is not very responsive
• Offline Gmail is still on beta

Conclusion

The device is not intended for intensive processing tasks but yes it’s perfect for what it was designed for, surfing the web… Fast! The price might seem a bit high in relation with its hardware specs but it is difficult to calculate the value of the product, mainly because It’s hard to measure the long term benefits of having a device that gets better & faster through time. You might want to consider it as an investment! lol…

Mi Chromebook

Finalmente recibí mi Samsung Chromebook en Julio, después de unos meses de espera. La maquina me la regalararon en la ultima edicion de Google I/O el pasado mes de Mayo. Llevo más de dos meses usandola y hasta ahora creo poder escribir las ventajas y desventajas de este producto.

Ventajas

• Peso ligero
• Muy buena pantalla LCD
• Bootea en menos de 10 segundos
• La duracion de la bateria es genial
• Diseño muy moderno y enfocado en el usuario.
• No necesitas tener algun antivirus
• Es sistema esta siendo constantemente mejorado

Desventajas

• No tiene puerto de Ethernet (Dolor si viajas mucho, tienes que tener un adaptador)
• Es algo complicado el tema de la gestion de archivos.
• No existen muchos apps disponibles en el Chrome Web Store.
• El touchpad no es muy sensible

Conclusión:

El dispositivo no esta diseñado para el procesamiento instensivo de tareas pero si esta diseñado para lo que fue hecho, navegar en el internet lo mas rapido posible. El precio puede parecer algo elevado por las caracteristicas de hardware, pero es muy dificil medir el retorno de inversión de algo que con el tiempo va mejorando, como es el caso de este producto. Espero que con el tiempo el producto se vaya consolidando y claro ojála que la rapidez con que se navegue tambien vaya mejorando!

Twitter has some great advantages over other social networks and believe that its biggest one is its simplicity. This makes it a perfect platform to conquer what most techies call the final frontier: unite the virtual world with the physical world.

Unite the virtual world with the physical world?

Twitter has rapidly shifted from a few technology enthusiasts to millions of members. The large majority of them follow already non-living things from toasters like @mytoaster to telescopes @MKII. Well yes, we have started to follow tweets from non-living things and suddenly Twitter has blurred the borders between virtual world and the physical word, with most of us not even realizing it. I particularly find this to be very interesting, a few years back the concept of merging the internet or virtual world with the physical web was very difficult to explain, at least to non-technology enthusiast. Today, Tweeter has made this concept easier to be understood.

The Internet of Things

To take this interesting interaction to the next step we will need an additional ingredient. A few years ago I collaborated doing some research studies for a High Tech Company who developed a product based on Wireless Sensor Networks for the mainstream market. A wireless sensor network is a computer network made out of Miniature-Computers, so-called sensor knots or Nodes that are equipped with sensors that accomplish common tasks by interoperation. When I say common task, I mean simple tasks such as monitoring environmental parameters, movements or posting status messages through Twitter.

With the experience I’ve gathered in the search marketing industry I can see the great potential in merging this technologies for a future business model for Twitter. I have divided this new business model into two areas of development:

• Twitter Gadgets (Or Twitter hardware)
• Twitter Targeted Adds (by Geo Location or Project Theme)

Twitter Gadgets

Today, sensors are cheaper, equipment and nodes for configuring wireless sensor networks are easier to acquire, many European and American companies are currently selling them online. Code can easily be developed for non-living objects to send twitter posting of measured environmental parameters through sensors. In other words we are in the perfect position and time to create a device that would make the internet more interactive with the real world, not only to a few technology enthusiasts but to any mainstream user.

I would like you to visualize the concept of Twitter Gadgets as a, let’s say “LEGO for any internet user”. Devices that can help you build your own projects and applications. By adding different sensors and devices you could build scaled projects, just like “LEGO pieces”.

To illustrate the concept, let’s say this is your small “Twitter Gadget Home Project”, as shown below in the diagram. The Main Twitter Gadget would be a in other words a node with small processing chips that can interoperate with other scattered Twitter Gadgets with small sensors.

The diagram illustrates how all of the nodes can perform simple monitoring tasks and all of them could be sending parameters to be posted to your Twitter stream. Wouldn’t that be great, to know if your stove was left on, if your plants needed water or if the kids left the lights on. Imagine the immense possibilities and variety of projects that could be undertaken.

Now lets translate this technology into digital marketing concepts, in order to validate the business model. Could sensors mesure the amount of food left on our fridge? the amount of gas left on your lawnmower? Well the answer is YES. Now imagine having a set of suggested retailer offers on your twitter stream according to your specific needs. This would be highly targeted adverts built by the same consumer based on their very unique needs.

I am currently working on a small prototype and hope I have enough time to finish it. Please let me know if you find this idea viable or have any comments regarding it, please drop me an Email!

I went on to expand the libraries and found some great ones like the Physics library a simple particle system physics engine. Since I didn´t have any idea on how it worked I decided to start tweaking some code instead. Found this very nice website called Openprocessing.com with some great open source code examples and sketches. I used one example sketch by Abel Dewitz checkout his repertoire here.

After modifying the code I needed to embed the sketch into my webpage. For this you need to export the sketch and create an applet folder in the same directory of the sketch and then upload it to your webpage directory. This is the outcome:

I do really encourage you to go through each one of the sketches and try to modify the code so you can familiarize with the IDE. I´ve been playing arround a bit with it and finished a set of sketches mostly self portraits. Check them out:

Hace unos dias instale Processing en mi computadora. Ya había oido sobre el programa pero nunca lo utilize. Para los que quieran saber que es el lenguaje de programación Processing aquí encontraras todo acerca de Processing.

Justo después de instalarlo me dedique a expandir sus librerías, las cuales puedes encontrar en este enlace. La librería que mas interesante me pareció fue la de Physics la cual es un motor de física de partículas simple. Como nunca había utilizado su IDE decidí jugar con código ya terminado. Navegando por el internet encontré este sitio en la web Openprocesing.org la cual contiene una infinidad de ejemplos. Tome como modelo un sketch de Abel Dewitz y lo modifiqué para poder entender mejor el IDE.

Después de terminado exporté el archivo para poder agregarlo a mi pagina web. Tuve que crear una carpeta para el applet en el mismo directorio del sketch. Este fue el resultado:

Les recomiendo que utilizen algun tutorial para mas que todo se familiarizen con el IDE. Este tutorial les ayudara a familiarizarse con Processing . Jugé con el software y logre terminar algunos sketches. Espero les gusten: