Organize frequently visited websites to individual workdays

I am organizing interesting blogs and web pages in folders for individual work days, instead of putting them all into my Rss-Feed reader. The positive site of that habit is, that the page’s content is not shrinked down to a one-liner. News items and blog-entries seem to make more sense in the context of its original web page. Continue reading Organize frequently visited websites to individual workdays

WIP: Visualizing Wikipedia now on Android!

Currently I am working on some interactive Wikipedia visualizations for my Master Degree in Design and the final product seems to get closer and closer (like the deadline ; ) ). The user is able to type in any Wikipedia-article to get a graphical representation of that topic in form of a TagCloud. The interface is able to visualize annotations like organizations, people or dates that are mentioned in an article. Finally, the article can be compared to a another article, so that one can compare those two articles by their annotations. Continue reading WIP: Visualizing Wikipedia now on Android!

Processing: Sunburst Project Plan

Sketch displays different categories as a Sunburst Diagram, while 12 months are equal to 360°.

This is an approach using a Sunburst Diagram instead of a regular project-plan for better visualizing of future tasks, that one will be confronted in the next 12 months.

Radar-style timeline displays current date.

Continue reading Processing: Sunburst Project Plan

PongReal

The goal of our installation was to link virtual reality to our imeditate reality. If you loose the game, you have to endure the consequences.As a result of course „Interaktion im Raum“ we tried to combine a programmed game idea with real consequences. Everything was programmed using ProcessingIDE and an Arduino-board to trigger a ball machine aimed at the player.

 

The player controls the paddle within the game with our self created foot controller.Although the game is being played in a virtual reality, upon loosing the game, the player would have consequences in real life. The player has to learn that his reactions in the game will have consequences in reality. In conclusion when you loose the game, a machine will shoot the ball on you that you have lost; Virtual Reality becomes Reality.

PongReal by Antonio Russo, André Motz & André Seiler

Aetherophone: a Theremin written in Max/MSP using a distance sensor and some magic.

Simple technique, but quite impressive: A Theremin built with Max/MSP and Arduino plus a distance sensor. The lights are also controlled by the Arduino using relays. An additional tremolo-effekt makes the sound a little bit more interesting.

 

DIY GNU/Linux Firewall, Router & Gateway

Once again I had to use my Geek-genes to solve a bunch of problems with a kind of fly flap: A Do It Yourself GNU/Linux Firewall, Router and Gateway for the home network. While most people do not seem to have problems with these tiny little routers and Wifi-Access Points that they get from their Internet Carrier, I recognized that the number of connection-issues correlates with the number of Computers and mobilephones you have at home.

A dedicated machine acts the primary gateway for all devices and allows remote connections via OpenVPN, which is really useful: I can backup my Laptop via Internet 🙂 It took me several days to get it up and running, but that project pushed my Linux and networking-skills beyond somewhere they never have been before and our network issuses have been solved.

Computer hardware is really cheap these days so I could by a kind of high-end equipment for its tasks. An IBM eServe 336 costs me around € 60 on eBay plus shipping from Germany and that bit of hardware (Dual GBit NICs !, SCSI Raid-1 !!, Intel Xeon 3 GHZ !11) should work at least for the next ten years.

Interactive: Freeze by André Seiler & André Motz

Freeze has been developed for the course “Fotografische Inszenierung mittels Fotografie” by Fritz Franz Vogel and “MaxMSP_Jitter von 0 auf 100 in 2 Semestern” by Stephan Athanas in January, 2011.
A trapped person tries to get the viewer’s audience by shouting and crying regularly and asks for help. But if you try to help the caught person, Freezer may trap you.

Continue reading Interactive: Freeze by André Seiler & André Motz

Windows Home Server + Mac Backup

Finally I want to show the world a projects that I was working on in my spare time for two years now. Due to the fact that the number of computers at home increased in the past few years, a backup-solution is obsolete.

I have chosen Windows Home Server to backup two already running Windows-machines and three Macs. While the integrated backup-routine for connected Windows-machines works very well, I had to think of a solution for the Macs. Apple’s Time Machine only accepts local hard disks but no remote connections, so they have sales arguments for their Time Capsule-product. Continue reading Windows Home Server + Mac Backup