Some notes on books that Maki’s read recently.

The most recent version of the booknotes is the 2012 epub

The booknotes are released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

catty 20120401 (Taken with instagram)

I can has keyboard? (Taken with instagram)

feels like summer already (Taken with instagram)

based on maki’s handwriting start of a basic font using fontforge — originally designed in 1995–6 for ambidextrous pen–and–ink.

current status 20120219 contains A–Z, a-z, 0–9 and some punctuation. Some accented characters (auto–generated by fontforge) are available, but we haven’t yet had time to optimise their positions on the letters. Of special interest to font designers is that there are no kerning pairs or ligatures as the font is designed to work without them.

testing summary 20120219 tested using MacOS 10.8 mountain lion preview. Embedding the font via an externally hosted url link in webpages (using @fontface) works for Mac Safari 5.2 and iOS 5.0.1 but fails gracefully for firefox 10.0.2 and internet explorer 9 due to incomplete external fonts support.

download ttf font 20120219 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

photo: standard contact sheet produced by MacOS 10.8 font book app. download jpg 20120219 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

installing fontforge on mac os lion 10.7.2 was a lot harder than i thought it would be! here’s how it worked for me on a MacBookAir3,1:

instructions build–from–source instructions unfortunately these don’t work for us with fontforge version 20110202

xcode from apple needs to be installed on the mac for the build tools — warning, will eat up just under ten gigabytes of space once installed!

download fontforge source from sourceforge

download gcc based on instructions from caiustheory (note this will change with the version of gcc) — i had to use sudo gnumake rather than just gnumake

mkdir ~/tmp && cd ~/tmp
curl -O http://opensource.apple.com/tarballs/gcc/gcc-5666.3.tar.gz
tar zxf gcc-5666.3.tar.gz
cd gcc-5666.3
mkdir -p build/obj build/dst build/sym
sudo gnumake install RC_OS=macos RC_ARCHS='i386 x86_64' TARGETS='i386 x86_64' SRCROOT=`pwd` OBJROOT=`pwd`/build/obj DSTROOT=`pwd`/build/dst SYMROOT=`pwd`/build/sym
sudo ditto build/dst /

download homebrew from github

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

install fontforge instructions from joe wong open a terminal in the directory containing the source packages (open a terminal window, type “cd ” and then drag the finder folder containing the source packages into the terminal window to complete the command; or if using our shortcut, control option command F1 while in correct finder directory)

brew install cairo --use-clang
brew install fontforge --use-gcc

install symlink optional, to show fontforge in your applications directory

ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/fontforge/20110222/FontForge.app /Applications

uninstall homebrew optional instructions if needed

photo: balboa park, san diego; casa del prado entrance. download jpg 20101010 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

So why would anyone want to learn absolute(perfect) pitch?

Here are the reasons that matter most to me:

1. I’d like to tune a guitar and other instruments
2. It’s a fun challenge
3. I’d like to show my friends so they can learn it too

Here’s what I’m starting from:

1. I don’t mind if things are out of tune
2. I think challenges are never as difficult as people sometimes believe
3. I can sing and play the piano and I’d like to do this with more friends

Diana Deutsch found that although only about one in ten thousand Western people have absolute pitch, if you speak a tone–language, you are much more likely to do so!

This is very interesting to me — I speak Cantonese (a tone language) well but am not fluent; and I am passionate about music but never trained myself to name notes. So I actually am just outside of the group which Diana predicts will be most likely to have absolute pitch.

However, I might be able to train myself, and I made (I am told) an interesting way to do this:

1. I found the lowest tone I normally speak in Cantonese is F♯ (174.6Hz, F♯3)
2. The lowest open string on a normal guitar is E, one octave and two semitones below that F♯. Once you tune one string, it’s easy to tune the rest of the guitar (82.41Hz, E2)
3. In a week, I can go straight to the E instead of via F♯

But how can this be adapted for speakers of non–tone languages? Here’s how:

1. Everybody has a lowest note that they can sing
2. Find out what your lowest note is
3. Remember that note!

The rest is just practice (i.e. guts and hard work) Here are some fun ways I learned more notes:

1. A is the note I from which I start playing “Puff the magic dragon” on the piano (880Hz, A5). Many orchestras tune to A one octave below (440Hz, A4).
2. C♯ is the normal highest spoken tone for me in Cantonese (277.2Hz, C♯4). This is an octave minus a semitone above the third open string of a guitar (146.83Hz, D3) This is almost middle C (261.63Hz, C4)
3. E is the lowest note on the chord of the right hand when I start playing “Imagine” on the piano

To help learn some more notes (A2 to A7, 110 to 1760Hz), and to test I really can remember and reproduce the notes, I’ve made some test cards using a tone generator and a flash card program (Anki). But it seems an easy way so far for me is when a song I play uses a note.

download jpg 20101010 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

Easy way to turn airport (mac wireless) power on and off. Just activate quicksilver and type wlx. Currently running this script using quicksilver and mac os 10.8 mountain lion preview, previously on 10.7 lion, file saved as 20110529wlx-wirelessonoff.applescript ; may be possible to use other applescript–friendly launchers.

-- 20120223 www.makiaea.org ref: 20110529wlx-wirelessonoff.applescript
-- wlx toggles wifi (airport wireless) power on and off
-- Tested using macbook air 3,1 , OS X 10.8 (12A128p) and quicksilver ß63 (3912), mac os 10.7 (Build 11A459e) and quicksilver ß59 (3842)
-- if you are not using quicksilver to run the script, you may need to compile the script first (using applescript editor) and save as an .scpt script or as an app if you want to double–click with the mouse on an icon to run it.

-- note this assumes your wireless ethernet interface is en0
-- get the correct interface from the menu Apple|About This Mac|Network|Wi-Fi or from terminal using ifconfig -a
try
    set makiaeawirelessstatus to do shell script "networksetup -getairportpower en0"
on error
    display dialog "The script did not work as intended, please check the networksetup command (in terminal) works on your system. It has been tested on OS X 10.8 (12A128p) and mac os 10.7 (Build 11A459e). Other versions of mac os may not have this command available. Please open the applescript in applescript editor for more details." buttons {"kthxbai"}
end try

if makiaeawirelessstatus is "Wi-Fi Power (en0): On" then
    do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en0 off"
else if makiaeawirelessstatus is "Wi-Fi Power (en0): Off" then
    do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en0 on"
else
    display dialog "The script did not work as intended, please check your wireless connection is specified correctly. The default in this script is en0 (please open the applescript in applescript editor for more details)" buttons {"kthxbai"}
end if

Free sketching tool for any browser, works great on iphone4. Just bookmark harmony shaded or harmony sketchy in your browser. It’s very simple¹ but you can draw gorgeous sketches. Based on mrdoob’s harmony.

¹there’s no undo, you save by hand, using png format files

PS for a version that works well on iphone3, please see cookbook. The iphone4 version canvas size is optimised for an iphone4 screen. To get a large area on which to sketch, set a bookmark in any fullscreen–capable browser², go fullscreen, then load the bookmark.

²e.g. for iphones, the Mercury browser — we keep harmony open in Mercury all the time for quick sketches.

PPS technical: the offline cache does not work currently because we’re serving the pages from dropbox instead of a regular webserver.

download jpg 20110430 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

Some of our webpages were going around in circles! We tracked down the error to the Customize|Advanced|Use descriptive URLs option. Turned it off and there were no more “http errors” or “too many redirect loops”. Hope this helps other Tumblr users in the same boat — there was no useful information that Google was showing today.

photo: chipmunk living near cafe in muir woods national monument, miwok trail is mostly open for cycling but muir woods itself is not — so bring a folding bike! download jpg 20110411 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

Catty modelling Andreas Hegenberg’s keyboardcleantool. When catty is about to leap on the keyboard, this program helps stop extra words appearing :) I set finder (cmd–space then k) and quicksilver shortcuts (activate and then k) to start the app quickly.

download jpg 20110501 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0

Was it really ten minutes? It felt like five! Kat, Max, Joel, Chris and I were given forty sheets of paper, a roll of sellotape, two squares of cardboard, also ten minutes of planning time (without materials).

The exercise helped us bond as a team, and I noticed how we each took every one else’s suggestions seriously and applied them as we could explain and understand how they made sense. Thus we adapted very quickly to the changing situation, which was essential because the final process did not resemble the initial plan. Our plan helped us establish and agree some common ideas and limits to what we could do with the materials, which then helped us work smoothly together. I think I now have a more realistic idea of the limit of time!

They say expertise is essential, but listening to and trusting each other may be even more so. It was really good that we chatted together in the breaktime before :)

I really liked the other teams’ towers too, the one next to ours was very organic, looking like something from Dr Seuss. There was also a folded one, which didn’t use tubes, and other really good towers. I’m wondering whether we could have built a double helix in the time we had :p Well done everyone!

Quicksilver is an efficiency tool for MacOSX. We find it improves flow when creating and manipulating files on the computer. Here we discuss how we currently use the β59 version (for OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard).

Quicksilver does not replace Spotlight. Quicksilver does not search within files, Spotlight does. I still use Spotlight for searches within contents of files.

I’ve set Quicksilver to rescan its catalog manually (Cmd-R) rather than automatically, to save on disk wear. I am actually using double–caps–lock to activate quicksilver, but use the default activation sequence (control–space) in the recipes here.

Clipboard history list enable the plugin, use Cmd–L to see and paste old items.

Pull foreground item into quicksilver (e.g. copies text): Cmd–Esc

Queue a stack of items for action (e.g. open, copy, move lots of things at same time): Comma (,)

Open folder containing the file search for the file in quicksilver, but then press Cmd–enter instead of plain enter.

Append text to an existing file useful for quick notes, especially if you organise special files to receive this data (e.g. todo, shoppinglist). Adapted from Robert Daeley’s qsredux

1. In the Quicksilver Preferences Application pane, turn on ‘Enable advanced features’
2. In the Plug-ins pane, ‘Text Manipulation Actions (+)’ must be installed and turned on.
3. Check that the actions|files and folders|prepend to and append to are selected (not prepend text!)
4. targets must be in the following categories:
   1. Must be a plain text file.
   2. Must be a member of a QS Catalog you’ve added and indexed to the proper depth.
   3. Must have .txt extension.
   4. Dotfiles (e.g., ‘.reminders’ or ‘.vimrc’) cannot be selected
5. now type control–space to activate quicksilver
6. type “.” (period) to activate text input
7. type your text to append/prepend
8. hit “tab” to move to next field
9. type “append to” or “prepend to” or just “a” or “p” to activate append/append to command
10. hit “tab” to move to next field
11. start typing the filename of the file you want to append/prepend to
12. select the file and hit return
13. the text is appended/prepended automatically

Create a new text file containing some text you want to type in straight away:

1. control–space to activate quicksilver
2. type “.” (period) to activate text input
3. hit “tab” to move to next field
4. type “create new” or just “c” to activate create new file command
5. hit “return” to open a dialog to choose where to place the new file
6. quicksilver will make the file and then suggest to open it for editing

Make new file based on a template useful if you have complex templates

1. create a template in the directory ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Templates e.g. empty text file
2. control–space to activate quicksilver
3. choose a directory in which to place the file
4. hit “tab” to move to next field
5. type “make new” or just “m” to activate make new file command
6. it will choose the default template

Timers we use this instead of the clock

1. enable the quicksilver catalog proxy objects
2. activate quicksilver
3. press “.”
4. type text
5. press tab
6. press control-enter
7. type “delay” or “at time”
8. press tab
9. type “2s” or “15:50”
10. press enter

Move or copy file can be quicker than mouse-drag-and-drop

1. activate quicksilver
2. choose the file
3. tab to next field
4. type “move to” or “copy to”
5. tab to next field
6. choose a folder
7. press enter

Terminal open at the location of a folder are using this for commandline sips image alterations still!

1. invoke quicksilver (control–space)
2. select a folder (a file will not work)
3. type tab
4. type “go to directory in terminal” or “terminal”
5. type enter

Broken catalog fix sometimes the catalog is munged by third-party plugins, and Quicksilver won’t start properly. To wipe the settings entirely:

1. Quit Quicksilver, navigate to ~/Library/Caches/ and delete the Quicksilver com.blacktree. and the Quicksilver folders, then relaunch and rescan the catalog using cmd–r

NB NOT WORKING: Airport plugin appears to crash the program.

User interface access download the latest module (it works) from qsapp.com/plugins and then you can use quicksilver to activate an application’s menu items. (current application, tab, type “menu items”, tab, search for items)

Dropbox publicLink applescript we use Dropbox Public Links on our blogs, this is a handy way to copy the links. Adapted from Malt Igloo’s code and process.

1. You will need two pieces of information to input into the script, your public folder and your dropbox ID. You can find your dropboxID using the ordinary procedure: secondary click on file in Dropbox Public folder, choose menu item Dropbox Copy Public Link. Paste the data into a text editor, the number after the “u” is your dropboxID.
2. To find your public dropbox folder location, locate it in the finder then get info and on the General tab it says “Where” copy that string and add “/Public/”
3. Now open applescript editor, copy and paste the script (below) into the editor, and insert the two pieces of data into the first two lines at the appropriate places.
4. Save the script file to ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions with the name “publicLink.scpt”. Note you may need to create the Actions folder if one does not already exist.
5. Restart QuickSilver.
6. Run by choosing a file in your public folder using QuickSilver (to start with you can search for Public and then / down into the directory) then tab, then type “publicLink”.
7. When you paste the data, it gives you the Dropbox Public Link of the file.

The script works currently with β59 and the comma trick to select multiple files, but does not appear to work if you use the alternate method of selecting two files in finder using cmd–esc.

The script code is below:

property ifolder : "/Users/maki/Documents/Dropbox/Public/"
property dropboxID : 123456

on findAndReplace2(toFind, toReplace, theText)
    set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to toFind
    set textItems to theText's text items
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to toReplace
    tell textItems to set editedText to beginning & toReplace & rest
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid
    return editedText
end findAndReplace2

using terms from application "Quicksilver"
    on open theseitems
        if application "Dropbox" is not running then launch application "Dropbox"
        repeat with aitem in theseitems
            tell application "Finder"
                set r to POSIX path of (aitem as text)
                set completePath to r as text
                set docName to my findAndReplace2(ifolder, "", completePath)
                set theurl to "http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/" & dropboxID & "/" & docName
                set the clipboard to theurl
            end tell
        end repeat
    end open
end using terms from

As well as the wiki, we found Howard Melman’s Quicksilver Quick Reference useful.

Tumblr text posts easier to refer to posts, can use custom embeds and links
Dropbox public folder easier to update and manage files
Markdown syntax easier to read post content when editing

1. Refer back to a post, or repost easily as titles are permalinks on text posts. Google Sites original pages merged into Tumblr weblog. It was fun learning how to do this effectively. Makiaea.org custom theme Makiaea.com custom theme
2. Video playback on mobile devices using embedded player for YouTube html5. Code example: (can use TextExpander here) replace VIDEOID with your correct video ID:<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="500" height="311" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEOID" frameborder="0"> </iframe>
3. Music playback on mobile devices using links to SoundCloud
4. Manage files for download using links to Dropbox Public files. Secondary-click on files within folders in a Dropbox Public folder, use menu option “Dropbox Copy Public Link” and paste link data into Tumblr post. (a QuickSilver Applescript can help automate copying multiple links)
5. Feedreader support using FeedBurner, readers can easily subscribe to the blog.
6. Tumblr follow support Tumblers can follow the blog easily.
7. New cookbook and picturebook for tool/food recipes and photographs.
8. Readable post content when editing using Markdown. Example Markdown code from previous post twining redwoods by the creek, using reference-style links:

![twining redwoods by the creek][twining redwoods 500]

download jpg [20101130][twining redwoods] released under [creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0][cc]

[twining redwoods 500]: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2891399/org/picturebook/20110328greekphilosophy-coverphoto-500width.jpg "look at the tips of the trees :)"

[twining redwoods]: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2891399/org/picturebook/20110328greekphilosophy-coverphoto-original.jpg

[cc]: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

download jpg 20101130 released under creative commons by-nc-sa licence 3.0