Canned Heat in my Heelys

Ever see those eight year old kids with wheels in their shoes?  Those shoes are called Heelys, and I've owned a pair for a couple years now. Sometime last week I saw a Jamiroquai music video where Jay Kay grabs onto the back of a moving car and grinds his feet into the ground, sending off sparks behind him.

I thought it'd be awesome to try this with my Heelys.  Here's what I came up with:

That's one of my Heelys with a customized lighter taped to the side of it.  I tampered with the flintlock to make the sparks shoot in the opposite direction (not hidden inside the metal guard), and I removed the butane lever.

Here's another photo from underneath:

There are two lighters taped to this shoe, one on the left side and one on the right.  Now, this is the left shoe, the one that I break with, so the idea is that when I ride everything is totally normal, but when I break, I spark up.

And this is the end result.  I've tried it in the street, and it totally works!  I was going to film it today, but it was raining really hard, so that video will have to come later.

After doing all this work, I discovered that some people have already done this, but with these things called Tail Devils, which are attachments designed for skateboards.  Pretty cool stuff, definitely more professional and sleeker than my homemade custom design.  Although, I have to say, I think I feel better custom-designing my geekdom than buying it.  Look for a video soon.

Wiremap program... from Spain

I've been doing some additional Wiremap programming.  Check it out: [youtube]-QnETZnLRJw[/youtube]

This video also features three programs from Joaquim Virgili from Spain.  He got in contact with me via YouTube after seeing a couple of my other YouTube videos.

Sharing the Wiremap with another coder was a very cool experience.  If anybody else is interested in playing with the code, I'll gladly render it in the Wiremap 256, record it and post a video.

Dorkbottiness

Yesterday I gave a talk at Dorkbot. I showed off the smaller Wiremap, answered a bunch of questions, and did a VJ set with a few new components I built for performance purporses. The program (including new components) and the source code can be seen here. There were a few questions about the Wiremap 256.  It's a lot bigger and it has a better resolution.  If you want to get a sense of it's size and resolution, take a gander at the video.

If anybody has any questions or wants to play around with the code, feel free.  If you want I'll be able to run it and post a video on youtube.

Dorkbot Talk

is a monthly event giving people the opportunity to share their latest project that involves doing something interesting with electricity. In New York, meetings happen on the first Wednesday of every month and are open to the general public. If you're interested in the Wiremap stuff, you should definitely go check it out. At this upcoming meeting, November 1st, I'll be giving a talk about the Wiremap as well as a demonstration of Wiremap 1.01. Meetings are at 7pm, usually in a space in Soho called Location1. Come check it out and say hi.

Mostly, I'll be rambling on about my experiences with the distinctions between digital 3d and analogue 3d, and where one ends and the next begins. Should be a good time.

Wiremap Music Visualizer

While getting myself uber-involved with the coding and configuration of the Wiremap, sometimes I forget to just relax and have a good time w/ it: [youtube]-T4wnHfHiqw[/youtube]

Although I've never played around with it, the wiremap visualizer reminds me of The Abstractor, by Ji Lee, the guy behind the Bubble Project. It takes 2d information and transforms it into 1d info, which is somehow visually more yummy. It's an abstraction of an easily recognizable 2d image. So, if you throw that abstraction, that 1 dimension, across a 2d array, just like the wiremap, you get a 3d abstraction of music.

Werd.

The really cool thing about all of this is that it's way easier to build than a 3d volumetric renderer. This concept doesn't need any accurate hole-drilling, straight edges, or calculators. All it needs is a projector and a bunch of white thread.

Hacking Voicemail

Isn't it astounding how much we use our voices to talk to computers nowadays? Whenevever I call customer service, I must first talk to the computer receptionist who wants to direct my call. I picture her as an anamatronic lady from the late 80s, held up with cobwebbed hydraulic pistons. How long have I been on speaking terms with a computer? Instead of feeling taken advantage of by yet another computer, here are a few things you can do to take advantage of the situation.

• Talk to the computer with a thick Accent. Jar Jar Binks makes for a good time.
• Pretend you're 70 and have never talked to a computer before. Say something like "Hi, I'm, calling regarding an issue with my service. I was reviewing my bill the other..." When it cuts you off, just repeat what you said, but louder.
• Just say, "blahbudubadubaduba" over and over again. While neither computers nor humans understand what you're saying, computers invariably give you the benefit of the doubt and sincerely apologize when they don't understand.
• Of course, you can always say "customer service representative" over and over again. If the computer insists that it's only trying to help you by correctly directing your call, argue with it.

At any rate, I decided to hack my voicemail. I got a Skype account and called myself and a friend to capture the default prerecorded voicemail message. Then I edited it in Adobe Audition, and put it back into my phone.

The first draft of my altered voicemail was just the vanilla regular version of the default voicemail plus the woman saying "one is the loneliest number." I made it from the following audio clips:

1, is, the, 'l', tone, leave, message, number.

But it didn't sound right, and a lot of it was because of the limited source material I had. A possible answer for this is to drop ten bucks into a Skype account to capture more from Cingular's voicemail interface (that thing you listen to when you retrieve your voicemail). She talks a lot there.

So I ditched that effort and tried to imagine what would happen if the anamatronic lady broke down - here's what I came up with.

Voicemail Message.

And here's a screenshot of the audio mix of the 'or' sequence at the end of the message:

Click to enlarge in new window

I've also made a customizable version for anybody to use. Here's how:

1. Download this file
2. Dial into your voicemail and navigate to change your message
3. Play the file, pausing when you should say your name
4. Say your name
5. Continue to play the rest of the file

Enjoy!