Almost here

moon over fireworks, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

keep an eye here for some changes. Hopefully within the week.

silverlining

multiplex, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

I wrote this little script that takes images (the smaller the better) and clips them together to make one image. Basically, the more images you feed into it, the more information it holds but at the same time it becomes increasingly indecipherable.

Done

final render, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

busy regrouping, helping thesis students get done, and catching up on life.

spam gem

Best one to slip past my spam filter in quite some time:

Serge G emailed you a [deleted].com article

show details 4:31 AM


Serge G wrote.. IT IS NOT A SPAM, but if you received that message second and plus time JUST CLICK “DELETE” button and have a nice day. Don't feel bad, please understand original Scarlett's family very desperate to shut down that humiliating antichristian "actress" clones line career development. Hello dear Ladies and Gentlemen! I would like inform you that Scarlett Johansson “actress” actually is a clone from original person Scarlett Galabekian last name, who has nothing with acting career, surname Galabekian, because of adoption happened in 1992. Clones was created illegally by using stolen biological material. Original person is very nice (not d**n sexy),most important - CHRISTIAN young lady! I'll tell you more,those clones (it's not only one) made in GERMANY - world leader manufacturer of humans clones, it is in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Mr. Helmut Kohl home town. You can not even imaging the scale of the cloning activity. But warning! Helmut Kohl clone staff strictly controlling all their clones (at least they trying) spreading around the world, they are very accurate with that, some of them are still NAZI type disciplined and mind controlled clones, so be careful get close with clones you will be controlled as well. Original person is not happy with those movies, images, video, rumors and etc. spreading on media in that way it would be really nice if we all will try slow down that ''actress'' career development, original Scarlett will really appreciated that. Please remember that original Scarlett Galabekian family did not authorize any activity with stolen biological materials, no matter what form it was created in it was and it is stolen. It all need to be delivered to authorize personals control in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Original Scarlett never was engaged, by the way! Her close friend Serge G. P.S. CONTROLLING ACTIVITY OF ANY CLONES IS US MILITARY OPERATION. Check also here: http://www.[deleted].html H.R. 534, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on February 5, 2003. After discussion, it was passed on February 27 by a vote of 241-155. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration. This bill makes it unlawful for any person or entity to perform or participate in human cloning, or to ship or receive embryos produced by human cloning. The penalties are imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines of $1 million or more. These now join other nations as diverse as Norway, Australia, and many other countries, which had already added cloning for any purpose to their criminal code. And in Germany where it carries a penalty of five years imprisonment they know a thing or two about unethical science.
Serge G is sharing this article with you. Click the link below to read the article.

The return of the claw daddy

awesome.

24 hours

Thanks windows. Now I have to reinstall, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

with 24 hours to go windows quit on me. Had to do a clean install. waste of time.

3 days

desk mess pre-clean, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

3 days to go. Summer here I come!!

countdown

blur clock, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

15 going on 14 more days to summer.

glaciers

[Svartisen, Nordland, Norway] (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

This is unbelievable and underscores my need to get to glacier national park before they disappear. (yes, I know this is not glacier national park)

Omar K

disturbingly humorous. 

spraypaints

the sound of my shoes

SFAI

I went here.

Please Flush

Please Flush, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

…thank you

flickr

african serval, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Things I will not do on flickr:

HDR—in the hands of a seasoned professional HDR can be great for an image. Unfortunately there are around ten such people and none of them are on flickr. Please do not try.

"Best" Groups—usually invited by someone that's embedded a stupid image of a ribbon or medal, these groups are a scourge and thinly veiled ego buoy. Often these groups have something to do with HDR (see above)

"365" sets—Taking and posting a photo of yourself every day for a year sounds like a great idea…until you realize that it really isn't. For most people this realization comes around day 13 when they run out of inspiration for new and exciting poses, environs, outfits etc. Most of these photo sets are then abandoned and never returned to. For those that stick with it: we know all we need to know about you from the simple fact you even started the set. And unless you have an extreme mental disorder, you probably don't have more than a handful of 'sides' to your personality, certainly not 365, and most of those probably shouldn't be shared anyway.

Inane commenting—Don't get me wrong, commenting and adding notes to a photo in flickr is a great feature when not abused. Abuse is especially rampant on "the commons" images taken from archives. Please leave off-topic, non-constructive comments for myspace and irq.

Pretentious lingo—I can tell you're from the US, so why do you spell "photo" as "foto." Not basic. Also using the English spelling "colour" or "favourite" are unacceptable if you did not learn british english.

Shameless self-promotion—did you just post your own image in a comment for someone elses photo? Did you digg your latest upload? are you serious?!

spring break!

New Key, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Headed back to the 505 for spring break tomorrow! It's not anywhere near warm here in Cambridge so I'm not too torn up about it.

In the photo you can see my newest USB key which is actually manufactured to be a key. We'll see how it holds up on a keychain. Points for awesome regardless.

Know Water

Know Water Screens, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Recently got word that we didn't win the 2009 Aspen Design challenge, although we did get Honorable mention. I don't think there was any way to anticipate direction the competition was going based on the materials initially provided to us. Perhaps we'll give this another go next year? I wouldn't mind a trip to Copenhagen.

the team consisted of Nick Dubroff, Ted Alcorn, Stan Alcorn, and Joseph Bergen.

tied down

tied down, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

someday this wont be necessary. at least the new MBP keeps things relatively tidy.

proto? proto!

proto-proto-block, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

If anyone has any idea what a "proto-block" is, or where to purchase one, let me know.

Snow day!? Nope.

Snow day!? Nope., originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Looks like it snowed somewhere around 6 inches last night. Does this affect class schedules? No. Neither have federal holidays and fire alarms.

Broken Bits

Broken Bits, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

what happens if you try to go too fast and cut too much with the router.

random rules

Sorry, you have a Java-challenged browser!


Here's the other version of the tile game. It's actually the first one I wrote and a lot more difficult to achieve logically. This other one can be completely random because the tiles have ends on each side, but in this version, only two sides have arc ends which constrains the options for rotation significantly as to avoid "dead ends." Once I had written this code however, it was only a matter of about ten minutes to trim out the excess to arrive at the other version of this code which is conceptually simpler.

cul-de-sac

Sorry, you have a Java-challenged browser!


My critic showed us these children's toys using tiles arranged in patterns. arranged manually, it takes some time to simply copy/paste/rotate/move so I decided to script the process. This applet shows no bias towards the two tiles, but it is possible to adjust a bias and achieve more predictable results. Each time the script is run, the results are unique (in this version, I believe there are 2^(50^2) permutations) Maybe I'll build some sort of interface for this thing…or maybe I have better things to do.

tomorrow I'll post another version with different pieces.

tessellation

chrome tesselated surface, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

starting off the semester with a script that produces a tessellated surface using (in this case) a semi-random array of vectors (vectors in maya = points for everyone else). I'm hoping that this algorithmic investigation will yield some useful tools…or at least some shiny renderings..

spring? Just kidding!(?)

Urban winter poop, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

With temperatures supposed to get up to 50°F this week, it feels like spring in the middle of February. However, I'm pretty sure we're getting suckered.

Mastercam

Mastercam, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Mastercam is definitely an lesson in patience, perseverance, frustration, and tedium. However, it pays off when you get it right.

edit - in cleaning my keyboard I accidentally deleted the original photo associated with this post. this makes me sad.

edit 2 - thanks to Time Machine I restored the image. Thanks time machine!

things I've learned from this video:

1. I have bad posture

2. I spend half my life with one or more eyes closed

3. I need a haircut

it's snowing again

Tiny People, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Is it bad that I'm hoping for flight delays this early in the semester?

new desk time

Desk at the beginning, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

probably not a good sign that my desk is starting out messy

postcards

"High Spirits", originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

maybe number 2 or 3 on my list of things I love are postcards.

short break

Lombard St at night 11/12/2001, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

It's been a couple weeks since I updated and a bit since I uploaded to flickr as well because basically I've been waiting for iLife 09. Now that I have it, I'm still learning my way through the inner-workings of the program but so far I'm really liking it.

three down

sectionRender, originally uploaded by neutralSurface.

Four to go. I find that having finals after winter break really seems to kill my ability to ever completely relax because no matter what I know I should be studying or writing or something other than sleep and eat.

In any case, this is what I made in the span of about 24 hours.