Slacker

I haven't updated in almost a week.   I guess I'm a slacker, but it's really because I have been awfully sick for almost a full 2 weeks now :(.  Also I have been working my ass off at PTV.  I have been there every night for live shows for the past week.  We currently don't have a computer that can handle streaming live with Ustream so we have been using my laptop, which means I'm there every time we stream.  So if you look at the schedule that's quite a bit.

PTV Live Logo

So for now that's what's up.  Check back soon!

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Wednesday Night @ PTV - Live Streaming

Last night we live streamed at PTV for the second day. The first night went very well.  Purchase Late Night got around 35 viewers.  That's pretty good for our first ever live web stream.  Well last night we broadcasted two shows, The Beard and Brick TV.  We were expecting a few people to watch The Beard, but we did not expect 84 people to be watching!!  It was madness.  We have a chat room attached to the video stream, so that viewers can chat along with the show.  It got out of hand.  In fact Zack became a short lived internet meme:

A screen shot "anonymously" captured of Zack during his show

From another "anonymous" post

They even got Arthur

None of these images I captured or manipulated.  They were all "anonymous" postings.

Oh and the Brick came out with 20 total viewers.  Also good.  I always appreciate the comments and love.  Thanks everyone!

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PTV69 - Streaming Live Over the Web!

That is correct everyone.  PTV69 will be STREAMING LIVE TONIGHT over the internet for the first time ever!  Now people from all over can enjoy PTV's weekly live shows!

TUNE IN @ 11:30!!! DON'T MISS IT!!!

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Can Tab Rings & Repurposing Dead Glow Sticks

One of my odd obsessions is collecting can tabs.  I might sell them one day, but the more and more I collect the more I lose the drive to sell them.

That's a ton of tabs!!

I should count these

You may notice the dead glow sticks I used to hold all the tabs.  Yes... I also hoard dead glow sticks...  See the thing is I love glow in the dark things (especially glow sticks).  I have 6 gauge holes in my ears which just so happens to be about the same thickness of a glow stick.  So that is correct, I wear glow sticks in my ears.  Now what am I supposed to do with all of those dead glow sticks...? well I haven't completely figured that out yet, but I sure as hell don't want to throw them out!  What a waste.  I do however use them for quite a few things though.  I use them as a hair band holder,  If you have a bunch of them u can use them to hold ping pong balls,  I use them to hold my bracelets or necklaces, and as you saw I use them as tab holders as well... hmmm.

If you have any cool ways you use dead glow sticks I would love to hear about them!

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Animation of Evolution of an Image

Check this out!

Yay!

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Evolution of an Image

For a long time I was really into drawing.  I used to draw at least every other day and often just scribble through out the day, but for a while I haven't had the chance to just sit down and draw.  On Friday I took out an old drawing that I never finished and started working on it.  I'm still not finished, but I thought I would share with you all of you my progress.  Sorry the images aren't very good quality.  I just took some quick snap shots with my digital camera and tried to brighten them up so you guys could see them.  Here is the drawing as it evolved from when I began last February:

Let me know how you think it is coming.  Hope you enjoy.  Thanks for taking the time to check it out!!

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Vimeo Festival + Awards & Makezine

Hey guys.  It's been over a week since I updated my blog... What's up with that!?!?!  Well, all I can say is I apologize... I'm sure you guys have been dying a little in the inside waiting in anticipation.  So I have lots of fun things to tell you, but I'm not ready to tell them all to you yet.  Instead I'm going to tell you guys that if you haven't already, you should check out Makezine's blog.  Not only is it inspiring, interesting, and helpful, but it's AWESOME!!!  GET ON THAT GUYS!  Sorry... didn't mean to shout.

Anyway.  I just went on it today.  They have a How To on a self venting cat box!! Holy awesomeness.  If you don't think that's cool or useful, then, well, I don't know what to tell you.  Take a look it's so cool.

I'm not ready to stop rambling, but here is an album of the Vimeo Festival + Awards.  Just posted them a couple hours ago on Fineartmagazine.com.  I was originally going to show you guys a little video preview, but it's having some issues uploading.

That's just a little preview from what I experienced at the Vimeo Festival + Awards on Saturday, October 9th 2010.

It would be so awesome if some of you commented on my blog.  Or commented on that awesome cat box.  I would love to hear your thoughts!!  Let's get some sort of conversation going on.  I mean I know I'm nuts, but it's not as fun always talking to yourself.  So talk guys and if not I still love you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my boring... I mean extremely interesting thought provoking posts.

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Senior Project

It's about time I give you guys a little update/taste of my senior project.  Although I haven't been doing a ton of research reading, I have been doing quite a bit of coding research and actually taking some electronics apart.

Printer I took apart to obtain any DC motors from within

Motor?

Lots of gears and screws I can use!!

Well I'm guessing you probably have no idea what I am trying to accomplish.  Last year I created a project that consisted of three recycled printer cartridges attached to a DC motor with a potentiometer.  When you turned the pot it would change the speed of the motor.  When the motor spun the force caused the ink to spit out around the room, all over the floor, chairs, and on innocent bystanders.

My Project

 

View the video above to see a demonstration of how it worked (This was after all the ink ran out).  So what am I going to do for my senior project that relates to this?  Well, instead of using a potentiometer to control the speed at which the motor spins, I will be using sound.  I hope to create a whole bunch of these motors so that I can fill a white room with them where they can splatter paint everywhere.

Splatter

What I have recently decided I may do is instead of buying a whole bunch of microphones to use on my splatter devices,  I may just take hack into things like headphones and cellphones to obtain the microphones out of them.  In this way I will be sustaining the idea of recycling and re-appropriating materials.

Motorola Cellphone

Top cover peeled back and underneath exposed

Lots of pieces

This little microphone is all I wanted it for

The next step is creating a code that will read the microphone signals, send it to the computer as data as well as send the values to the motor to determine how fast it will move.  I began working off a simple code to just get the readings of the microphone.  It was getting readings, but in some way the readings weren't actually corresponding to the microphone.  Still haven't gotten to the bottom of that.  However, in the mean time we can take a sneak peek at some of the wiring I was working on yesterday.

Wiring on breadboard and Arduino

Well for now this is what I got.  It may not seem like much, but it's definitely a start.  Can't wait to share what surprises come next!!  Thanks everyone and check back soon for more updates on my senior project as well as PTV updates and probably some Fine Art Magazine updates this weekend after the Vimeo Awards!!

P.S.  I really enjoy getting comments, so if you have any suggestions, ideas, or just general comments, please don't hesitate to leave one :)  Thanks!!!

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Now Playing Application

PTV Now Playing Bar

Hello Again!!

Check out the new and revamped now playing bar on the left hand side of the PTV website.  It took me a couple days, but I finally finished coding it to perfection.  I thought I would go with a much simpler and clean look.  Thank you Grace for helping with how it should look!  Last year we had the now playing bar only on the home page.  It was big and took away from space we could use for news.

I coded it in JavaScript and used a little bit of HTML and CSS to make it look pretty.  Here is a little sample of my code I use to get this bad boy to work:

var currentTime = new Date();
    var day = currentTime.getDay();
    var hours = currentTime.getHours();
    var minutes = currentTime.getMinutes();
    var seconds = currentTime.getSeconds();
    var i;


for(i=0;i<data.length;i++) {
if ((day==data[i][0])&&(hours==data[i][1])&&(minutes>=data[i][2])&&(minutes<=data[i][3]))
  {
        document.write(data[i][4] .link(data[i][6]));       
  }
}

The code above is only used for the text and link in the now playing box.  For the images I had to create a separate JavaScript file containing all the same data, but the function to execute the data is strictly for the images: [document.write("<img height='100' src='"+data[i][5]+"'>");].

In each of the files there is an array that I call data that contains every show that is on every day. Example:

//THURSDAY

//LIVE SHOWS
[thursday,21,0,59,"News Flash with Michael Latin", "http://ptv69.com/themes/ptvtheme/images/shows/news.png", "http://ptv69.com/index.php/shows/news-flash-with-michael-latin"], //9-10
[thursday,22,30,59,"Show and Tell", "http://ptv69.com/themes/ptvtheme/images/shows/showandtellicon.png", "http://ptv69.com/index.php/shows/show-and-tell"], //10-10:30
[thursday,23,0,59,"Whalehammer", "http://ptv69.com/themes/ptvtheme/images/shows/whale.jpg", "http://ptv69.com/index.php/shows/whalehammer"], //11-12

So essentially there are four files I use to make the entire thing work and look good.  There are two .js files (these are the JavaScript files), the HTML page that calls for the .js.  The code that places the .js where we want on the page is:

<script type="text/javascript" src="<?=$this->getThemePath()?>/schedule_images.js">

Now you may notice a snippet of the code that reads: <?=$this->getThemePath()?>.  Since my application is being used on the Concrete5 CMS system we need to let the program know that in order to find the JavaScript files it must start by searching within my custom theme I created as opposed to the base public_html.

The last thing I did was style it using CSS.  I can not take full credit for the JavaScript of this beautiful application however.  I received a lot of help from one of my new media professors Jeanine Meyer.  She is absolutely amazing and an exceptional coder :).

Well I think that is all for now.  Check out the now playing application on PTV69.com, so that you can always stay up to date on what's going on.  Also a little thing to look forward to is live streaming.  Soon I will be in charge of setting up the live streaming for live shows over the web.  Now everyone can watch their favorite PTV shows no matter where they are in the world!!

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Silent Rave!!!

PTV is having an event!!  Next Thursday (October 7th) from 6-8PM,  PTV will be hosting a Silent Rave.  Bring your iPod's, Zunes, or whatever else you use, a pair of head phones, and your favorite music.

Check it out on PTV69.com and RSVP on our event page on Facebook!!

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