Wrist Yoga & Transcending the Mouse

woofInstead of double-clicking our way to the afterlife, there’s a wealth of mouse alternatives worth considering – for both health and their enhanced functionality. And learning a few preventative wrist yoga techniques is probably also preferable to having to wear those pesky RSI slings and bandages further down the track.

The Power Mate
www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate
Like most contemporary interface add-ons, the power-mate is a USB powered device which will plug straight into most computers. Essentially, it’s a large metallic clickable knob which allows the user to finely control the scrolling functions of software applications. It’s clicks and circular movements can be mapped to different functions within different applications and some useful examples of these might include the volume levels of the computer, or allowing a fine controller for scrubbing back and forth on a video or audio clip, or especially within timeline based applications which can be particularly gruesome on the mouse-hand when repetitively scrolling back and forth along a time-line to edit or adjust clips.

What’s it like? While nothing as versatile as a multi-knobbed midi controller the Power Mate is actually quite a useful controller – it feels very nice to use, allows quite fine and smooth control, and feels solid and reliable. It’s a snap to adjust settings, and customise to suit various applications – eg make ‘click and scroll right’ = one thing, make scroll right = another etc etc. And what else you can’t help notice about the PowerMate ( US$45 ) is the kinda daft but cute blue light embedded all around it’s base – which steadily throbs (u can switch the pulse mode off ), and emanates an eerie blue all round. As an added bonus this’d also presumably be an effective deterrent to prevent any junkies shooting up next to your computer.

Game Controllers & MIDI
Most gamers would appreciate the limits of a mouse compared to how many more buttons and what better intuitively designed control a good joystick or handheld control can give you. Combine a simple USB convertor for one of those easy to find secondhand joysticks, and some MIDI or keyboard mapping software – and presto – you’ve found yourself a multi-buttoned controller for much more nimble control of your favourite live audio or video tool.

PSmaX
www.mikec-psmax.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
PSmaX is a Cross-Platform capable applet that allows a user to connect a Playstation control pad via a USB interface to a machine. Configuration is easy though the applets interface. Each key of the control pad is pre-assigned four MIDI control values each assignable via a 1 – 4 layout selector.
This data is then accessible to any audio/video software running on a Win XP or Mac OS X machine that accepts MIDI control through external devices, or MIDI mapping; thus allowing a user to map each key. Effectively allowing mapping over some 48 (on/offs) or 16 X-Y analogue controls.

Junxion
www.steim.org/steim/junxion.html
junXion is a Mac OS X data routing application that allows the connection of any USB game controller and defines, in an easy user interface, the translation of each key or joystick action into a specific MIDI event. The resulting MIDI data is then available to any audio/music software that runs on that Mac or can be send to external MIDI interfaces.

Skillz USB Pad Connection
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/iklett/gamecube/main.html
* Connect your Gamecube Joypad to your PC or Mac
* Supports DirectX and Force Feedback
* Works with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP / Mac OS
* Two or more Skillz Cube Connection USB can be used to connect more than one controller

Wrist Yoga?
While hunched over a number crunching beastie isn’t generally the best place for approaching mystic states (the word yoga originates from a Sanskrit word referring to a union of the individual soul with the cosmos ), there are unsurprisingly many useful sites online dedicated to preventing RSI, strengthening your computerised wrists, and all that tofu eating, herbal tea drinking jazz.
Squawk at these and digest a few simple techniques though, and you’ll gain some useful tools for helping release bodily tensions ( make sure you go to the right site ) and maintaining mental and muscular relaxation:

www.mydailyyoga.com/yoga/yoga_and_carpal_tunnel-rsi.html
www.mydailyyoga.com/yoga/rsi.html
www.abc-of-yoga.com/yoga-practice/yoga-wrist-bending.asp
www.officeyoga.com ( it’s funny animations are worth a look too )

Jean Poole

by Sean Healy, August 17, 2005 0 comments

Amon Tobin Interview: Still Permutating

Like a David Lynch soundtrack waiting to happen, Amon Tobin has consistently managed to weave menacing bass, intricate sonics and exotic rhythms into a dark and jazzy-cinema of sound. Unsurprisingly then, when espionage game makers Ubisoft went hunting for an audio sculptor, Amon got nailed.

london apparently..Your Mission ( if you choose to accept it ) : scrub those precious eyeballs across a fan-laden re-enactment, dripping with the usual hyperbole and superlatives, of a brief 15 minute phone call to the Montreal home of 1 x Amon Tobin, somehow stretched out across an entire page to cover Amon’s recent mission to infiltrate the headphones of gamers worldwide by soundtracking the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory computer game – itself a sprawling monster of an action thriller framed against a backdrop of International espionage, global surveillance and information warfare. Stick to the keyword for the piece – ‘soundtrack’ – and you’ll be fine. And for matters soundtrack, we’ve gotta head back first, to the ninja womb. Continue Reading →

by Sean Healy, August 17, 2005 1 Comment

Y-a-w-n-s: Enough Web Hibernation…

Didn’t know it would feel so strange to *not-post* writing online for a few months, and didn’t expect it would take so long to shift my web-ass, but am finally here. What was formerly ‘Blog De Jean Poole’ can continue apace, and stretch out in this new space. Am looking forward to expanding into some more visual terrain here, and setting up some collaborative & remixy project spaces. More soon, have to slash away at some of the template jungles now that ze architecture’s in place… monkey scribbles

by Sean Healy, August 17, 2005 1 Comment

Tasting The Sun

Guilt about my waterproof laptop and daily spa zapping up the coal power, means this solar primer will be the first of an every now and then series of articles about renewable energy. What is the state of a particular technologies development? What can be done with it? How might you integrate it into your life? Where’s it at, sunshine?

Why bother with renewable nrg?
Despite a high general awareness that energy waste is bad, it’s surprising how many people don’t quite make the link between their fingers and say a light switch and the coal power plant it is ultimately connected to, it’s related pollution, the greenhouse effect and global warming.

With an expected population of 9-11 billion people by 2050, and a much, much higher energy consumption in the west, energy is a key issue for carving out a decent future for ourselves this century. More than a few species will be hoping we manage to make a quick transition from fossil fuels to less polluting renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, wave power, or hydroelectrics. Research and development of these technologies, better funding and governments or institutions willing to show some foresight are sorely needed, but we can have roles too in helping develop renewable energy by supporting what is available.

What is solar power?
The energy radiated by the big burning ball energy takes about 93 million miles to get to us, but offers an estimated10,000 times the current global energy demand. Four-fifths of the sun’s energy falls on the sea. The remaining fifth, which falls on land, is still about 2,000 times greater than the total world energy demand. This can be captured using a variety of solar technologies. Passive solar techniques provide heat by conscious design of buildings. Solar thermal techniques using solar energy to heat water. And the ‘Photovoltaic effect’ generates electricity from sunlight, thanks to silicon – the second most abundant element on earth – and it’s light sensitivity to light and generation of substantial voltage when treated with certain impurities.

Integrating Solar Energy
You have options. Maybe you’ll get a solar powered battery charger to charge batteries for your walkman ( try dick smith or tandy ). Perhaps you’ll try a solar cooker for your food occasionally ( http://solarcooking.org/ ). Aware of hot water’s proportion in our energy bill, maybe you’ll convince the landlord to install solar hot water? And if you had the time, no doubt you’d build your own solar powered car with these simple directions. What everybody wants to do of course is run set up your house to run off solar.

DIY Electricity
Aside from repetitively rubbing your shoes on carpet, like many rural citizens do already, it is feasible to generate your electricity from the sun with a basic renewable energy system. You’re going to need some solar panels, you’re going to need some batteries to store the electricity, you’re going to need some regulators to protect your batteries, and you’re going to need some inverters to turn the battery power into mains power to run your normal appliances on. Here’s a system I prepared earlier:
( well, actually the Alternative Technology Assoication in Melbourne did most of it )

Still Not Sure?
Try the Australian Home Greenhouse Scorecard, a software package allows you to estimate a household’s annual greenhouse gas emissions and savings resulting from everyday activities including transport, hot water, heating appliances, recycling and composting. compare a household’s greenhouse gas emissions with those of other households, including an environmentally friendly ‘green home’. Explore ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by changing behaviour or using different appliances and forms of transport. Mac & PC available.

by Sean Healy, April 22, 2005 2 Comments

Rooftop Culture & Sky Gardening

Given the shift from 6 to 9 billion people expected by 2050, and with an even greater proportion of peeps living in cities by then, sustainability will inevitably be interwoven with our urban skies. This one’s for the Bird-people.

Greening Rooftops
Whether called eco-roofs, Rooftop Gardens, vegetated Rooftops, or Sky Gardens, the roofgarden concept is basically a lightweight engineered roofing system which enables the growth of vegetation on conventional rooftops. Benefits include protection for the underlying roof structure, heat insulation for the builkding, absorbing and retaining a significant amount of rainwater, natural cooling and air filtering, greating growing area for plants and the sheer relaxy pleasure of being on a plant covered roof. These effects are real – in response to severe ‘urban heat island’ effects from urban build-up, Tokyo has recently adopted new city regulations that require buildings of a certain size to include a green roof to maximise the cooling benefit of vegetation.

Greening Gotham ( www.greeninggotham.org/intro.php) is a particularly ambitious green rooftop project, envisioning the rooftops of New York City transformed from a barren landscape into a living network of meadows and gardens. Quite nice roll-over graphics let web-visitors transform the NY skyscape, and there’s an abundance of info for adapting roofs to include vegetation, although Greenroofs 101 (www.greenroofs.com/Greenroofs101) is probably the best online resource for those wanting to adapt a roof. ( see also www.roofmeadow.com )

Rooftop Films
Melbourne seems to have festivals for just about everything – coffee, chilli, flowers, splintered musical genres, films of any country, even scarves – but is sadly without it’s own rooftop film festival. (( thankfully that’s been rectified in 2008 ))- In Brooklyn however – pitching ‘underground Movies high above the ground’ – Rooftop Films have been promoting and screening short films on rooftops for the last few years. Outdoor films and dusky skylines? Yes, pleez~!

DIY Aerial Photography
Well, you know, because you want to play up there too. 3 options :
1.Webcams – Google em, they fill the skies. Eg this live view from the highest(?) point in Melbourne – www.101collins.com.au/rooftop.html.
2. Crapcams – try www.makezine.com for PDF instructions on how to attach and control an old camera of yours on a kite~!
3. Radiocams – Get a cheap wireless camera – they’re tiny and can be dangled with fishing line over buildings or off bridges, and send a quite decent video signal to a receiver which can be plugged into a mini DV camera for recording.

Sky Power
German documentary maker Dirk Gion, travelled across Australia last year on a large skateboard with a kite attached. His site ( www.earthflyer.com ) has plenty of photos and pix, and could no doubt trigger other ideas about playing with wind.

The Sky Orchestra
Check out ( www.lukejerram.com/live_works/sky_orchestra.htm ) this crazy research project that explores ‘how one can perceive an artistic experience while asleep’. To do this seven hot air balloons with speakers attached flew over the rooftops of homes in the UK just before dawn, playing classical music specially composed for the dreamstate by renowned UK composers. Citizens were letterboxed and surveyed later about the effect on their dreams. Photos, research info and music available at the site.

More Sky Power
There’s a 500-kilometre long barrier that separates Israelis and Palestinians, and a much longer history of complex tensions. In an effort to draw attention to a desire for peace, the 10,000 Kites Project ( www.10000kites.org ) hopes to have 10,000 kites flying on May 20, 2005 on either side of the fence. Organisers believe that the mutual artistic creations between Israelis and Palestinians provide a tremendous vehicle for breaking down those barriers that have kept these people at a psychological distance, even though they are living in the same part of the world.

Even More Sky Power
Skysails ( http://skysails.info ) is a hi-tech sail company that attaches giant sails to ships – except the sails are high above the clouds. The idea is to harness the winds higher above the ocean with an inflatable aerofoil – a kite designed to fly at a height of 100 to 500 metres, towing the ship on a cable fastened to the hull. Apparently at 500 metres, winds are often stronger and less variable than at sea level and fuel costs for ships using the sail have been halved – which is significant for a 50,000 tonne cargo ship running a diesel engine.

(( See also sky noise polaroids, a short film made on rooftops around the world ))

by Sean Healy, March 20, 2005 0 comments