-
Scribbling with Typeset
Typeset text via keyboard text input is still mostly confined to rigid, linear textboxes, while freeform written text from a stylus or pen and paper is slower and harder to read and re-use in new contexts. I created a prototype on the Microsoft Surface that combined the best properties of both of these worlds: quick,…
-
Nuit Blanche 2010: The Wall
I have a project in Toronto Nuit Blanche 2010 this Saturday! Here’s the blurb: The Wall Dustin Freeman Rorik Henrikson A wall of coloured blocks that move randomly when there is empty space. There is one rule: 1) When a moving block bumps a still block, it transfers its colour. At the beginning, every block…
-
Indian Moments, Part 4
[Today, I have a bad cold, with a sinus headache and running nose. The amount of mucous I’m producing is pretty epic. I’m trying to at least conserve mass, so I’m drinking lots of water.] [At a pharmacy.] Do you have Eriecedamol? [I had called a local friend who pronounced this for me over the…
-
Indian English
The lingua franca in India is English. If you can only know one language in India, this is the one to know. A common misconception if you’re from outside India is that the entire country is culturally and linguistically as one. This is incorrect! India is more culturally diverse than Europe! There are thousands of…
-
Indian Moments, Part 3
Indians refer to Native North Americans as Red Indians. We ordered bottled water to our table and it was…Foster’s branded. Foster’s branded water. It would seem kind of okay with, say, Coca-Cola, if they put their brand on water, but a beer company putting its brand on water is just plain suspect. An Indian told…
-
Gmail Subject Lines Auto-complete Hilarity
Thankfully, the browsers I use save the subject lines I have used over the past few years. I paused when I saw one of these in auto-complete, and then went and captured a bunch more. These are both nostalgic, and hilarious. Sometimes I remember the context, and some time I cannot.
-
How a Strike Ruined my Weekend
This past weekend (June 26th and 27th), me and two other ex-pats in Bangalore (French, Italian) decided to go to Cochin on the west coast of India. After spending most of my time at the 900 meter elevation of Bangalore, I was really excited to get down to sea level and touch the Indian Ocean…
-
Indian Moments, Part 2
Apparently, if you get high marks on an exam, your face gets put up on a poster in town. Indians find it hilarious and wasteful that I use toilet paper after going to the bathroom, instead of the ubiquitous squirter hose in every toilet. (As we’re leaving a Chinese restaurant to go on a weekend…
-
Indian High School Dance on a %#$@ing School Bus
So this past weekend, I went on a visit to Kodaikanal, a hill station in Tamil Nadu south of Bangalore. 2100 metres elevation baby! (minus the snow I’m used to expecting at that elevation). The air was amazing. I went with the same three other students from France and Switzerland I visited Hampi the previous…
-
This is What A Day of Gesture Design Looks Like
After spending a day designing a gesture detection algorithm, I took a look down at my paper and noticed that it looked almost art-like, if you didn’t know the origin. I decided to humbly share them with you for your educational and aesthetic benefit, my dear readers.