Roo Reynolds - What's Next?

Family Fun

Just back from a very relaxing family holiday in the Algarve. 7 days of exploring, sunbathing, swimming and reading. I couldn’t feel more relaxed.

We stayed in a lovely villa between Silves and Algoz (about an hour from Faro airport). Six of us stayed in the villa, which was large, clean, well equipped, had a (cheerful and friendly) cleaner who visits twice a week. We were very sorry to say goodbye. Indoors, and in the shaded outdoor dining area, it was cool and shady. A very good thing, since temperatures outside ranged from 25 to 39 °C during the week. Hot hot hot. Coming back to England was a bit of shock.

• My photos

• Ray’s photos
• Villa (strongly recommended)

Rocking Outside the Xbox

My lovely friends at IBM bought me a lovely leaving present: a copy of Rock Band for the Xbox 360. I’ve been enjoying it greatly, and have been working my way through a solo guitar career as well as in band mode with my wife (our band is called Good Girl OK after the praise/release phrases we use when training her our dog. Good girl, good girl… OK).

Tonight I decided it was time to take advantage of the USB connections on those instruments and get the guitar, drums and keyboard hooked up to GarageBand.

My first exploration involved

• An Xbox controller driver for the Mac (donationware, requires a restart)
• ControllerMate (free trial, well worth the $15 registration to unlock it).

GarageBand (and similar things. I really like Reaper) has a number of interfaces for people hoping to glue together random peripherals. Perhaps the simplest if the ‘musical typing’ on screen keyboard feature which lets you use your qwerty keyboard as a virtual instrument.

I started playing with ControllerMate to make it emulate keyboard events based on the guitar controls. There’s a lot of fun to be had in fiddling with this, and Ken’s post on the ControllerMate forums got me most of the way there very quickly.

Holding the green button (e.g. the first fret) and strumming up or down creates an emulated ‘a’ keypress, which is held until the green button is released. Additional up/down strums while green is still held do what you’d expect. Expand it to all five buttons and I ended up with something like this.

Look carefully and you’ll see that it also includes whammy bar mapped to the six levels of modulation and left and right buttons mapped to octave up/down.

In short, ControllerMate is a lot of fun. It also looks as though it’s pretty trivial to hook it up to a Wiimote too. This got me thinking about alternative approaches, particularly something better than emulated keypresses and on screen keyboards and ‘musical typing’.

I’ve talked about MIDI, and it’s trendier younger brother OSC, here before. Since these items showing up in ControllerMate, (including Wiimotes via Bluetooth and Guitar Hero / Rock Band instruments via USB) are all HID (Human Interface Device) peripherals, it struck me that I’d been meaning to find a general purpose HID -> MIDI/OSC solution for some time. The closest thing on Windows is probably GlovePIE, but even before my switch to Mac I’d been leery of the licence, which states that “You may not use this software on military bases, or for military purposes, or in Israel…”. Eek.

Searching around, I found junXion which maps HID inputs to MIDI and OSC outputs on a Mac. Just what I wanted. Instant MIDI drums.

Looks interesting, and I like the free demo very much (reduced functionality and stops working after 20 minutes, but gives you a chance to try it). The full version costs €75 though, and I was sure I could find something similar in less than €75 worth of looking around time.

It turns out I was right. Hint: if I can buy your cool tool for $15 using PayPal (as was the case with ControllerMate) I will generally have registered for it before I can blink. Attempt to charge too much, and I get curious as to whether there’s something cheaper/free. I can’t be alone in this behaviour.

I dug around for about 10 minutes before I found MultiControl by Alexander Refsum Jensenius. This maps HID devices to OSC and MIDI outputs and doesn’t cost a penny.

Not a bad trade-off at all. I have not tried the OSC support yet, and support for MIDI notes is broken very strange and unconventional, but support for MIDI control messages is good and will no doubt prove useful.

It gets better though. Registered users of ControllerMate should check the ControllerMate forums. There’s a beta preview version which can send and receive MIDI messages. Awesome. I think I’ve found my new favourite thing.

Update: I’ve now got a fairly good setup in ControllerMate. Here’s a description (with demo video) which describes how it works.

Current Cost presentation at Open Tech 2008

Here’s the presentation Nick and I gave at Open Tech 2008 yesterday.

| View with comments at SlideShare

I really enjoyed the whole event and will try to put up some notes up about it tomorrow.

In search of the perfect blogging tool

I’ve been hunting for a Mac equivalent to Windows Live Writer. Here’s my personal checklist/wishlist of what an offline blogging tool should do.

.urgh {border-spacing:0px; border:solid 1px black; margin:0px; padding:0px; border-collapse:collapse; }

+ = yes
- = no (or if it’s there, I couldn’t find it)
[1] = ⌘+U (or Shift+⌘+U to use clipboard text and bypass the dialog)
[2] = ⌥+⌘+A (or Shift+⌘+A to use clipboard text and bypass the dialog)
[3] = Shift+⌘+L
[4] = Ctrl+K
[f] = with a little bit of fiddling
[e] = via HTML embed codes
[!] = really stupidly wonderfully easy
[w] = only in WYSIWYG mode, for some reason
[u] = Generally not too bad, but <span style=”font-style: italic;”> rather than <em>? Urgh.

Windows Live Writer is by far the best blogging tool I’ve ever used, but sadly it’s Windows only. It’s the benchmark by which I’m judging the others, but it would get big additional bonus points (if points were being given) for making it stupidly, wonderfully easy to insert Flickr photos and YouTube videos, without even needing to paste any HTML. Pasting in the URL for a Flickr photo / YouTube video into the editor is enough to make it do the right thing, which is a wonderful timesaving feature. The web preview auto-detects what your blog looks like, which makes an accurate preview trivially easy too.

Qumana is free, but a bit ‘monetized’ (there’s an Insert Ad button I have no interest in using, and the website says things like “Make money from your blog content by inserting the ads of your choice…”) but it’s nice enough. Each post automatically includes a “Powered by Qumana” link, which can be deleted by hand. The biggest problem with it is that alt+left/right doesn’t do anything, and instead you have to use ⌘+left/right to jump left/right by one word which is just wrong (or at least grossly inconsistent with every other Mac app I’ve ever used). Given my desire to use the keyboard for just about everything I do, this alone is a showstopper.

Ecto costs $17.95. Flickr support comes via a plugin, but sadly the output doesn’t follow the Flickr terms of service (the image should link to the photo page, but doesn’t until you add the link yourself). Rich text editing is nice though.

MarsEdit costs $29.95. It’s Flickr tab makes it very easy to add your own photos. No rich text editing but does have nice support for macros. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with some HTML, it’s great.

Depending on whether you like hacking HTML or really need a rich text editor, you’ll probably prefer MarsEdit or Ecto respectively. I’m enjoying MarsEdit enough to stick with it for now. I still have yet to find anything quite as nice as Windows Live Writer on the Mac though. Have I missed any?

Back from New York – update

I flew back from New York today, to discover England where I left it, but covered with a light blanket of snow.

I will blog some more notes from the conference soon (I have already shared my flimsy summary on the panel I moderated on Eightbar. More to come) and I’m still uploading photos to Flickr.

For now, here’s a short video of an amazing busker we saw yesterday. (Update to use fancy new Flickr video feature)

NY08 Day 0

Another trip to the US. Unusually, I’m traveling with my office-mate and fellow Metaverse Evangelist, Ian. We tend not to travel together much (there’s more value in us doing our thing individually), but this trip takes in upstate New York for some team meetings before we move on to Manhattan for Thursday and Friday for the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference.

Today’s flight was delayed for about half an hour because of a delayed inbound flight, then for another 20 minutes on the runway because of unexpected ‘congestion’ between the terminal and the sky. This congestion is a constant source of surprise, not to mention annoyance and frustration, at London’s glamorous Heathrow airport. You’d think it would be possible to plan things in such a way that planes are able to take off at an allocated time. I’m always tempted to offer some help with logistics in such situations. I mean, how hard can this be?

American Airlines: ‘we know why you fly‘. Presumably we fly because we have to be somewhere else, quickly. What does this sinister ‘we know why you fly’ tag line even mean? I certainly don’t fly because American Airlines makes it enjoyable for me to do so, that’s for sure.

Speaking of which, American Airlines recently(?) upgraded their in-flight entertainment system. It’s still relatively crappy compared to Virgin Atlantic, but there is at least a slightly better choice now and you can join films on multiple overlapping runs rather than enduring the plane-wide multi track tape to end. On the downside, even if the person in the next seat is watching the same film, you’re not not necessarily watching the same part of the film at the same time, so there’s no longer the strange bonding experience of laughing quietly along with strangers.

Between my usual self-entertainment activities (reading books, playing Nintendo DS and listening to ‘Jordan Jesse Go!’ podcasts), I opted to watch ‘Juno’ on this fancy new, but rather cheaply designed, in-flight entertainment system. The standout line, in a film with many, is the exclamation “Phuket Thailand!”. It’s a charming film which made me laugh as well and very nearly made me cry, though not quite. Bonus extra: great soundtrack with lots of Belle and Sebastian. I think lilsmack might enjoy it. If nothing else, because the lead character (the eponymous Juno) reminds me very much of her. When she was 16, I bet she was just like Juno. Though probably less pregnant. Sadly, it (or at least my experience of it) ended unexpectedly after 60 minutes with a ‘service temporarily unavailable’ error. Pesky new entertainment system. As with the cleaned up version of ‘No Country for Old Men’ the in-flight movie mainly makes me want to watch it at home at some point. It’s like a trailer.

The ‘bathroom’ on the plane contains two paper bags. Something I’ve seen before on AA flights. These are similar in appearance to massive teabags, but instead of delicious and refreshing tea they clearly contain some sort of foul-smelling potpourri. I appreciate that they do something to combat the naturally lingering foul-smelling toilet smells, but they don’t seem to smell much better than, well, poop. In fact, in conjunction with the poopy smells they make matters considerably worse.

I’ve arrived at the first hotel for the trip (the Danbury Sheraton) and am getting an early night. There’s a long week ahead.

SXSW day 0 – travel day

I was picked up at 8:30am this morning by something not quite fancy enough to be called a limo, but in a different league than a regular taxi. We could perhaps ignore my non executive status and call it an executive chauffeur service. Hursley Cars offer a great, reliable door-to-door service. Enjoyably lazy on the outbound portion, particularly useful on the return leg, when the last thing you want to do after a transatlantic flight is drive home. Especially because there’s a good chance that really would be last thing you do.

I checked in (checkind?) at the business class hut at Heathrow terminal 3. Despite traveling economy class, I can check in at the business class desk by saying the magic words “I work for IBM”. I was given an emergency exit row too. The nice lady doing check-in must have taken pity on my lanky tall 6’4″ frame. Would I be prepared to assist in the event of an emergency? For some extra legroom, I’d be prepared to do pretty much anything.

I bumped into both Jemima Kiss and Jo Twist during boarding. I’ve also seen a girl I don’t recognise wearing an Upcoming t-shirt, so I get the feeling she’s One Of Us. It seems that at least some of the British contingent of the tech invasion of Austin are beginning their journey together.

I love filling in the visa waiver form when I sit down in the plane. It allows me momentary glimpses into parallel universes in which I have to answer ‘yes’ to any of the scary questions on the back. It asks, do I have a “communicable disease, physical or mental disorder”? It asks whether I am a drug abuser or addict. Have I been convicted for an offense or crime involving “moral turpitude”? Am I involved in espionage or sabotage, or terrorist activities? Best of all, whether or not, between 1933 and 1945, I was involved in persecution associated with Nazi Germany or its allies. Fortunately, the answer to all of these questions is ‘no’, otherwise I’d have had to contact the American embassy before traveling.

The food is the predictable choice between chicken with vegetables, beef with the same vegetables, or a vegetarian option. I’m increasingly tempted to ask for the vegetarian option, despite not being one, just to have something different. Ah well. Maybe next time. Portions are meagre. I’ve always assumed that’s so we don’t put undue strain on the (frankly already smelly) toilet system. I weighed myself for the first time in ages this morning, purely out of interest, in order to see whether I gain or lose weight during the next 10 days. The small portion of sensible food isn’t going to make much of a difference either way. I noticed that the can of coke was an imperial 12 fluid ounces (355ml) rather than European 333ml (1/3 litre) size, so a gradual Americanizing of my diet has already begun.

As ever, American Airways in-flight entertainment system is sadly lacking, with a terrible choice of content let down even further by poor picture quality. They degrade this even further in the in-flight movies by printing “American Airlines” at the bottom of the screen after the film starts. Either because they’re proud of their trimmed down no-swearing and very-little-violence-indeed edits of the films, or perhaps to deter would-be copyright theft. As if even the most piratical pirate would stoop to attempting a screen-cap on a 777.

After exhausting both my eyes and my supply of podcast listening material by reading and listening at the same time, I watched, get this, ‘No Country For Old Men’. Yes, there is an American Airlines family-friendly in-flight-movie version. While I enjoyed the film, this was my first viewing of it, and I’m not making any judgments based on this version. I’ve been stung by the in-flight-movie edit before; for several months I didn’t realise Tim-from-the-Office was even in ‘Love Actually’. All of his scenes were cut. Who knows, perhaps in the cinema release of ‘No Country For Old Men’ there is some, you know, violence or something. Perhaps blood was spilled. The clumsy audio edits were easy to spot, but there are, I have no doubt, whole scenes which I have missed. How very disappointing. Another reason I love Virgin Atlantic, and would always use them if I had any choice in the matter over American Airlines. Virgin’s in-flight entertainment system is actually very good. Lots of choice, better picture quality, Video On Demand rather than Video On A Loop, and best of all, full uncut grown-up versions of the films.

Update: I met up with Dan Taylor, Deirdre Molloy, Jemima Kiss and Jo Twist in O’Hare, where we hung out and waited for the connecting flight to Austin together.

Jo’s stuffed cat, Alcat, is making Seesmic videos of the trip. Here was the update from the airport. Look out for the tall geek grinning in the background.

What’s in my bag

I’ve been meaning to do one of these for ages.

See it complete with notes on Flickr.

Arriving in Zurich

As I mentioned, I’m in Zurich at the start of this week for the 6th annual IBM Innovation Forum.

How things can change in a year…. 13 months ago, the free Swiss Air chocolate looked like this.

…whereas now they look (disappointingly) like this.

Call me a traditionalist, but the previous wrapper was a classic while this one is just not trying. If it had been red on white at least I could have scribbled some notes in the whitespace.

I can highly recommend the Four Points (Sheraton) hotel though.

The room is clean, comfortable and spacious, something you get used to in the US, but can often be sadly lacking in Europe. The Four Points does, it must be said, err somewhat on the trendy side.

• The wardrobe is cunningly disguised as a wall, It took me a few minutes to find it, during which process I found a minibar and safe, which were both disguised as another wall. I’ve taken to pushing random surfaces in case something else is waiting to be discovered.
• The traditional bath and shower combination has been eschewed in favour of a spacious tiled wet-room. While I do like a bath they’re hardly ever big enough anyway so maybe this is a better approach, especially as the shower is agreeably powerful and boasts a showerhead only marginally smaller than a dinner plate.

It’s quite attractive despite its modernity, and a decent internet connectivity is provided at no extra charge (unlike last year’s hotel). I even found a pair of slippers and a fluffy white dressing gown in the wardrobe. Luxury.

IBM’s CIO 2010 Outlook

I’m going to be in Zurich for a few days, presenting at the 6th Innovation Forum. I’m actually giving two presentations. On Tuesday I will (of course) be sharing IBM’s interest in virtual worlds, but on Monday I get to deliver the IBM 2010 CIO Outlook.

| View

“IBM’s workforce is transitioning to a new network generation that is facile with email, IM, blogs, feeds and social software like Facebook and My Space. This generation assumes transparent and accessible data, fluid connections with colleagues and a commitment to their work above that of the organization. We also face the loss of institutional and process knowledge in the heads of retiring ‘Baby Boomers;’ many of whom are not as comfortable with collaboration and sharing.”

"It sounds obvious, but we continue to communicate permission to experiment and extend our environment. … For most it is an opportunity to let our early tenure employees show us the way towards more natural collaboration."