Attoparsec

[gfish]

Those ideas of promoting myself as a builder of improbable devices? No longer just random thoughts. I decided to take a spare domain of mine and set up Attoparsec: Custom props and gadgets. The Google AdWords campaign just went live!

Next step is to work on more projects to showcase on the site. But I won't be able to really get into that until I'm back into Seattle. So... back to the thesis mines for now.

Comments

[adularia.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you found something more maintainable to do with Attoparsec.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

There was no way I was going to throw away a domain THAT good. :)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

wow, Google recognizes it as: 1 attoParsec = 3.08568025 centimeters

[gfish.livejournal.com]

That's the joke, it's basically a glorified inch. I'll have to make business cards with an attoparsec ruler along one side.

[niac.livejournal.com]

We will do good product photos of your stuff when you return. It will be good. :)

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Awesome.

Also?

Attoparsec is the pretentious brainchild of Matthew Dockrey, a dilettante with dreams of being a polymath. Agonizingly close to finishing his M.Sc. in computer science, he is starting to think there should be more to his life than the computer industry. Hence this site.

<3

[ionan.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I can talk to you about constructing an analog synth?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that could be a cool project. Not something I have any experience with, but I'm game! We'd need to hash out exactly what features you'd want, it all looks very mix-and-match in the searches I'm doing.

[caladri.livejournal.com]

The basic things one wants to do with an analog synth are either nerdily subtle or entirely trivial, so starting with a kit from PAiA and getting a feel for it is generally pretty workable. You can add new filters and strange routings on a whim, and swap out components for slightly different ones with mildly different characteristics to refine sound in subtle ways.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I know a certain fiddler who is looking for some sort of analog synth that fits in a hat and is controlled by facial actuators so she can simultaneously be fashionably attired for the mad hatter's tea party at OVFF and know what different facial expressions sound like.

Well, OK, I don't think she's looking real hard for one.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

That... would definitely be an interesting project. I suspect one would need to wear sticky EMG electrodes in order to get reliable readings on facial expressions. I'd start to be worried about space to fit it into a hat -- would it absolutely need to be analog?

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Or simply mechanical pushrods adhered to the skin whose other ends move past photocells to detect motion...

The particular technology was never specified. I think the only requirements were that it be wearable as a hat and that it be playable by the wearer changing facial expressions.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

I wonder if one could modify one of the bluetooth-laser-projection-keyboard-widgets or implement similar... in eyesafe IR for bonus points.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about multiple cameras building a topographic map of the face. It seems less intrusive than electrodes.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Theoretically, that's not a solved problem in computer vision. In this case you could probably fake it, since you aren't trying to scan in an actor's face for CGI or anything that precise.

I just think that, if you're going to have a hat-mounted, face-controlled synth, then some EMG electrodes only add to the effect.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

What do you like about Newcomen that you don't like about Watt?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

He actually did invent the first (successful, useful) steam engine, instead of just being mythologized as such. He also was the victim of terribly oppressive intellectual property laws, instead of the instigator. My real ire is saved for Thomas Savery, but no one has heard of him.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Oh, OK. I've heard of Savery, and he was a tool. To be fair to Watt, he was a real inventor and innovator, and he made a genuinely more efficient engine (actually, series of engines) than Newcomen's.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Sure, Watt had real technical merit. He did actual engineering, while Newcomen was more of a hacker. I'm comfortable where my loyalties lie. :)

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Sure, I was just trying to tease out exactly what distinctions you were making. Watt was a talented and productive engineer, but he was also a professional who got partner and made a serious business of steam engine production.

What you want to do with Attoparsec seems firmly unserious, and only barely a business.

btw, is one inch really 1 trillionth of 4.1 light years?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd say it was unserious, more that I recognize that this is not something I can devote myself to full time at the moment, nor something that has a high chance of success. It's certainly not a business, but it's the groundwork for a possible business later. The only way to get somewhere you want to be is start moving in that direction...

Atto- is 10^-18 or one quintillionth. (One millionth of one trillionth.) And yeah, it works out to be about 3 centimeters.