Reactivism vs Interactivism

I came across this 4 years ago in an engineering book written in 1974. It chimed with politics then and now. Applied to tech there are ultra-interactivists known as early adopters - who are their counterparts in politics?

Reactivism: Reactivists prefer a previous state to the one they are in and believe things are going from bad to worse. Hence they not only resist change but they try to unmake previous changes and return to where they once were. Reactivists are moved more by their hates than by their loves Their orientation is remedial, not aspirational.

Interactivism: Interactivists are not willing to settle for the current state of their affairs or the way they are going, they are not willing to return to the past. They want to design a desirable future and invent ways of bringing it about. They try to prevent, not merely to prepare for, threats and to create, not merely exploit, opportunities. Interactivists are not willing to settle for survival or growth. They seek self-development, self-realization and self-control; an increased ability to design and control their own destinies. They plan to do better in the future than the best that presently appears to be possible.

Turner Contemporary Social Media Display

My social media curator and animation system featured in the last two exhibitions in Margate's Turner Contemporary art gallery. It was designed to require minimal effort from the gallery with near autonomous operation. It added a real sense of engagement in visitors as can be seen by their many posts from the exhibition.

Raspberry Pi Minecraft Python Programming

GEEK is a festival of Play & Games and they gave me the opportunity to create an attraction that aimed to introduce people to programming.

I decided to run a Minecraft Python Challenge using Raspberry Pi computers that come with a very special version of Minecraft that can be controlled using the Python programming language. Kids in particular love Minecraft and love building with code even more! Write programmes in Python and see them create Minecraft Coolness in an instant instead of clicking literally thousands of times.
This blog should give you enough information for you to recreate this attraction in your own home, a local school, or some other event.

Setup git on Linux

On Linux how to: Install and configure git, start controlling existing code, push to a cloud repository e.g. github.com

Get started with Raspberry Pi

The world of Raspberry Pi is evolving, the hardware and software are constantly evolving. This is how to get started with the latest in the Raspberry Pi world.

IoT for Defence

I gave a talk about the Internet of Things for Defence on 18 November 2014. This is the World's biggest and best IoT meetup - here are my slides and some brief notes.

Entertainment and the Internet of Things

Why don't people at the cutting edge of Internet of Things developments talk about entertainment?

I have finally put a shape around ideas that have been forming in my mind for many years. These ideas are about the use of technology for entertainment. I don't mean mobile apps or gaming consoles. I mean the whole of entertainment from Opera to Graffiti, Boxing to Birdwatching. By technology I'm particularly interested in the Internet of Things.

Open Office Bullet Point Bug

Open Office is a great free alternative to Word, Powerpoint & Excel. One annoyance is that opening a Word .doc with OpenOffice replaces bullet points with a weird symbol. This Open Office Bullet Point bug is easily fixed...

Remote Server Access Without Passwords

How to remotely access a server with ssh without a password and simultaneously limit ssh connections to individual machines.

If you're running your own server for example to host a web server it's essential to be able to log in to the shell remotely to carry out setup or administration tasks. This is usually done by using a 'ssh' connection from your local machine using a username and password which is not the most secure method. Sending passwords over the internet is bad, you may forget the password and if someone in your team leaves you may have to spend time resetting all kinds of passwords.

XCode 5 Quartz Composer Bug Fix

Apple's XCode 5 has a bug that breaks it's ability to embed a Quartz Composer composition within an application. The post shows how to fix the bug and continue to use Quartz Composer in XCode 5.

XCode is the program provided by Apple for software development for Mac computers and iPhones. It is available free of charge from the Apple App Store and is an incredible piece of software. Apple released XCode 5 in September 2013 together with some bugs.

Quartz Composer is a node-based visual programming language provided as part of XCode and is for processing and rendering graphical data.

Quartz Composer allows you to do some very cool animations easily - so code wrangling doesn't get in the way of your creativity. Embedding a Quartz Composer Composition in an XCode App wraps it in functionality that can grab data from the internet and use it as content within the animation. In my case I built a tool to search, moderate and creatively display tweets.

Fractal Systems from Louis Khan's Architecture

The Design Museum in London hosts the awesome Design of the Year exhibition which I encourage anyone to visit. From July to October 2014 they also showed a collection of architect Louis Kahn's work. One idea from Kahn really stuck in my mind - The Plan of a City is Like the Plan of a Home. It got me thinking about Fractal Systems Architectures.

Mac Printer Drivers for Old Printers

I have a Canon i560 printer but Apple's Mac Operating System no longer supports it. Canon do not have a driver for their old i560 printer for the new Mac OS. Gutenprint  (formerly known as gimp-print) is the answer to this printer problem.