I’m a web developer. This term is generally meaningless to most of the population, so after saying such I then reiterate with “website programmer”. And as soon as someone hears “programmer”, they get a hazy look in their eyes and try to cover up that it sounds like the most boring job in the world. Scenes of counting ones and zeroes dance in their mind. So, in an effort to get across the true nature of what it is like to be a creative developer, I use a “Programmer As Carpenter” metaphor.

At first, it sounds like a bit of a leap. A computer programmer sits in front of a computer, types at a keyboard, and gets coloured lights to bounce across a screen. A carpenter works with their hands, moves to and fro around their workshop, and builds tangible, practical items. A computer programmer is withered and pasty. A carpenter is fit and tan. A computer programmer is smart, but can’t relate to society. A carpenter might not have a PhD, but they build things people need and want. How is a programmer at all like a carpenter?

A creative programmer is someone intimately involved with the design and final implementation of software. Much like a carpenter takes a pencil sketch and builds a chair, a creative programmer takes a digital sketch and builds an application. We create something from which there was nothing before, taking into consideration a multitude of tiny details that relate to comfort and reliability. We can’t ensure that people will use what we build, but we want to make sure if someone does they enjoy the best possible experience. We balance our responsibilities to our trade and our audience. We work not just for our boss, but also for our users.

Programmers and carpenters take personal pride in their craft. Of course, we are proud of the object/application itself, but we are most proud of how we achieved the goal. We strive to improve our craft because we know whatever we build will be made better as a result. Carpenters use hammers, jack-planes and sandpaper. Programmers use languages, APIs and IDEs. Our job isn’t to invent new tools or lament why a particular tool isn’t adequate; we do what we can with what we have.

Programmers and carpenters are constantly aware of the limitations of their materials, and rely on their imagination to push those boundaries with as little alteration to the original design as possible. With carpentry, one is concerned with the load applied to a 1-cm thick cut of maple. With programming, one is concerned with the load applied to a P4 processor. The ‘creative’ aspect of ‘creative programming’ lies in the imagination to match whatever outcome from whatever idea given whatever material. We make suggestions (“that’s a pretty thin cut, maybe we should use oak”), but if the project absolutely requires balsa, we figure out how to make it work with balsa.

Sometimes we build something small, like a shelf, or sometimes something large, like a building; the process is fundamentally no different, only multiplied to fit the frame. Our hardest, most ingenious work is often obscured from view – by a coat of paint, drywall, or graphic design. The unfamiliar eye can’t easily recognize our individual role. Colleagues and fellow enthusiasts always recognize subtleties, but the general public overlooks the underlying construction. Celebrity status doesn’t really exist for us, so we must derive personal satisfaction in simply knowing that a job was well done. Everybody wants something that looks cool, but programmers and carpenters specifically want something that is solidly built.

Whenever I first mention my programmer as carpenter metaphor, people smile. I think there’s a certain simple romance to carpentry, and a complicated disconnect to computer programming. Too often anything related to computers is dismissed as abstruse, brainy and intangible, simply because most people don’t understand exactly how computers work (and don’t want to). We live in an increasingly virtual world and the physicality of carpentry seems completely opposite to Internet ephemera.

However, almost everyone uses some form of a computer in their daily activities. The digital world is so familiar (and graphics are getting so much better) that the conceptual divide between objects on the screen and objects in the room isn’t too huge to overcome — neither is the difference between us who build virtual or physical objects. We are people who make things for other people to use.

I may start referring to myself as a ‘web carpenter’, but that may be going a bit far. Who knows, maybe someday carpenters will describe what they do with “well, I’m a lot like web developer because…”.

About the Author:
Name: Steve Shaddick
Bio: Steve Shaddick is a full-time web developer at CP+B Canada, and a part-time video/installation artist at whatever gallery will have him
Location: Toronto, Canada
Company: CP + B

The world is changing, pretty fast. Not long ago, boarding a plane would force me to completely disconnect from the world and have an opportunity to read a good book or just relax. Now, with in-flight Wi-Fi becoming increasingly available, I don’t need to go dark every time I’m airborne. Conceivably, I could just ignore the fact that I can send out a tweet from 30,000 feet, but like most email addicts out there, I’m likely to give in.

That was the last refuge. Our daily lives are blanketed with wireless connectivity, which keeps us plugged in everywhere between work and home, so it is small wonder than eight out of nine product categories in top consumer electronics (DVD players being the ones left out), ship with Wi-Fi and/or cellular connectivity, while cloud computing and software as a service become a common practice among all kinds of businesses.

So, how long until technology is dependable enough to handle the gory details of interconnecting devices and applications, so that we can spend more time kicking back and enjoying the ride?

The evolution of mobility

Just a few years ago, when phones were for the most part dumb, the only mobile computing devices we carried around were our laptops. Back then, our purchase decisions were mainly driven by a laptop’s weight, but as more power and storage got packed into them, laptops eventually started to replace the tower computers we kept under our desks.

We still carry them around, between home and work, and when on the road — just in case we need to do real work, but the trend is towards needing our laptops less for our most mundane endeavors such as email, calendar, web browsing, etc., as they can be handled almost exclusively in the cloud.

While we spend hours working on our laptops, our phones can only capture our attention for a few minutes. In fact, the most successful mobile applications are the ones that allow users to complete extremely compartmentalized tasks in the least amount of time possible. Granted, some games might be the exception to the rule, but would you really read a whole book on your phone’s 3.5-inch screen if you had a better alternative?

Enter the tablet. With screen sizes that bridge the gap between our other devices, tablets are quickly making their way into our super-connected lives.

The size of a device is proportional to the amount of time we are willing to spend doing something on it, which in turn determines its mobility range. While we are likely to keep our phone in our pockets all day long and leave our laptops behind at our desks, tablets are better suited to be carried around in a very specific spatial context: between your desk and meetings at the office, around your house, the commuter train, inside a plane, etc.

However, our data is unlikely to move with us through all these different contexts, while we pick up different devices. Our need for mobility is shifting from being centered on the physical devices that allow us to carry data with us, to a new paradigm where our data is readily available wherever we go.

Mobility tomorrow

Consider this scenario:

Taking a weekend trip might have been in the back of your head for a while. As spring sets in, the weather is perfect to enjoy the outdoors. It is Friday night and while watching TV with the family, you see one of those spots promoting the VisitPA.com site and, suddenly, you got it: road trip (I live in Brooklyn, so…).
Pressing a button in your remote pushes the URL from the TV ad directly to the browser on your tablet, where you can explore your destination options further and use a map application to plan your route. Once you select your destination and mark it on the map, you receive a warning: you don’t have enough gas in your car to get you all the way there. Acknowledging the message takes you back to the map, which now shows you a number of recommended gas stations along your route and within range, as well as their current gas prices. You choose one, and your route is recalculated automatically. Next morning, when you get in the car, the GPS has already loaded your route and you are ready to go, just as soon as everyone buckles up.

If you think this is too far fetched, think again. Many of the pieces needed to bring this particular experience to life already exist, and everything a developer would need to do is connect the dots. Android phones can already receive URLs from a browser on a desktop computer, while GPS users can manage and share routes online, and Google Maps mashups exist for almost anything imaginable, including looking up gas prices near you. So, what are we missing?

I recently bought a TV and a Blu-ray Disc player from the same manufacturer and, after setting them up at home, I discovered that my favorite feature was how well they worked together: powering up the BD player not also turns on the TV as well, but also automatically selects the right HDMI input. The manufacturer did not advertise this little piece of magic, which probably made it even more special.

What if we could expect the same level of awareness between products from different manufacturers? What if there was a common platform that allowed devices to share data contextually and in meaningful ways? Perhaps the Android OS is on its way to become just that, as it moves from smartphones and tablets to other consumer electronics, including TVs and set top boxes. Another option is RIM’s QNX operating system, which before powering the Blackberry Playbook was embedded in a car, and can now connect both products seamlessly.

I like the idea of home automation like the next guy, but I would not trust my fridge to make the right choice of brand/price when we are running out of milk. I much rather have that shopping list available to me whenever I’m at the supermarket

About the Author:
Name: Oscar Trelles
Bio: Oscar Trelles is the Director of Technology and a Partner at Domani Studios, a digital agency creating groundbreaking experiences that drive authentic connections between consumers and brands. Follow him on Twitter at @oscartrelles
Location: NY, USA
Company: Domani Studios

About the Author:
Name: Richard Leggett
Bio:

Location: UK
Company: Freelance

About the Author:
Name: Helen Papagiannis
Bio: Augmented Reality Specialist, Artist, Designer, Researcher
Location: Toronto, Canada
Company: The Studio Curioso

Now think of the world your children will grow up in. Physical money – a thing of
the past because their credit card (or phone) handles the transaction. Dinner is
prepared by the appliances in your house – the same one that regulates the
temperature of the house based on your biometrics. And the way media is
delivered and controlled? Straight into our brains.

OK, the last one is a bit of a stretch. But these other advances will be made
possible by the connected devices. That is, a network of things that “talk” to each
other without human intervention. These connected devices have built-in
communication and processing capabilities, which means things like milk cartons
tell a refrigerator when it’s low or expiring, which then tells the grocery list on
your phone so you know when you need another carton. The number of
connected objects grows everyday, which has the ability to impact our lives in a
profound way, both personally and as a society. For the purposes of this article,
we’re defining the way these devices interact with each other on a local,
personalized level – the Web of Things, which are more along the lines of
sensored items you find in the home. Then, there are devices that talk to each
other on a global scale – the Internet of Things. These are large systems that
operate, relay information and change conditions by exchanging data over the
Internet.

Background Check
Some of the most efficient self-configuring networks date back to ancient
civilizations. The Romans built aqueducts to transport water through the city,
while the Incans built the water supply drainage system of Machu Picchu. These
systems worked independently of human involvement for human usage and were
necessary not only for convenience and efficiency, but also to help move those
societies forward.

In modern times, the origin of networked devices dates back to 1969 when the
first two computer nodes were interconnected between UCLA’s School of
Engineering and SRI International in Menlo Park, California. These connections
laid the groundwork for ARPANET, which was the precursor to the Internet.
However, these devices were controlled by people who had to input information
to make them “talk” to each other. While it took some 25 more years for the
Internet to grow to a point where it gained a foothold in popular culture, that
gave it time to develop protocols and languages necessary for communicating
with each other, which allows for today’s devices to do the same.

Ping Me, I’m Dreaming
Outside of the Internet, another method of connecting to objects is with radio-
frequency identification or RFID, which is essentially a tag with a signal and an
antenna that transmits data saying “I’m here.” The signal is usually passive and
so a tag usually sits there waiting to be pinged.

In 1999, a research group called the Auto-ID Labs started looking into the idea of
networked RFID as a means of tracking items. This group was funded by
manufacturers like Proctor and Gamble who saw the value in managing large
amounts of inventory via RFID.

Apply this to our own personal inventory. We’re surrounded by thousands of
things. All the stuff around you: money, books, clothing, pens, bikes, furniture,
food and more – imagine that those things have a sensor in them and those
sensors relay information back and forth to a reader (server/program/device).
These tags can create a Web of Things in your life along with a reader that
monitors their location and status, which would learn behavior and adapt to suit
yours.

Besides RFID, there are a number of other technologies allowing devices to
connect and share information: Near Field Communication (NFC) and Electronic
Product Codes (EPC).

NFC allows the exchange of data between devices over a distance of up to four
inches. This is done via wireless technology and an intuitive interface that
contains a smart-card and a reader. It’s mainly used in mobile phones and allows
users to make contactless payments or benefit from reward programs without
using a card. Additionally, devices can trigger one another; NFC allows the
sharing of business card information between devices. From an advertising
standpoint, this technology allows people to access promotional discounts or
engage with interactive media.

A modern version of the barcode, an EPC is a unique number used to identify a
specific item. Information such as place, origination or date of production can be
assigned to each EPC. These will benefit both consumers and businesses by
managing inventory to such a degree that it can eliminate out-of-stock products
as well as monitor food freshness or quickly determine the origin of food-borne
illnesses.

State of the Web of Things
These technologies expand the Web of Things as they affect us and our personal
network of items. This growth has spurred innovation with several companies
taking an early lead in moving the ball forward:

And while not a company, there’s an API enabling devices to connect and
communicate with us. Representational State Transfer or REST allows you to
obtain domain-specific data simply by pointing a URL to a specific location. For
our purposes, that’s the most important function. Twitter currently provides a
REST API so Web developers can enable their users to access the various features
that a Twitter site provides, such as BakerTweet, which allows bakers to keep
their customers informed by using an automated device that tracks what’s in the
oven and when it’s done.

Thinking Bigger: The Internet of Things
Looking at the world around us, there are devices that communicate with each
other everywhere – mostly all invisible to the human eye. They’re in our
infrastructure like water mains monitoring levels and problems, they’re in taxis
and buses transmitting location, and they’re in traffic systems managing
transportation. Everywhere. Imagine these systems becoming intertwined to
form a complex set of relationships and the data patterns that emerge from them.
While the network can exist municipally, zoom out and think of a global field of
data: an entire planet generating data that can be harnessed for the greater good.
The opportunities for greater efficiencies and new innovations are nearly
limitless. The challenge is to take all that data and do something with it. There’s a
commonly known pyramid about building on raw data (DIKW). Once it’s
collected, you compile it to create information, with that you have knowledge and
what you do with it is wisdom. While the Internet of Things operates
independently of human intervention, we still need to take the information that
comes out of it to create new efficiencies and better means of living.

The Crystal Ball
Right now, the Internet of Things is operating on a very small scale, but like any
industry it has to find its legs before it really takes off. Many companies are
jockeying for a seat at the table or to emerge as the leader. Several factors should
be considered when picking a direction for the tech behind the Web/Internet of
Things.
1. WWWD – What Will Wal-Mart Do? There’s no doubt that Wal-Mart can really
control this market, both on the retail and manufacturing side. First, they can
dictate the terms with their suppliers as to what technology they want to
utilize that creates the most efficient supply chain as they did with RFID.
Second, they could literally own the home with the items they sell –
electronics, food and anything else under their roof. If we’re talking about
things, no one sells more of them than Wal-Mart.
2. What do people want? Does anyone really need tweeting appliances? Once the
novelty of the early adopters fades, the real and true potential of these
technologies will come into play. The Web/Internet of things start to play off each other. A home networked to create energy efficiencies using biometrics
has measurable value. Taking that single home and then plugging it into the
millions of others on the power grid creates an extraordinary opportunity for
achieving a greener planet by reducing energy consumption.
3. Wireless networks – phone companies are starting to see the power of their
networks and how they can communicate information between devices. These
are established global networks ready to dive into the pool of global connected
devices.
Given the numerous technologies and rapid innovations in the marketplace, it’s
entirely within the realm of possibilities that the Web/Internet of Things will be
fully operational in the next five years. Based on that, we envision a couple of
scenarios that could affect our lives:

Web of Things: Imagine your home is fully connected. Appliances, computing
devices, gaming/entertainment systems, HVAC – all of it. We’ve also reached the
point where your personal items, like clothing have been tagged with RFID. Your
car has GPS transmitters in it. An evening might go like this: When you leave
work and get in your car, the GPS transmits your location to your home. If you
have a family dinner planned, your home’s network will heat up the oven so
you’re ready to begin cooking once you arrive home. If you need anything for the
meal, your refrigerator will send you a message letting you know what
ingredients to pick up at the store (unless you have groceries delivered). The store
has sensors in the cart that recognize items as you put them in. This then crosses
them off your list as well as checks you out at the same time by completing the
transaction via your phone. After your meal and the kids are sleeping, you sit down to do some work on the couch. Your house has been monitoring and
adjusting the lighting/temperature while you’ve been home. It’s cooler in the
kids’ room, since they’re under blankets, and warmer where you are, but as you
relax and start to nod off, your biometrics change and the sensors in your
clothing tells this to your home network. As a result, the volume of the TV lowers
and the lights dim. You may even have it set up for the couch to vibrate if you’ve
been asleep more than 20 minutes so you can actually get up and go to bed.

Internet of Things: Connected devices on the Internet could change the way
insurance is calculated. Right now, actuarial science determines rate at a group
level, but connected devices could change the methodology. Communication
devices could be added to your car that you would allow the insurance company
access. From that, they would know when you’re driving, how fast, how much in
what kinds of situations and, depending on your skills, what condition you’re in
while driving home at 2AM. All these would be pooled, compared to other drivers
in your same class and you’d receive a rate based on that. This rate would be
flexible and adaptable to your habits.
Similarly, changes to health care and the way it’s administered could be advanced
through this method. Recently, microchips with nano-antennas have been
inserted into medication which lets physicians monitor whether patients have
taken their pills. Looking ahead, nanites could send all kinds of biometrics to
health care providers: BMI, blood sugar, sleep patterns, blood pressure and
more.
This information would be collected by providers, analyzed and matched against family history.
Based on that, physicians would have data allowing them
to schedule appointments. Additionally, by monitoring heart rate, they would
know when you’ve been exercising. Future advancements in connectivity would
strengthen preventative care and work to make us healthier.

Wrap Up
While the future is unknown, current developments and innovations on the
horizon allow us to speculate that these scenarios are possible. As long as this
field continues inventing and coming up with unique applications that harness
the incredible amounts of data being generated, we’ll see a world that starts to
operate entirely behind the scenes.

About the Authors:
These four people graduated from VCU Brandcenter.

Name: Alexander Ridoré
Bio: Creator. Innovator. Athlete.
Location: Beltsville, MD
Company: Freelance Digital Art Director/Designer
Blog – personal site: http://mindofalexr.com/

Name: Cecilia Bogardus
Bio: CT/AD
Location: NYC
Company: Ogilvy
Blog – personal site: www.ceciliabogardus.com

Name: Drew Dayberry
Bio: Bios are silly, i don’t know what to say.
Location: Portland, OR
Company: Wieden + Kennedy
Blog – personal site: www.drewdayberry.com

Name: Don Sticksel
Bio: VCU Brandcenter Grad. Creative Technologist. Thinker. Maker.
Western Shirt Wearer.
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Company: Momentum Worldwide
Blog – personal site: donnieonthespot.com

I’m a Snake, specifically a Fire Snake (1977).

That’s down to the 60 year cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar, which passes through 5 elemental states (Metal, Wood, Fire, Wind and Earth), and 12 creatures (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and the Pig).

The soothsayers of our modern age have been proclaiming that this year is finally the “Year of the Mobile” for quite some time now. And I for one feel like this has now arrived and is officially here to stay. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been living not in the “the year of the mobile”, but rather “the Decade of the mobile”.

With any technology, by the time it hits the peak point, its value as a marketing medium for innovators and advertisers diminishes. No longer will be people be so wowed and turn their attention to this technology, because it’s plateauing out and the market has hit saturation point.

And what makes something the leading technology of that year? It’s reach? It’s percentage growth? It’s wow factor? The Marketing spend? The amount of noise people make about it? Well, surely all those things and more.

But what about last year, or next year. If one was to chart what has actually happened and see what people have said, what would each year be called in terms of the Technology that’s captured the imaginations of the most people? is 2010 the year of the Tablet? was 2009 the year of the App? that’s a whole post in itself that I’m going to have to come back to.

Now based purely on supposition, inspired somewhat by this post about the future from Mr Russ Tucker, and where we are with devices like smartphones, iPads, and the rate of increase of broadband speed etc., I’m going to throw out some ideas about what future years might be called.

The year of the networked earth – broadband and wifi technology becomes so pervasive that even giant squid at the bottom of the sea and eagles above Everest could log into their gmail if they needed to. The cost of broadband drops through the floor, and the industry becomes state-run whilst some governments try to cling onto the thought that they can control information. This “Dataflow” raises the possibility of every single object on earthbeing able to talk to each other, providing a record of every living and inanimate object in time and space.

The year of the uncomputer – further advances in nanotechnology, superconductors, quantum computing, and micro-kinetic power sources will see high powered computers woven literally into the fabric of daily life. Always on, always plumbed straight into the internet, always working harder to change the way we live. Your socks will recognise when one of their thread’s circuits breaks when they wear out, and send a signal to your watch, which in turn will tell you that it’s time to get some new ones, and order them for you, in the right size, in time for the next time you need to put some socks on (your socks know your daily movements after all).

The year of the HUD (aka the year of the iGlasses, and then the year of the iBall). Apple will invest heavily in Head-Up Display technology and eyeglass nanotechnology, aiming to miniaturise the display device for their now ubiquitous app platform, and beam their products straight onto the lenses of their legion of fanboys. Augmented Reality will become an actual reality, and brands will fight to become the person controlling yours. Location awareness on the micrometre scale means that people will be able to see in the dark, and overlay all the data of the internet on the world around them. Apple dub their first prototype iSee. This is all just a diversionary tactic though, as the real surprise is that Apple’s been investing even more money via a shell company in visual cortex biotechnology, and whilst their competitors have been trying to build rivals to iSee, Steve has had his retinas fitted with a nanochip in an operation akin to laser eye surgery, so that with the blink of the eye, he can switch on his HUD and truly be the first layer between the brain and reality.

The year of the voice – A new generation of oxbridge and MIT students raised on the appalling voice recognition technology used in call centers enhances the existing technology by tapping into the research that’s been carried out on alpha waves and brain patterns during communication. Combining the two by capturing alpha wave radiofrequencies in a new kind of earpiece receiver designed to capture a much wider band of the aural and radiomagnetic spectrum, the voice recognition technology combines the information to capture not just words, but intent as well. A whole new dictionary of emotions is searched alongside the databases of words and sounds giving rise to a whole new industry, “Communication recogniton”.

About the Author:
Name: Robin Wong
Bio:

Location: London, UK
Company: Director @ Weir & Wong

Audio programming in actionscript 3, it’s awesome. This article will get you started and will guide you past the pitfalls any novice will encounter. I should know, I experienced them all!

For “Beter Horen” (Better Hearing), we at Mangrove created a fun viral called “Twitter in Concert”. The intention of this site is to create awareness for ear protection. If you want to continue enjoying concerts for years to come, protect your ears and wear some plugs!

Why is this article penned in English?

Because Flash audio programming is a tough cookie and I think not only Dutch speaking developers should benefit from the knowledge I’m sharing.

The concept

The idea was to create a virtual concert. And because you want to enjoy music for as long as you live we made it a never ending one. Each visitor can create a short piece of music and add it to the stream to become part of this initiative.

Where does twitter come in?

We chose twitter as our platform for distribution, and did so for a number of reasons; when you create something mash-up-like using twitter it has media value. Although most of us web developers are used to Twitter integration by now, a large part of the general public will regard it as a novelty. Twitter has a great API allowing for easy integration. By choosing Twitter as a requirement, the participants need to have an account including some private data. This makes abusing the application less attractive.

Many parts create the whole

Let’s take a look at how the Flash application fits into the site scheme.

The above gives you an idea of what the Flash application talks and listens to.

For clarity I’ve left out our mobile version, but I assure you it’s there and it rocks.

We’re getting visitors from twitter.com, via online and offline promotion, and from links on blogs, forums and so on. The application searches the Twitter timeline for tweets that contain a “Twitter in Concert” hash tag. When these tweets are collected and screened, the application asks our pH8 cms to provide the music these users made. After all data is loaded, the application shows our visitors a timeline of tweets and starts playing the music that goes with it.

If you want to stop listening and start participating, you can switch to composing mode and create your very own piece of music by sequencing ten different percussion instruments on a default beat loop. For those who (think they) can’t make music, we have three presets to use or get inspired by.

When done composing, you can move on to twitter.com to post your creation and share it with your followers. Of course we hope these followers will come have a listen and in turn create their very own addition to the “Twitter in Concert” stream!

Flash dynamic audio

Now that you know what the application is all about, let’s open it up and take a look inside. Flash’s Sound object was closed for a very long time, and many developers complained about it to Adobe. So much that Adobe started listening! From Flash player 10 and upwards the Sound object is wide open, meaning we can finally create or modify its content dynamically. Want to load a piece of music and make it play at twice the speed? Or create your own synthesizer? Maybe add effects like reverb and echo? Create sounds for your game on the fly? Well now you can.

The application I’ve built uses this new Sound API in the following way; the library contains ten instrument samples and one looping 16 bar beat. I load all of these into their own Sound instance, extract the audio data, and feed this data to the audio stream at user defined intervals, creating the music you hear from your speakers.

What is sound and how is it digitized?

Sound is waves produced by a vibrating object, interpreted by our brain as an auditory sensation. For example, when you hit a guitar string, it will start to vibrate. This movement makes the air around it move. When these air waves reach your ears they are interpreted by your brain and you experience sound. If you want to learn a bit more about digital audio check out this nice primer PDF by Adobe. Here’s the gist of it for Flash: Sound waves can be represented graphically by using an X-axis for time and Y-axis for amplitude. Flash uses an amplitude range from -1.0 to 1.0. Any values below or above will be truncated.

Now that we know this, making sound digital is trivial. Mono sound translates to an array of values ranging from -1.0 to 1.0. For stereo, you use an array storing value pairs of the same range for both channels (left and right). For my project, translating this data back to what I wanted to hear from my speakers was a different matter altogether; keeping tempo requires more magic.

Flash audio playback

Let’s take a look at how Flash plays back our beautiful audio data.

Flash uses an audio stream to send a signal to your speakers. This audio stream uses data from an audio buffer which is a fixed size container. You can set the buffer size, using a range of 2048 to 8192 bytes. When the buffer is close to empty and needs more data, a sample data event is fired. The listener you’ve set for this can then fill up the buffer with new data from your audio data source. This source can be data from an mp3 you’ve loaded, better yet, it can be filled dynamically.

How to handle keeping tempo

In our sequencer we have 8 measures, each counting 4 beats. The tempo of the music is set to 110 beats per minute. Timing instruments to play at user defined intervals (beats), means we need to know how much sample data fits into a beat. We can calculate the number of samples per beat using the following formula: int(44100*60/4/110).

44100 is the sample rate Flash uses. This is a fixed value, we can’t change it. Sample rate means the number of samples used for 1 second of audio. In our formula we multiply by 60 to see how much data is used per minute. We then divide by 4 because of the number of beats we use in a measure and finally divide by 110 which is the number of beats per minute. To round it we cast to integer, which gives us the result we need: 6014 samples per beat! Now isn’t that exciting?

Have a look at how that compares to our audio buffer, which in my case is set at 4096 samples.

As you can see, buffer refills don’t run in sync with the beat. This poses the following challenge; when we refill the buffer we need to take into account the offset number of samples between the buffer and the current beat. I’ve indicated this difference above in red. The first buffer fill and beat are in sync. In the second buffer fill however, the exemplary kick-drum indicated above in gray needs to start playing after 6014 – 4096 = 1918 samples to stick with the beat.

Final challenge; syncing animations with music

Finally my music was keeping tempo, but my animations weren’t! It took me quite a while to find out why, but after some field research (read: googling), I found out about a thing called latency. This is the term used for the time it takes to convert a digital signal to the desired analog signal, namely the sound from the speakers. Luckily, this latency can be easily calculated like so:

var latency:int = int(sampleDataEvent.position/44.1 – soundChannel.position/44.1);

This gives us the latency in milliseconds which can be used to time animations using, for instance, setTimeout:

setTimeout(playAnimation, latency);

Wrapping up

Well, that’s about it I guess. I hope this article will inspire you to do some audio programming. And of course, if you find any errors in the above, let me know. Thanks for your time! Now go visit twitterinconcert.nl and make some tunes.

About the Author:
Name: Emil Korngold
Bio: Emil Korngold is a creative developer, currently working for Mangrove in Rotterdam, where he conceptualizes and builds fun web applications.
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Company: Mangrove

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia was in Bristol last week and I popped along to see him at the Victoria Rooms at Bristol University.

I’ve been ‘playing’ with the Internet now for 15+ years and remember when Wikipedia arrived so I feel like I have some kind of affinity with the living web rock legend given the timing of Wikipedia’s launch.

Back then the internet wasn’t mainstream and I felt it was treated with mild contempt in traditional marketing and media circles.

Jimmy came along and pioneered the idea of collaborative working online – much in the same way this group plans to share ideas I guess.

A standout moment for me in Jimmy’s talk had to be that he was really “proud” that Google had pulled out of China, just as a proud father would be. This really emphasised that the 600-strong physical audience and 3000+ internet audience really was in the presence of one of the great internet forefathers.

I go to quite a few conferences throughout the year. I see presenters who have made millions, sometimes billions out of the internet yet stood before us was a dreamer, a blue sky-er who had an idea and ran with it. He didn’t have the Google billions/private 737s but he did have an amazing idea that became a reality.

As with so many things that become ubiquitous it is easy to forget someone had to come up with an idea and then run with it. Jimmy did this and has created something only possible in the Internet age.

This talk was part of a huge #wp10 international roadshow Jimmy had been undertaking so the presentation was fairly straightforward but the passion and real love of the Wikipedia community he clearly has really came across.

There were also plenty of subtle undertones to how he spoke. Asked at the Q&A stage what he thought to net neutrality, Jimmy actually identified the advent of closed operating environments such as Apps as being an even bigger threat to the original Utopian dream of open access internet for all.

He cited Apple in particular as being a key ‘pinch’ point within the current app ecosystem. He mentioned how he worried that his children may never experience the thrill of the traditional coding process.

I’d heard similar musings made by Tim Berners-Lee on his talk at the We-Do lectures. It then got me thinking that it could be relevant to this group.

I grew up playing with BC-108 transistor circuit boards, coding in Commodore 64 basic and then BBC Basic – trying to get games published in the geeky computer magazine press (I got one horse racing game that used the randomiser function of the C64 chip published – that was it!). This then evolved into early HTML and so on.

So that begs the question: are the young of today set to miss out on an entire period of creativity because systems have become so highly evolved/dumbed down?

Personally I don’t think they will. As bandwidth (including mobile) and local processing power continue to increase it simply means that what was previously impossible becomes possible.

Much in the same way Brunel’s broad gauge railway, which some have cited as being an early version of electrification (an engine being propelled by a remote energy source), was restricted by medium of steam itself.

Now with Moore’s law onside, bandwidth a plenty (Nielsen’s law!) and mass market adoption of all things digital, the role of a creative technologist really does seem rather exciting. Applications of technology in creative ways after all is nothing new.

What do you think?

About the Author:
Name: Richie Jones
Bio: Digital believer, founder of Yucca, dedicated surfer & mountain biker. Lover of all things digital & musical. 15+ yrs of online working
Location: Bristol, UK
Company: Creative Technology Director and founder @ Yucca

What is a Car?

The answer to this question has multiple layers. The first is “function”: what does a car do? It transports people and things from place to place along roads. The second layer is “interface”: how do you interact with a car? This answer involves door handles, shift levers, steering wheels, dials, switches, and so on. The third layer is “technology”. A car consists of a frame, a body, an engine, a transmission, tires, and wheels, metal, glass, and plastic, etc.

The next layer is “meaning”: what does a car make you think or feel? A BMW makes you feel successful and sophisticated. A Honda gives you a sense of trust, reliability, simplicity. A Ford pickup truck makes you feel powerful and competent.

The final layer is “operation”. In order to be able to exercise a car’s function (i.e., to drive it), you have to put fuel in the gas tank and air in the tires. You have to get it routinely serviced, and replace tires, wiper blades, and air filters when they wear out. You need to be able to get it fixed if it breaks. The car lives within a service ecosystem that defines the ownership lifecycle. That lifecycle starts with the purchase experience, continues until you sell the car, and starts over again when you buy another one.

What is a Building?

This question has a similar multi-layered answer:

What is a Website?

A website may seem utterly different from either a car or a building. Unlike a tangible product, it has no physical existence. Yet it can be defined using the same set of layers.

Integrated Service Design for IT

Information technology has long suffered from silo-based competencies. Marketing doesn’t understand development, development doesn’t understand IT operations, and operations doesn’t understand marketing. Successful projects create solutions with unified value across product layers. That unification can’t happen if no one has a comprehensive view that incorporates function, interface, technology, meaning, and operation.

Cloud computing is turning all of IT into online services that users consume on demand. Cloud services blur distinctions between enterprise systems and public websites, between internal and external customers, and between technical staff and users. They also create expectations for nearly instant and infinite malleability. Unlike tangible products, whose features are largely fixed, websites can constantly evolve. The product lifecycle becomes a continuous feedback loop.

The discipline of Service Design applies product design techniques to “experiences that reach people through many different touch-points, and that happen over time” (servicedesign.org). Service Design can help improve the quality, efficiency, and customer value of cloud-based IT in multiple ways:

Service Design is ideally suited to the never-ending cycle of product marketing/requirements gathering, design and development, deployment and adoption, and support. Cloud computing is forcing IT to change its focus from technology to customer service. By placing the customer service experience at the center of attention, Service Design can help IT organizations deliver solutions that more completely meet their users’ tangible and intangible needs.

About the Author:
Name: Jeff Sussna
Bio:
T Software designer, IT architect, cloud computing specialist with a focus on
integrated approaches to IT service design.
Location: USA
Company: Founder and Principal @ http://www.ingineering.it

To many, the lack of a clear mission statement for our discipline has been caused mainly by the dominance of Adobe Flash in the world we work in. For many years it was simply the best (if not the only) tool for the job in hand. With so much Flash work being done, it’s all too easy for teams full of experts to be seen as ‘Flash teams’, rather than looking beyond the tool to the task it has been used for.
Teams specifically dedicated to Flash development do exist, of course, as such teams do for .Net or Java development, so it’s a justifiable conclusion to draw. But that’s not how we, creative developers, position ourselves. We have always been technology-agnostic, and we have developed projects using a range of technologies. We just happen to have been using one particular technology rather a lot…

And then Steve did what Steve did, and Steve said what Steve said, and for a while, confusion reigned.

I’m not going to address the pros and cons of Apple’s ‘no Flash’ decision, the subsequent squabble between them and Adobe, or the flame wars between the fundamentalists on both sides. I think you’ll find it all well documented elsewhere, if you can summon up the willpower to wade through the diatribe and unearth some balanced opinions. I’m far more interested in the impact of these events on the community who call themselves ‘creative developers’ or perhaps ‘creative technologists’.

However technology-agnostic we may be, it’s true that (until recently) Flash was the overwhelmingly dominant tool of our trade. So when the dominance of that tool is challenged, how do we respond? Well, certainly not by clinging on with white knuckles, impervious to the change taking place around us.

I entered the world of creative technology via Java applets and the legendary Macromedia Director (I’m older than I look…). I loved using it, but I also saw how Flash was passing it by. There’s no room for nostalgia when you need to make a living, right? Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not writing off Flash. It still has a large and exciting role to play, but the fragmentation in platforms and technologies means that there are a whole load of new toys in the playground. It’s incumbent upon us, as the technology-agnostic and creative technologists we purport to be, to be able to apply our skills to these new technologies as effectively as we have been doing with Flash for the past few years.

In reality, this means reiterating and emphasising those parts of the discipline that do not relate to actually writing code at all. And it’s those parts that are really at the heart of creative development.

For several years, my message at conferences has been one of designer/developer collaboration, with a goal of designing tangible things that can actually be built, all parties on the same page and mutual consideration and understanding. More recently, however, that message has shifted to emphasise how we design something that can actually be used. This is different: it means not only understanding how to help designers understand what is possible technically, but also how a user will interact with the results. Therefore, we help the design team to create something as beautifully usable as it is technically achievable.

Interface. That’s what we do. Anywhere there is interaction, that’s where we live. With any platform, in any language, on any device. And I suggest that perhaps the most important part of creative development takes place before any coding begins. At AKQA in 2010, that lead to a re-emphasising and re-focusing of our work during the pre-build phases of projects.

This is the time to work closely with user experience teams as well as designers, adding insights to their work, and not just taking wireframes as templates for subsequent development. This is the time to not just understand the differences between devices and platforms and the context of their use, but to communicate these clearly, so that the interface and functionality we design reflects that context. This is the time to not simply take the plans and implement them, but collaborate with all the other disciplines involved to ensure that what is going to be built is the best solution for our clients and in the best interests of the users.

With these values at the start, we can turn an outstanding piece of software engineering into something that is a delight to use.

Creative development is almost unique in its breadth of collaboration: from concept to deployment – only project managers compare. It is this combination of usability insight and technical skill that defines it as a discipline.

Having re-established these principles at AKQA, we’ve had many exciting opportunities in 2010, and have many more ahead of us in 2011. Working alongside strategists, user experience teams and designers, we’ve been able to define the interfaces for products for a variety of tablets and mobile devices. We’re helping to envision the direction of in-car connected systems, the impact of social media and the future of connected TV. Hopefully, we’ll be able to help build out these solutions alongside our technical architects and software engineers.

As an aside, it does appear to me that Flash is something of an academy for creative development. So many of the techniques and insights we bring to projects, on the variety of platforms and technologies we work with, have been learned and perfected in our experiences with Flash.

In answer to the title question, ‘What does it mean to be a creative developer in 2011?’ – I think it means more than ever, both for me at AKQA and also for us as a community. The proliferation of devices and platforms creates a huge gap for people who understand the context these devices are used in, and the kind of interfaces they require. I look forward to a year during which we can bring our talents to bear in more areas than ever before. 2010 was a landmark year. It’s the year Apple threw the cat among the pigeons, the year Android really kicked in, and the year a whole lot of opportunities opened up for everyone who considers themselves to be a creative developer.

About the Author:
Name: Andy Hood
Bio:
Andy is Exec Creative Development Director at AKQA, creating rich experiences on
all platforms and devices for the worlds biggest brands.
Location: London, UK
Company: Executive Creative Development Director @ AKQA