Notes From Jameshttp://ghofulpo.com/james http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/03/07/0018/Coverville_-_Violent_Femmes_albumhttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/03/07/0018/Coverville_-_Violent_Femmes_albumWed, 07 Mar 2012 00:18:00 +0000On to the next project: a cover album of Violent Femmes. My song: Promise. Just need to get started now... http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/02/28/0439/RPM_Challenge_-_Completed!http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/02/28/0439/RPM_Challenge_-_Completed!Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:39:00 +0000Check here to listen:isny's player: http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/02/10/1704/February_Album_Writing_Month__RPM_Challengehttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/02/10/1704/February_Album_Writing_Month__RPM_ChallengeFri, 10 Feb 2012 17:04:00 +0000It's February, so I'm writing and recording an album for FAWM and the RPM Challenge. When I'm done, I'll have to post it to Bandcamp or some site like that. For this challenge, I'm using the same drum beat for each of the songs. So far, so good...none of the songs really sounds like the others. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/01/15/1920/BicycleEriehttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2012/01/15/1920/BicycleErieSun, 15 Jan 2012 19:20:00 +0000Working on my latest project, BicycleErie. This will have maps of bicycle friendly routes, bike racks, and other such things. Let's hope this one takes off! http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/12/30/2009/Arduino_musichttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/12/30/2009/Arduino_musicFri, 30 Dec 2011 20:09:00 +0000Here is a nice code sample that I put together that plays music on the Arduino. Just hook up a speaker to pin 8, add a resistor if necessary, and it will play a few songs, one with multiple voices (polyphonic music).// Arduino Music Demo// James S. Ghofulpo//// Plays multi voice music.  Documentation for writing your own music is below.#define TS         ( 130 ) // Time for a 1/16th note, in ms#define STACATTO   ( 80 )  // Time for a stacatto note, in ms#define OUTPUT_PIN ( 8 )   // Which pin on the Arduino are we modulating#define NUM_VOICES ( 2 )   // Number of voices supported#define MAX_CYCLES ( 10 )  // On and off cycles before switch// Data structure for each voicetypedef struct {     float f; // Frequency     long  t; // Time left to play this note     long  decay_time; // Time left to decay (turn off) note     long  on_pt;  // On phase time     long  off_pt; // Off phase time     int   synchronizing; // Set to 1 if we are waiting to synchronize     int   current_voice; // which voice is being analyzed in the muisc     const char * music;     const char * start_of_music;     const char * return_pos;} voice_info_t;// Function to play a song//// Tone Commands:// a-g - Select low octave note// A-G - Select high octave note// +   - This note, up one octave// -   - This note, down one octave// #   - Sharp// &   - Flat// t   - Note is a triplet (1/3 of timing)// .   - Note is dotted (timing * 1.5)// ,   - Note is stacatto// r   - Rest// s, e, q, h, w - Timing (1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1) of note.  Note plays when time is selected!//// Voice / flow commands://// V  - This is part of the next voice// >X - Call part X// [X yyyyy] - Define part x to be yyyyy// |  - End of measure.  Allows for synchronization, in case of misprogrammed music.// k  - The previously mentioned note selects the key signature (i.e. fk selects F major).void play_song( const char * this_song ){   int inx = 0;   int iny;   int duration = 0;   int note_offset = -1;   voice_info_t info[NUM_VOICES]; // Each voices' info   int triplet = 0;   int key[12];   long shortest_time = 999999;   int current_phase = 0;   long current_time;   int in_combo;   long time_in_micros;   float on_duty_cycle = 0.1;   int duty_cycle_direction = 0;   int current_voice = 0;   int cycle_count = 0;   int dotted = 0;   int stacatto = 0;   char search_target;   int everybody_is_done = 0;   int accidental = 0;         for ( inx = 0; inx  http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/12/05/0016/Arduino_Bike_Computerhttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/12/05/0016/Arduino_Bike_ComputerMon, 05 Dec 2011 00:16:00 +0000I'm currently working on an Arduino based bike computer / data logger, based on a Arduino Uno and an SD shield. It seems to work quite well, and I use it for recording my progress on my bike trainer. I'm going to replace it with a RBBB and a micro-SD adapter I found online to make it portable. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/11/10/0445/2011_Bike_to_Work_Rounduphttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/11/10/0445/2011_Bike_to_Work_RoundupThu, 10 Nov 2011 04:45:00 +00002011:4763 km / 2977 miles (bike to work bike only)106 bikes to workStarted March 27, ended November 4th2010:4849 km / 3031 miles covered95 bikes to workStarted April 7, ended November 3rd2009:3356 km / 2013 miles covered79 bikes to workStarted April 17, ended October 22nd2008:3211 km / 2006 miles covered73 bikes to workStarted on March 30th, ended October 16thCovered the distance from Los Angeles, CA to Davenport, IA (and a bit into Illinois)Based on working every day for 52 weeks, this comes out to be 28% of the time! Actually, a bit higher if you take away holidays, vacations, etc. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/10/12/1559/Tropospheric_ducting_-_part_3http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/10/12/1559/Tropospheric_ducting_-_part_3Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:59:00 +0100Driving to work yesterday (October 11), I heard two Detroit radio stations from Erie:102.7 WHDD104.3 WOMCThe last time this happened was November 12, 2010 when I heard WOMC. WOMC must be on a really clear channel to be able to get this station every time. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/10/07/2108/Ubuntu_11.10http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/10/07/2108/Ubuntu_11.10Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:08:00 +0100I switched to Ubuntu 11.10. The upgrade went flawlessly. Well, kind of. Gnome 2 doesn't seem to work anymore. At least, not straight off the bat. I'm running Gnome 3 (with the new Gnome shell). Looks better than the last time I ran it. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/10/03/0446/The_yearly_playing_with_the_bloghttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/10/03/0446/The_yearly_playing_with_the_blogMon, 03 Oct 2011 04:46:00 +0100Every year about this time, when the weather gets rainy and I don't feel like getting all damp, it seems this blog gets a bit of a workout. Sometimes, it's just reworking the CSS and the look and feel of the blog, sometimes it's tweaking the code. I'm not quite sure what it's going to be this year, but there's a lot of hacking that has gone on in the code for too long, and it needs to be cleaned out. The questions is, can it, and do I really care enough to do it? http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/09/23/1856/15000_kmhttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/09/23/1856/15000_kmFri, 23 Sep 2011 18:56:00 +0100Yesterday, my bike odometer turned over 15000 km. I was excited! Amazing how much it all adds up over the years. Currently up to 86 bikes to work. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/09/07/0359/2011_Bike_to_work_progresshttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/09/07/0359/2011_Bike_to_work_progressWed, 07 Sep 2011 03:59:00 +01002011:3690 km / 2300 miles80 bikes to workStarted March 272010:4849 km / 3031 miles covered95 bikes to workStarted April 7, ended November 3rd2009:3356 km / 2013 miles covered79 bikes to workStarted April 17, ended October 22nd2008:3211 km / 2006 miles covered73 bikes to workStarted on March 30th, ended October 16thCovered the distance from Los Angeles, CA to Davenport, IA (and a bit into Illinois)Based on working every day for 52 weeks, this comes out to be 28% of the time! Actually, a bit higher if you take away holidays, vacations, etc. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/08/17/2159/3000_km,_2000_mileshttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/08/17/2159/3000_km,_2000_milesWed, 17 Aug 2011 21:59:00 +0100On the bike so far:3216 km, 2010 miles. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/07/31/1654/Cyanotype_photography_2http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/07/31/1654/Cyanotype_photography_2Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:54:00 +0100Notes to someone who wants to do this:I modified the lens to be mounted to a toilet paper tube, so I could focus the image. I also cut a hole in the back of the box and taped some waxed paper over the hole so I could see if the image was in focus before taping the sunpaper to the back.Make sure your hands are dry before touching the sunpaper! You will remove the chemical if you do get it wet.You need bright sunlight for this to work. I just did a 1 1/2 hour exposure in bright (but cloudy) weather, and the image was severely underexposed.Lemon juice doesn't seem to make that big a difference to the end colors. http://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/07/30/2315/Cyanotype_photographyhttp://ghofulpo.com/james/index.php/2011/07/30/2315/Cyanotype_photographySat, 30 Jul 2011 23:15:00 +0100I have recently begun experimenting with direct cyanotype photgraphy. Cyanotype paper is more commonly known as 'sunpaper', 'sun paper', or something similar. Basically, the chemicals on the paper react to the ultraviolet light from the sun. After a few hours of exposure, you wash the paper off in water (or water and lemon juice, as I did), and your results are made permanent.All I did was take a shoe box, cut a small hole in the lid, tape a plastic magnifying glass to it, tape a piece of sunpaper to the bottom of the shoe box, and sit it out in the sun. I got lucky that the focal length of the magnifying glass focused the image to the back of the box almost perfectly. I might try making a SLR type camera next.