Apartment hunting is like dating: Life would be so much easier if we just settled with the first one we loved but it’s fundamentally flawed. And so we keep looking, ridden with regret and indecision as we see how one apartment has that flashy hardwood floor and big windows but lacks the expansive space of the loft in the dodgy part of town. And then there is the safe flat, already so settled in that you would almost be a visitor in your own space. It is the paradox of perspective. And, in the end, it can almost be like a game of musical chairs. We keep looking, flirting, stroking mantlepieces for dust, possibly even desperately throwing yourself into a fling with a sublet until you are finally so worn out that you settle with whatever you have in front of you (and quite likely just as flawed as the first that came your way).

Only rarely, and how fortunate you are if you came across it, you find THE ONE. Clean. High cealings. Open. Comfortable. With a sense of style. …or maybe that’s just my tastes.

Haven’t found it yet.

No related posts.

For an official writeup, I have included the AP coverage of the event!

Startup Weekend: 48-hour labor for business births

By SAMANTHA GROSS
The Associated Press
Monday, June 14, 2010; 4:38 PM

NEW YORK — With just minutes to go until deadline, the coders sit furiously typing, putting the finishing touches on their website. Brett Martin turns to his computer – the PowerPoint slides are almost done.

On the couch, a tiny dog buries his head into a blanket and shuts its eyes.

“Spanky’s the only one who got to sleep,” Martin says.

This group of nine entrepreneur hopefuls started less than two days ago with just an idea: an online planning and finance tool for small businesses called ProphetMargin. Now they have the website design, a business plan and a working database. And by the end of the evening, they’ll have a formal mentor and a meeting planned with investors.

Such is the pace of Startup Weekend, one of the final events of New York’s Internet Week, which is ending Monday. Participants in the 48-hour marathon came in alone with an idea and left with like-minded partners and a fledgling business.

“It’s a testament to how much people can get done when they’re working on something they’re really excited about,” Martin said Monday, reflecting on his team’s accomplishments over the weekend. “I met great people and had a great time and hopefully we’ll get some funding.”

ProphetMargin was one of 18 projects pitched Sunday night in the weekend’s final presentations. Other groups offered up plans for an app that would give users information about other people around them in public, a website to connect users with friends who need housesitters, an app allowing people to track the beers they drink, and an Internet platform to help adult entertainers build their brands.

The projects started as 60-second pitches Friday night. The 145 participants evaluated 57 suggestions and formed teams around the best ideas. Then they all got to work.

Usually, “you couldn’t create something like this without spending thousands of dollars,” Rob Steir marveled, looking around at his ProphetMargin teammates as they pushed through the final stretch. “We wouldn’t even know each other – we don’t know each other.”

Most teams gathered together people with varying specialties.

The group creating Data Dough – a service to help people sell their personal information to advertisers – included two software engineers, a graphic-design student, a computer-network manager, a Harvard Law School student, a new-media journalist and one person with a finance background.

In the end, the group’s work won it a prize – a mentorship from Noiz Ivy, an organization that supports entrepreneurs. Score.ly – a platform that would allow users to display verified personal and professional achievements – and ProphetMargin won the same prize. A group creating a platform to help publishers market-test novels won a free month of shared working space.

And a representative from AOL Ventures said the company would meet with three groups and fund one of them. The details of the deal were to be worked out later. The finalists were Score.ly, ProphetMargin and Deal Over Here – an app allowing people to buy unsold tickets just minutes before an event begins.

Even for the participants who leave with no prizes or investment prospects, the weekend can provide an opportunity to jump into a project full-throttle and test out potential partners for future endeavors, said Peter Chislett, a startup veteran who has provided mentoring to previous participants and who now helps run New Work City, a shared Manhattan workspace. Creating a startup can be an intimate experience that it’s better not to attempt with an utter stranger, he said.

“Your partners, they are your most important relationships for as long as you’re together,” he said. “You have to get along and you have to be able to trust them like they’re part of your family – without all that baggage.”

It’s a trial run that’s been shared by more than 500 teams at more than 100 startup weekends around the world over the last three years. Startup Weekend – itself a non-profit startup run by three directors and a handful of volunteer facilitators – has gathered would-be entrepreneurs in cities from Copenhagen to Istanbul. It’s funded by a combination of sponsorships and entry fees. Participants usually pay less than $100 each.

There’s no guaranteeing that any of the projects will live on beyond the weekend.

But Kyle Kelly, a wealth management product manager who joined a team launching a children’s language learning platform, said the experience gave him the opportunity to try on a number of different hats – and collaborate with others.

“The best ideas are generated not just by one person,” he said. “The best companies are formed with a team.”

—

Online:

http://startupweekend.org/

Related posts:

1. Startup Weekend: In the Trenches
2. Startup Weekend
3. FashionCampNYC This Weekend

Truly, there isn’t much else to be said of these pictures. These are the flowers and trees that I had romantic delusions of nurturing every evening when we were moving in—and quickly realized that my calling was not to be some fairy tail princess in hicksville but some book worm instead. Despite how easy it would have been, I rarely stopped to smell the flowers. It’s gotten me where I am today…back home…smelling flowers.

Roses surrounding a swing set.  This spot strikes me as particularly Secret Garden-esque—further proof that we do not live in movies.  If this was a movie, I would wander through my youthful angst and swing alone, staring longingly at the empty second swing and the someone who wasn’t sitting in it.

Many of the flowers are brilliant in their coloring.  As far as brilliance goes, these far excede any equivalent brilliance residing in my head.

I must admit that this spider is fascinatingly offset against the flower.

I’m sad that I missed our cherry blossoms but the dogwood trees are still going strong!

…I don’t even know what type of flower this is.  When we bought the house, all the plants had labels with their latin names.  In the past years, these labels have been knocked over or uprooted along with weeds so that the only remaining labels are in the rose garden…speaking of which…

I personally do not care for roses.  I find them so painfully laden with socially constructed significance that I cannot divorce their form from the narratives they allude to.  So, while we have a lovely rose garden, I rarely spend much time in it.  Whenever I get flowers, I always have the initial hesitance to inspect them lest they be the deadly red roses—sure to nip any relationship, if you will pardon the expression, in the bud.

We also have a bit of a vegetable garden.  The cherry tomatoes are delightful (but not yet ready to be eaten) and mother swears by the squash.

This is a veiled tragedy.  Beneath the facade of a plump orange, is the withered insides of a fruit that was frozen before it had a chance to be savored.  The oddly cold weather, while doing wonders for our flowers, destroyed our crop or oranges and almost took out our lemons.  We can only hope that the apples, cherries, and pears fair better.

I love vines.  Conceptually they creep me out.  But visually, I find few things more graceful than vines winding up a trunk or pillar.

And here is the end.  When I was little, I loved rockes more than anything.  To be precise, I loved bolders.  I loved climbing up them and declaring them my own (I was bad at sharing things that I had no mean of actually processing).  Nowadays, I don’t try to claim them, but it is fun to take pictures of them.

Related posts:

1. Home Part 1 [A Sign]
2. Saba
3. Home For The Holidays

The ongoing war of the sexes finds it’s battle ground with the age old conflict of the toilet lid. A helpful reminder to the gender in the minority at the Fuller house.

There are many reasons that I love visiting my parents’ home in Northern California: it’s spacious, it’s sunny, and I have absolutely no social distractions. Another reason I enjoy visiting it is for the cleaver people that reside there. I love talking with my family, even the most trivial conversations can be hilarious…well, the trivial conversations are the best!

Pictorially, this is best expressed with the signs found around the house. Along with family and vacation pictures, there are a few notices for the edification and delight of visitors. I thought I would share a couple.

A helpful explanation for visitors to the house on encountering the entry gate…it has been buggy for the past few years so the motor is mostly for show.

Related posts:

1. Home Part 2 [Flowers]
2. Home For The Holidays
3. Saba

Contents

Multiplexer
Video Demo
Arduino Code
Processing Code

Multiplexer

MAX4617 multiplexer with three address pins (ABC), 8 output pins (X0-7), and one connection pin (X).

After some work with cd4051 multiplexers, I discovered that they activation resistance was too great to effectively work with my other components. Thus, I went back to the drawing board (digikey) to find multiplexers that better served my needs. After much exploration, I settled upon the MAX4617 [datasheet] whose low activation resistance and fast switch times worked beautifully with the rest of my setup.

After some minor challenges with addressing and delay times between addressing, I had a properly functioning glider pattern.

Video Demo

Arduino Code

The Arduino Code creates a two dimensional array, representing the LED grid, applies the rules of the Game of Life to this array, and then sends the activation signal to the multiplexers for what coordinates where to be powered and grounded.

/********************************************************************************
 *
 * Life Dress
 *
 *  Game of Life code and control code for the 4051 analog mutiplexer / demulti-
 *  plexer.  Based on game of life code by Daniel Shiffman and 4051 code by
 *  david c. and tomek n.* for k3 / malmö högskola
 *
 * by Elizabeth Fuller
 *
 *******************************************************************************/

// setting for order of pins to be called
int  bin [] = {100,10,110,0,101,000,101,011};

// set up control pins. these are the pins that turn on the different pins
int s1 = 5; // s1 control for ground
int s2 = 6; // s2 control for ground
int s3 = 7; // s3 control for ground
int s4 = 2; // s1 control for power
int s5 = 3; // s2 control for power
int s6 = 4; // s3 control for power

// game of life settings
const int COLS = 5;
const int ROWS = 5;
//game of life board
boolean old_board[COLS][ROWS];
boolean new_board[COLS][ROWS]; 

int refresh_rate = 100; // rounds of stobe for each round

void setup(){
  // general pin settings
  pinMode(s1, OUTPUT);    // s0
  pinMode(s2, OUTPUT);    // s1
  pinMode(s3, OUTPUT);    // s2

  pinMode(s4, OUTPUT);    // s0
  pinMode(s5, OUTPUT);    // s1
  pinMode(s6, OUTPUT);    // s2

  // game of life setup code
  glider();
  //initBoard();

  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop () {
  /*for(int i=0; i
>1) & 0x01;
  int c2 = (col>>2) & 0x01;

  digitalWrite(s1, c0);
  digitalWrite(s2, c1);
  digitalWrite(s3, c2);

  //Serial.println(bin[count]);
  int row = bin[y];
  int r0 = row & 0x01;
  int r1 = (row>>1) & 0x01;
  int r2 = (row>>2) & 0x01;

  // mixing calla
  digitalWrite(s4, r0);
  //digitalWrite(s1, c2);
  digitalWrite(s5, r1);
  //digitalWrite(s2, c2);
  digitalWrite(s6, r2);
  //digitalWrite(s3, c2);

  delay(.5);

}

/********************************************************************************
 * Game of Life Code
 *  - calculate()
 *  - initBoard()
 ********************************************************************************/

void golTurnON() {
  int ctr = 0;
  for(int t=0; t<=refresh_rate; t++) {
    for ( int i = 0; i < COLS; i++) {
      for ( int j = 0; j < ROWS; j++) {
        old_board[i][j] = new_board[i][j];
        if ((new_board[i][j] == 1)) {
          ledON(i,j);
        }
        ctr++;
      }
    }
  }
  //delay(10);
}

void calculate()
{

  int alive = 1;
  int dead = 0;
  //loop through every spot in our 2D array and check spots neighbors
  for (int x = 0; x < COLS;x++) {
    for (int y = 0; y < ROWS;y++) {
      int nb = 0;
      //Note the use of mod ("%") below to ensure that cells on the edges have
      //"wrap-around" neighbors above row
      if (old_board[(x+COLS-1) % COLS ][(y+ROWS-1) % ROWS ] == 1) { nb++; }
      if (old_board[ x                ][(y+ROWS-1) % ROWS ] == 1) { nb++; }
      if (old_board[(x+1)      % COLS ][(y+ROWS-1) % ROWS ] == 1) { nb++; }
      //middle row
      if (old_board[(x+COLS-1) % COLS ][ y                ] == 1) { nb++; }
      if (old_board[(x+1)      % COLS ][ y                ] == 1) { nb++; }
      //bottom row
      if (old_board[(x+COLS-1) % COLS ][(y+1)      % ROWS ] == 1) { nb++; }
      if (old_board[ x                ][(y+1)      % ROWS ] == 1) { nb++; }
      if (old_board[(x+1)      % COLS ][(y+1)      % ROWS ] == 1) { nb++; }
      //RULES OF "LIFE" HERE
      if      ((old_board[x][y] == 1) && (nb <  2)) { new_board[x][y] = 0; }       else if ((old_board[x][y] == 1) && (nb >  3)) { new_board[x][y] = 0; }
      else if ((old_board[x][y] == 0) && (nb == 3)) { new_board[x][y] = 1; }
      else                        { new_board[x][y] = old_board[x][y]; }  //stasis
    }
  }
}
void sendData()
{
  int ctr = 0;
  //RENDER game of life based on "new_board" values
  for ( int i = 0; i < COLS; i++) {
    for ( int j = 0; j < ROWS; j++) {
      // write old board like new board
      old_board[i][j] = new_board[i][j];
      // send board settings to Processing
      if ((new_board[i][j] == 1)) {
        // send living cell
        Serial.print(1, DEC);
        Serial.print(",");
      }
      else
      {
        // send empty cell
        Serial.print(0, DEC);
        Serial.print(",");
      }
      ctr++;
    }
  }
  Serial.print("\n");
}

/********************************************************************************
 * Initialization code for game of life
 ********************************************************************************/

//init board with random "alive" squares
void initBoard() {
  for (int i =0;i < COLS;i++) {
    for (int j =0;j < ROWS;j++) {
      if (int(random(2)) == 0) {
        old_board[i][j] = 1;
      }
      else {
        old_board[i][j] = 0;
      }
    }
  }
}

// fill baord with 0s
void emptyBoard() {
  for (int i =0;i < COLS;i++) {
    for (int j =0;j < ROWS;j++) {
      old_board[i][j] = 0;
    }
  }
}

void glider() {
  emptyBoard();
  old_board[0][3] = 1;
  old_board[1][3] = 1;
  old_board[2][3] = 1;
  old_board[0][2] = 1;
  old_board[1][1] = 1;
}

Processing Code

This code was written for debugging so that it could easily be compared against what LEDs are lighting up. The processing code communicates with the Arudino controller over a USB cable. It takes in a string of 0s and 1s to indicate the health of each instance of the board. Make sure to adjust the COLS and ROWS variables for bother the Arduino and Processing Code depending on what the LED grid is.

import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;

int ROWS = 5;
int COLS = 5;

int sS = 50; // square size

void setup() {
  size(COLS*sS, ROWS*sS);
  println(Serial.list());
  // Initialize serial to take in information from the USB port
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
  // read bytes into a buffer until you get a linefeed (ASCII 10):
  myPort.bufferUntil('\n');

  //drawBoard();
}

void draw() { }

void drawBoard() {
  rectMode(CORNERS);
  background(100);
  stroke(170);
  strokeWeight(1);
  fill(255);
  for(int i=0; i
< health.length; cellNum++) {       print("Cell " + cellNum + ": " + health[cellNum] + "\t");       if(health[cellNum] > 0) {
        print("draw cell");
        fill(0,205,140);
        rect((cellNum % COLS)*sS,(cellNum / COLS)*sS,((cellNum % COLS)+1)*sS,
           ((cellNum / COLS)+1)*sS);
      }
    }
    println();
  }
}

Related posts:

1. Life Dress [Matrix]
2. Physical Computing Final: Life (week 1, Monday)
3. Life Dress: LED Drivers and Lilypads

Johanna Blakley presented a new argument for free culture as modeled by the fashion industry to a TedX talk at USC. My feelings on USC aside, I was fascinated by the implications that she drew from the fashion industry’s unprotected creative culture and other, protected industries.  I want you to watch the movie, but for the sake of this post, suffice it to say that, despite the lack of copyright and patent protection and blatant ripping off of others’ designs, the fashion industry is big money and designers are prospering.  So, maybe there should be less protection for other industries.  This is actually a bit of a personally interesting issue for me as someone who has been rather involved in a recent movement to increase the open dialogue of creativity and knowledge in the fashion industry.

You see, Blackly isn’t giving the whole story. This lack of copyright and patent protection, aside from gross overuse of trademarks in fashion designs, has also generated an incredibly secretive environment in the fashion industry. Since anything out there is open to being ripped off, any tricks of the trade that designers can keep to themselves tend to be carefully guarded secrets and smaller desigers that are in competition with larger houses and stores often fall into the trap of keeping their designs so close to the chest that few ever see what they are capable of. Yes, established designers and large chains have a positive cycle of riffing off of each other. But new, small designers have few resources and little chance of making it on their own. The argument that your competition isn’t really your competition doesn’t work when patterns are being reused within the same market bracket by more established designers.

And so we do have this level of secretive work that is harming the fashion industry in a time when so much is changing and there is little dialogue between designers as to how to change with it. What does the internet mean to a designer who is too scared to post their work in a digital store front? Not that I support this approach. The answer should be to make a webpage and start generating some attention. But who in the fashion community is going to tell them that?

This is where FashionCamp comes in. FashionCamp is a weekend long unconference that started last September at ITP. FashionCamp is an unconference inspired by the information sharing culture among coders and developers in barcamps. What the software community learned, and the fashion community needs to pick up on, is that the best work and ideas come from an open dialogue within the field. Attendees sign up to give talks, moderate discussions, and lead workshops for rest of the attendees during the barcamp. This way, the event becomes what the attendees want and feel a need for at the time. FashionCamp in New York has already had two official events (Fall 2009 and Spring 2010) and is spreading to new locations, including FashionCampLA, June 13th.

Don’t get me wrong. I think we have a lot to learn from the fasion industry. But I also think the fashion industry has a lot to learn from us.

Related posts:

1. Fashion Camp
2. FashionCampNYC This Weekend
3. FashionCampNYC Day 2

I will be showing at the Fashioning IT BKSTYLE event at:

OutPost Lounge
1014 Fulton Street
Brooklyn
New York, NY 11238

It is rather funny, considering that I’m based in Manhattan.  Our coordinator is very involved in Brooklyn Fashion Weekend and the BK indie fashion scene.  We have worked together on the past two FashionCampNYs and it is a pleasure to work with Bonnie Sandy again on this.

For more information, visit the Internet Week New York site or the Event Bright page.

Related posts:

1. Life Dress [Photo Shoot]
2. Life Dress in the ITP Show 2010
3. Life Dress [multiplexers]

“But Elizabeth!” I hear a multitude of nonexistant voices cry, “What of sanitation?” Yes, automated toilets, doors, and light switches do save you from directly touching things that others have touched. But you know what also exists? SINKS! Wash your hands!

I don’t mean to be a ludite by any means. I believe in progress, but it should be practical before it is inflicted on a weary traveler who only wants to piss.

No related posts.

I contemplated leaving a note to the TSA agents whom would be inevitably rifling through my duffle bag before loading it into the airplane. It would read something like this:

Yes, it looks weird, but the assorted electical componenets, copper strips, and silicone tiles compose an illuminated dress that I just lost five years off of my life expectancy in making. Please, please, please, search as you need but handle with care!

Thursday, in an act of desperation, I escaped New York and all the troublesome distractions that go with it for the relative seclusion of my parent’s house in Northern California for two weeks of focused work on the Life Dress. After an uncomfortable plane ride in a center seat I collected my duffle and immediately opened it to find the slip of paper announcing: “Notice of Baggage Inspection”

I am far from surprised.

Related posts:

1. Home Part 1 [A Sign]
2. Life Dress [BKSTYLE?]
3. Liminality

With thesis a week old, I finally feel comfortable enough to reassess my presentation. The movie has finally been posted on the thesis site and so I can finally share it. Below is a video recording of my thesis presentation at ITP of the Life Dress:

(As always, the photographs are by the fabulous Jonathan Ystad)

The Life Dress is an organically inspired piece of tech couture modeling the Game of Life. Handmade tiles with embedded circuitry are composed to run the Game of Life algorithm developed by John Conway. The algorithm models cell life through a simple set of rules applied to squares on a grid. Whether a cell is born, survives, or dies is determined by the condition of surrounding cells. These rules are visualized as dynamic patterns of light on the tiles of the dress. It is through the shared existence of the cells, or, indeed, people, that any survive and illuminated animations occur.

Presenting the Life Dress. Photography by Jonathan Ystad

Related posts:

1. Life Dress [Proposal]
2. Life Dress [aftershow wrap up]
3. Thesis Timeline