Podcast

There is an audio interview about Processing with Casey Reas and Ben Fry for free download at Floss; this is a weekly podcast on open source projects. My thanks to Rob Spain for alerting me to this.

Progress-blogs and chunks

I have now received 7 chunks for the book, all range from very good to excellent. Could all of you have not created a blog do so and send me details. Also, if you could select a chunk by the end of Feb at the latest that will be really useful. Ira Greenberg is hoping to come down to the department for a day of computer art and we may be able to webcast him or at least do a YouTube video.

The run up to Christmas

I will be looking at the email this week two or three times. However, normal service will be reduced over the Christmas holiday (23rd Dec to 2nd Jan). During the holiday I will take quick glances at the email. If you want me to answer please mark the email as URGENT.

Could I wish you all a good holiday and a really enjoyable Christmas. Your participation on this project has made me feel really humble.

I'm away

I shall be away for four days from Monday and will answer any queries next weekend.

The second computer program

I have been asked about the second computer program (the free-standing one). This is is a program that illustrates the concepts that you have described in the chunk that you have volunteered for. The key thing here is to make it look really glitzy. Remember there will be a prize for the best three.

Draw on any tools that have been taught in previous chunks, but back reference them in the comments to the program. We do not want any text for this, just comment the program where you think necessary. Good luck.

Safari

The library has asked me to point out a few things about Safari.

How many sections can any user print before Safari considers this "unreasonable use"?
There is no page-number limit on printing. As long as no automated software is used to download entire books, users won’t be locked out. With that in mind, Safari is not intended to be a tool with which users can print entire chapters or books. A statement on usage is available within the site.

You can print page by page. Will Safari detect you if you print page after page after page (as I know it will if you used automatic software to download sections)?
No, there is no detection of pages printed, but users of Safari are expected to follow standard "fair use" definitions. More detail can be found at this link ; however there isn't a specific rule on number of pages that can be printed.

Is it possible to download and print all the chapters of books in Safari?
Safari is a reference service and is not intended to be a replacement for purchasing the book if someone wants to have it on the shelf. Furthermore, if someone does try to systematically download every page of a book the system will consider it abuse and shut down the abuser's session.

Another project

The department is in the initial stages of planning another mass collaboration project. This time we are trying to get students to write a major piece of music. Currently we hope that we would get students to write a string quartet piece, a mass and something modern like a five minute hip-hop extract. It's early days yet and we need to do some planning, but keep a look out on this site in the new year.

News for this week

There are still authors tricking in. My estimate is that we will have something like 70-75. I was thinking that I would contact the alumni site; however, this would bring in lots of offers which I would have to refuse so I am not going to do any more advertising. I shall hope some of you might offer to do a second chunk in March or April.

Most of the tokens have been sent out. If you have not received one by the 14th November then please let me know and I will ask the fantastic Catherine to send you one.

Books and book vouchers

About two weeks ago I ordered four copies of the Greenberg book from Waterstones for mainland Europe authors. I have just received four emails saying that they have arrived; it looks like stock is coming into the country.

Also, the fantastic Catherine has sent out a large tranche of book tokens yesterday. This should clear everyone apart from authors who offer their services from Nov 6th. Tokens for them should arrive mid next week.

Don't panic

I am starting to receive chunk offers and am adding them to this part of my other blog. Please don't panic if you feel you need to look at the book before you commit. There are plenty of chunks left throughout the text.

Solving the indentation problem II

Paulo Greco has solved the indentation problem as well. His solution can be found here. Thanks Paolo.

Changes this week

From this week on my secretary, the fantastic Catherine, will be monitoring the email that is sent to the mass writing email address. Anything that needs to be placed on the web site such as the address of a blog or a change of email address she will do. Catherine is much more accurate with data than I am; this will improve the overall quality of this project. My role for the next five months is to answer your queries and provide support. It would help Catherine and I if you put something in the header or the first line of an email along the lines 'For Darrel' if you want my help. I will usually respond in a couple of days; often the same day. I will be occasionally away from email but I will post my absences on this blog.

I have looked at about a dozen blogs today and am really impressed with the energy that you are putting into this project. Makes me feel very humble and has reinforced my feeling that committing to the OU was the best decision I have ever made in my life (35 years ago). Enjoy the week.

Solving the indentation problem I

Two authors have solved the indentation problem. They are Jannetta Steyn and Sharon Dawes. The solutions can be found on their blogs.

Sharon's blog
Jannetta's blog

Many thanks also to the three commenters who suggested workarounds.

First list of blogs are up

The first list of blogs are now published. They can be found on one of my other blogs.

Some suggestions for overcoming the code display problem

You will all have noticed that my attempts at doing indentation in Java code have failed miserably. My chunk in the book fragments blog does not contain this. If you go to the chunk there are some comments there which you might find useful. Many thanks to those who have suggested workarounds. Let me stress its no big deal not having indents in your blog since you will be delivering an MS Word or OpenOffice document to me. The chunk in your blog is to give everyone an idea of what you are writing about.

Thanks for all the emails

Thanks for responding to my email asking about potential second chunk authors. It is now clear that we have enough authors for the 85 chunks; I also have had some more new authors email in. Many thanks for your replies. If you haven't replied then please don't worry. From now on I will just take offers for single chunks. If any second chunks need writing I will put a post on this blog, probably around the end of the year. Huge thanks for the fast response.

Ira Greenberg

Ira Greenberg, the author of the Processing book, has emailed me offering to help. I am still talking to him about his involvement. Needless to say I was really made up that he contacted me and then offered help.

The Internet is amazing: this project is, at best, semi public and within seven days someone outside gets wind of it.

Ira will be in the country next year and I am hoping to ask him to come along to the OU to give us a talk. I am also hoping that I can interest the Milton Keynes Gallery to put on a computer art exhibition with, possibly, some of your efforts being displayed. Watch for more news on both these fronts in the next two months.

Safari and lack of page numbers

Some of you have been consulting Safari and looking at the Greenberg book. One of the problems is that the page numbers are not displayed. This is a link to the table of contents.

I've joined the writing team

I have written one chunk. No more. You will find it at one of my other blogs. I have done it so that you can all get a feeling for the style. I have also documented some of the problems that I encountered when transferring text to Blogger. Remember that the text on Blogger is just for information to other authors. The text that you will send me will be written using MS Word or OpenOffice.

It is worth noting that I have described three programs rather than the one I keep mentioning to you in various emails and pdf documents. There are some topics which would be suited by some smaller programs (the early topics) and there are some suited by a large program; I leave the choice up to you.

Greenberg book for sale as e-book

I've just noticed that the Greenberg book is available as an e-book. One option you can exercise if you are keen to read the book soon is to buy it from this site and use your Waterstones voucher for other books, for example for Christmas presents. The special offer on the site is $38 if you click the Buy as eBook button. This is about £28 so you would make £7!