#programming
// 24 posts tagged
Feb 24 8:33 PM #50 2 min The Jar Started Pinging at Four in the Morning
Fermentation Sensor LoggingSix hours after the starter showed life, I had a time-of-flight sensor pointed at it like a balloon payload.
Feb 13 5:22 PM #41 4 min The Beam Traced a Face the Speakers Couldn't Stand
Oscilloscope Art PortraitureThe face on the phosphor looks almost friendly. The audio required to draw it sounds like a dentist's drill arguing with a dial-up modem.
Feb 12 10:35 AM #3 3 min The Patch Kept Running After I Forgot to Listen
Generative Soundscape CompositionThe Pi in my basement ran for 37 days without supervision. When I finally listened, I didn't recognize my own patch.
Feb 9 5:54 PM #38 3 min The Desk That Knows When the Sky Is Busy
Orbital Decay Audio NotificationsSomething chimed on my desk at 14:23 and I looked up from the wrong screen. The ISS had just cleared my horizon, and I'd missed the first note.
Feb 8 4:36 AM #37 2 min The Waterfall Scrolled Green and Nothing Burned
Meteor-Scatter Shutter TriggersIt's 2:47 AM and I've been waiting for France to bounce a meteor my way. So far: thirty-seven frames of black sky.
Feb 7 7:32 PM #3 2 min Two States Between Static and a Forest
Generative Soundscape CompositionSix days of overengineering. The fix was two states and thirty percent. I'm almost embarrassed.
Feb 5 6:38 PM #33 3 min The Knight That Learned to Leap in Solfège
Knight's Tour Choral CanonsSixty lines of Python generated a melody full of tritones. Now I have to convince my voice it's singable.
Feb 3 7:25 PM #31 3 min Teaching a Knight to File a Flight Plan
VFR Knight's Tour Grid FlightsThe script found a perfect 41-square tour. Then I checked for restricted airspace.
Feb 2 7:55 PM #9 3 min Before I Read the Weather I Heard It Hum
METAR Chord BriefingsClear skies make my synth go silent. Terrible weather sounds gorgeous. I may have the emotional mapping backwards.
Feb 1 6:49 PM #36 3 min The Balloon Climbed for an Hour Without Changing Key
Stratospheric Telemetry Chord MapsThe script converted my balloon data into MIDI without a single error. The result was one hour of C-sharp minor.
Jan 25 7:44 PM #24 3 min Every Position Hums If You Let It
Zugzwang Cadence EtudesMove 23 cost me the game. I know because I turned it into a guitar piece that refuses to resolve.
Jan 23 7:24 PM #21 3 min When the Flyby Learned to Hum Its Own Speed
Propeller Doppler ArpeggiatorWind from the northwest, gusting to 25 km/h. Not ideal for flying—but exactly what my arpeggios needed.
Jan 22 5:10 PM #20 4 min The Racetrack in the Sky Had a Time Signature
Holding-Pattern Polyrhythm LoopsStandard-rate turns are 3° per second—exactly 60 seconds for 180°. The FAA didn't mean to write a time signature, but here we are.
Jan 19 7:00 PM #15 4 min Where the Radio Pointed While the Stars Turned
QSO Constellation OverlaysYou're going to draw lines on the sky—not with a laser, but with spherical trig and old logbook entries.
Jan 18 7:22 PM #3 3 min The Hiss That Refused to Become a Room
Generative Soundscape CompositionFive things blew up in the first hour. The ambient masterpiece that emerged was my laptop's fan noise with reverb.
Jan 17 8:58 PM #3 3 min The Patch Keeps Running After I Leave the Room
Generative Soundscape CompositionBack at this. Third time this week. The 7 MHz band sounded strange and I couldn't not record it.
Jan 16 6:41 PM #14 2 min The Choir That Lives Inside the Carrier Wave
Morse Canon Choir LoopsSomewhere, a ham operator has no idea their callsign is now a four-part canon on my loop pedal.
Jan 13 7:45 PM #12 3 min The Signal Sends a Fork and I Answer
Morse Chess Tactics BeaconKeyed a knight fork into the ether. Decoded it by ear. Solved it wrong. At least the transmission was clean.
Jan 10 8:49 PM #9 4 min Nine Miles of Visibility in a Major Seventh
METAR Chord BriefingsNine statute miles of visibility produces a major seventh. I've accidentally turned preflight planning into jazz.
Jan 8 8:03 PM #7 4 min Teaching a Foam Wing to See What Radios Hear
Airborne RF Shadow CartographyA buried irrigation pipe showed up in my heatmap before I knew it existed. The foam wing sees what I can't.
Jan 7 7:27 PM #6 3 min Teaching a Foam Wing to Draw the Ground
Foam-Wing Orthomosaic MappingTeaching a computer to recognize a park from 200 slightly different angles—like raising a very slow bird.
Jan 5 7:40 PM #3 3 min The Feedback Loop Only Sounded Beautiful Once
Generative Soundscape CompositionEight seconds of cascading self-referential harmony. Then the audio interface died and stayed dead for an hour.
Jan 4 7:38 PM #3 3 min The Ionosphere Wrote the Harmony While I Wasn't Listening
Generative Soundscape CompositionSet grain duration to 8 milliseconds, got a refrigerator compressor. The 20ms boundary between texture and pitch is real.
Jan 2 7:47 PM #3 2 min Teaching My Computer to Dream in Sound
Generative Soundscape CompositionThe first sound my algorithm generates is indistinguishable from a fax machine drowning. This is, apparently, progress.