This video is an experiment in overlaying and cropping, but the lighting isn’t perfect. I’ll do more later, but I obviously need full control over the ambient lighting to get it right. At this point, though, I prefer to upload what I have so far instead of whittle it down more.

Higher quality mp3:

Download audio file (final1080-9.mp3)

Music by J.S. Bach. More Bach: [link]

Thanks for watching!

1. The Bookmark folders still don’t roll.

Amazingly, you still can’t “roll through” your bookmark folders located on Safari’s bookmarks bar (below the URL).  This is the behavior that, for example, Firefox has had since version 1, where if you have a bookmark folder dropped down, then you can roll through to other folders without having to reselect the folder to close it and then select the next folder.  Every time Safari launches a major update, this is the first thing I check. I checked it when 3 came out, I checked it when 4 came out, and I’m almost positive I’ll check it again for versions 5, 6, and 7 and probably be equally disappointed. This has almost become a kind of crusade for me, but I can’t seem to figure out what to do about it.  The odd thing is that every other menu in OSX has this roll-through feature.

You still can't roll through this menu

2. Great, more things to erase when I Google sensitive material

Top Sites: This allows Safari to choose which sites you visit most and give you a slow-loading thumbnail for all the sites in a curved layout thingie that you are almost surely never to use unless you can’t actually read text. But holy crap it looks good though.  Opera has this Speed Dial function and I’ve seen it on other browsers as well, but usually it’s exclusively user-controlled. I don’t see why it should replace the old Apple-1, Apple-2 etc. to go to your numbered favorites and I’m not sure I see the point in having Safari pick your favorites. I opened the Top Sites window and watched the thumbnails dance around for a bit. Some of the sites were places I hadn’t visited in a few weeks, and some I haven’t visited ever. But mostly there were the usual pages: NYTimes, Flickr, Ebay etc. I’m assuming that this is because Safari has begun picking my favorites from the time I installed Safari 4, and that these are just place holders.

3. The cover flow black hole.

There is now Cover Flow view for your Bookmarks. This is a nice feature except for the fact that most pages don’t seem to have a thumbnail. I am not sure if this applies to pages that have been bookmarked before Safari 4’s installation, or what. I can’t seem to find any pattern for which ones have thumbnails and which ones don’t.  In some cases, there’ll be two pages from the same site, one with a thumbnail and one without.

The Cover Flow black hole.

4. The non-progress Bar.

Safari 3’s progress bar used to be a blue bar that would overlap the URL and show you how much of a page was loaded. This has been replaced by a tiny grey bar and a wheel that don’t indicate any progress, they just tell you that a page is loading. It’s much better looking than the blue bar, but less informative.  Maybe Apple felt like people were relating the blue progress bar to slow page loading times.  I’ll admit that the new bar gives the illusion of speed, since the progress is hidden from the user, but I can envision times when I’ll miss the old progress bar, such as when uploading movies to Facebook.

5. YES I’M SURE!

The “are you sure” disease began to rear its head in the later versions of Safari 3.  If you want to close a page that has a form submit window, Safari will ask you if you are sure.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like you are able to disable this. You are, however, allowed to disable the “close multiple tabs” nag window.  I don’t understand this inconsistency.

_________

The bottom line is: Safari 4 is a great browser and I applaud Apple for streamlining and simplifying what was already a super-efficient application.  However, odd decisions, inconsistencies, and high CPU usage continue to scar what could otherwise be a perfect browser.

Warning: Please don’t run Tilt2Joystick while you have unfinished or sensitive documents open. 

Help, the coordinates are backwards! No worries: Click here

Help
System Requirements / Compatibility
Tutorial Video
Troubleshooting

Features: 

• Easy-to-use interface: no programming required
• Laptop doesn’t need to be at rest in order to use
• Easily disabled and enabled
• Includes customizable keys via a simple listen interface
• Runs in background and can be used in any application
• Fast polling of Motion Sensor gives quick response

Tilt2Joystick has a simple single-window interface

Help

Following is a description of each of Tilt2Joystick’s features and inputs. 

1 .On / Off button: Enable and disable Tilt2Joystick.  

2. Set sliders for activate points, X Axis: You can change the grey sliders to indicate where you want the tilting to begin sending output to other applications.  Use the incoming SMS data indicator as a guide, to show you where your laptop is currently positioned. When you tilt your laptop, the black incoming SMS data indicator will move (provided Tilt2Joystick is turned on).  When the end of the black line enters the area you have set with the grey sliders, the corresponding button will light up (about the direction buttons). Set the grey sliders to the right and left side for the X Axis.  

3. Set sliders for activate points, Y Axis: As above, but with Y Axis and up and down indicators. It’s important to note that although the resulting messages sent are for up and down (as one would describe the arrow keys on your keyboard), what you will be doing with the laptop is you will be tilting it back and forward. For more information on how to tilt your laptop, please view the tutorial video. 

4. Key set and display buttons: Once you set your activate points using the sliders as described above, you can tip your laptop back, forward, right and left (remember that back and forward become up and down on the display and output), and the direction activation display buttons should light green to indicate whenever you trigger an activation point.  There is one lit button for each direction: Left, Right, Up, and Down.  You can change the key that Tilt2Joystick triggers, by clicking on any direction button and typing in a new key while Tilt2Joystick “listens”.  Listening is indicated by a flashing message above the activation points, and by a flashing border on the direction that you are currently changing. End listening by either entering a key or by clicking anywhere else.  Note that you can’t use Function keys, Alt, Apple, Ctrl, Caps Lock, or Shift.  Tilt2Joystick has default keys based on four directions as sent to the 4 arrow keys on the standard Macbook or Sudden Motion Sensor-enabled  Powebook G4 or iBook G4 number pad (see compatible laptops here). 

5. Flip X and/or Y Axis: You can choose to Flip the readout from either the X or Y axes.  Note that this will most likely be necessary for most laptops, since the Motion Sensor Data is seemingly non-standard from Apple’s end. In other words, some laptops will have the SMS data read one way, and some will have it the opposite.  You can use these buttons to set your laptop correctly.  Tilting to the left should light the left button, the right should light the right, tilting the laptop back should light the up button and forward should light the down button. If these are backwards, then you should use the Flip buttons to correct it. Here is an overview of some laptops I have tested. This is not a comprehensive or cross-checked list, but it should act as a guideline.  

• Macbook Pro 17″ Aluminum: No Flip
• Macbook Pro 15″ Unibody: Flip X Axis
• Macbook Air: Flip Y Axis
• Macbook Black 2 Ghz: Flip Y Axis
• Macbook White 2 Ghz (second generation?): Flip Y And X Axis
• Macbook Unibody: Flip Y Axis

Please contact me if you have info on a laptop not listed here! 

6. Set sliders using auto position: These buttons allow you to calculate activate points with the X and Y axis sliders automatically based on the current position of your laptop. Estimate: Use this if your laptop is off center.  For example, if you are reclining on a chair with your laptop in your knees, then you can use this function to set off-center activation points.  Center: This will set the activation points based on a laptop that is at rest, such as one that is on a level table or other flat surface. 

 7. Incoming SMS data: These are the thinner sliders that can’t be changed by the user. They are indicators showing you the position of your laptop. They only give a readout when Tilt2Joystick is turned on using the On/Off button.

Tilt2Joystick features default key codes that correspond to the 4 arrow keys on most compatible laptops.  This will be useful for people who want to play online or desktop games that use the arrow keys, or who want to scroll and move forward and backward in documents. 

System Requirements

1. PPC or Intel Macintosh running OS X 10.4 or later 
2. A laptop with the Sudden Motion Sensor. This includes all Intel-based Apple portables such as the MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, PowerBook G4 computers starting with PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.5GHz), PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz), PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.67GHz), and iBook G4 computers starting with iBook G4 (Mid 2005) Read More

Tutorial Video for Tilt2Joystick:

For an entire level of Pacman cleared using the technology that was later to become Tilt2Joystick, you can click here.  

Toubleshooting

1) I tried to rename Tilt2Joystick to something else, and it won’t load. This is a bug. You should rename it back to Tilt2Joystick.app.  I’ll be looking into this problem in the future. 

2) When I tip my laptop, the black arrow goes the opposite direction of what it should. This is because not all Motion Sensor Data is the same across the entire laptop line. You can fix the problem using the Flip buttons described here as well as read about how certain laptops respond. 

Macbook and Sudden Motion Sensor are the property of Apple, Inc.

Higher quality mp3:

Download audio file (1063-1.mp3)

Concerto BWV 1063, 1. Allegro
Live performance: May 16, 2009
Nørremarkskirken, Vejle, Denmark

Performed by Ensemble Zimmermann with trio Patchworks.dk This concerto was arranged for Recorders by James Howard Young from the original for 3 harpsichords.
About the arrangements
About the concerts

The idea for this patch came from my wife, for whom I was showing one of my applications in progress that was using Key Codes for display and user entry. She promptly commented: “That means nothing to me”.  I then realized that using Key Codes would be useless, even for people who understood what they were, and thus I got the idea for Key Display. 

Key Display is packaged and ready for your Extras folder. You can send values anywhere, but text button display is the default.

This update fixes some problems with the tuner’s input. This fix will mostly affect users with “clean input”, such as keyboard or guitar players who use a jack. In addition, the application icon has been fixed so that users can click in the middle of the notes in icon view and the default icon has been correctly added to the application’s package. Thanks to Jesse Jackson for his continued volunteer work and advice on the use of icons.  Also, the click sounds in the metronome have been changed to real samples, courtesy of Jon Stubbs, who took the time to comment on the sounds, offer free advice, and then record and master the new samples and send them to me.  
 [About TapNTune]

Changes to version 1.3

• New metronome click sounds from samples by Jon Stubbs
• Refined input part of tuner
• Fixed default icon error
• Added clickable area inside application icon, thanks to Jesse Jackson
• Fixed incorrect keyboard shortcut behavior for metronome sound
• Fixed sound selector in metronome so it doesn’t pop if user changes sound while metronome is off
• Fixed Tap button so it outputs on mouse down

Version 1.3 includes fixes to tuner input

Max
aka.keyboard
A Midi keyboard with buttons sending CC values

I recently bought the Korg nanoKey, and I am a Finale user so I will use these two as an example.  The Korg nanoKey is special because it’s so tiny. It has two octaves of notes and 6 buttons. two of the buttons are for octave changing and one is for switching all the keys to Continuous Controller (CC) output.  These buttons can’t be used for this patch.  The lower three buttons are the ones that we’re interested in. The two to the left are for pitch bend up and down, and the one to the right is a Mod button. These are the buttons we will be using (see below). On most keyboards, Pitch Bend and Mod will be controlled using wheels instead of buttons, but I’ll use the term “buttons” to mean either buttons or wheels. I would think that this would work best with the nanoKey’s setup, and not so well with normal wheels, although it might work fine. 

Use pitch bend and Mod buttons, Korg nanoKey

Process (download completed patch here)

1) Capture the buttons. You can do this by creating a new Max patch and using the bendin and ctlin objects. Bendin is easy because it only captures pitch bend info.  The bend down button goes to “0″ and the bendup button goes to “127″. For some reason, Max outputs 0 and 127 twice, so for the test patch at the end of this post,  I’ve selected 3 and 121. Capturing the Mod button is trickier because it comes in through the ordinary Continuous Controllers. Mod wheel uses controller 1. 

2) Turn them into keystrokes. Using aka.keyboard, you can choose which keystrokes you want to use. The help patch for aka.keyboard is thorough, and you can use it to choose the keystrokes you want. I have chosen to use left arrow (key 123), right arrow (key 124), and Undo: Apple-Z (keydown 55, key 6, keyup 55). Undo (Apple-Z) is really practical, especially when you’re working with Finale. Sometimes with the nanoKey, notes aren’t picked up during speedy entry, so Undo allows you to correct them easily.  

That’s it, you’re done! Now you can fire up your patch whenever you are using your Midi keyboard.  

Download patch

New: See live video from one of the performances! [link]

Note: This is a Danish press release for a concert series in Denmark. For a description in English of the transcription process please [click here].

Koncerter for blokfløjter

Gå ikke glip af de kommende koncerter i maj, hvor Ensemble Zimmermann gæstes af tre af Danmarks førende unge blokfløjtenister: trioen Patchworks.dk, som består af Nikolaj Ronimus, Majbritt Young Christensen og James Howard Young. Programmet består af 4 koncerter af Johann Sebastian Bach, som James Howard Young har arrangeret for blokfløjter. Koncerterne spilles i Esbjerg, Vejle og København. 

Bach’s concerti for 1, 2, 3 og 4 soloinstrumenter har længe været milepæle i den sene barok. Bach har skrevet de fleste af dem om til koncerter for cembalo, men i mange tilfælde kender vi i dag kun disse versioner, og man ved ikke, hvad de originale soloinstrumenter var. Oftest bliver det jo obo eller violin, som får æren, men i nogle tilfælde kunne det ligeså godt har været traversfløjte eller et helt andet instrument. Vi spiller 4 af disse koncerter i moderne transskriptioner for blokfløjte, ikke for at bevise at blokfløjter var de “hemmelige” instrumenter, som Bach skrev for, men musikken har en tidløs abstrakt karakter, som er velegnet til instrumentale eksperimenter af denne art. 

15. maj  kl . 19.30 
Vor Frelsers Kirke, Esbjerg 
Gratis entré

16. maj  kl . 15.00 
Nørremarkskirken, Vejle 
Gratis entré

17. maj  kl . 15.00 
Hans Egedes kirke, Kbh 
Billetter 50,- ved indgangen

BWV 1063   Tripelkoncert i d-mol for 3 voiceflutes (uropførsel)
BWV 1060   Dobbeltkoncert i d-mol for 2 altblokfløjter 
BWV 1043   Dobbeltkoncert i d-mol for 2 sopranblokfløjter (uropførsel)
BWV 1064   Tripelkoncert i D-dur for 3 altblokfløjter (uropførsel)

Læs mere på EnsembleZimmermann.dk
Se også Patchworks.dk

Click for full resolution poster in A3 format

Click for full resolution flyer in A5 format

Location of Complete volumes with pretty but hard to navigate index that works best in FIrefox

Location of Complete volumes with direct download 

Viewer for DJVU files

Note: The Bach Gesellschaft is an older edition of Bach works now in the public domain, so the quality and scholarship isn’t as good as that of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA). People who are interested in the latest and best editions should check out the NBA either from the library or buy purchasing a copy.  You won’t be able to download them for free.