spot blog

PyFLAM3

Thanks to Bobby R. Ward for writing and releasing PyFLAM3, a Python wrapper around the FLAM3 renderer, which is written in the C programming language. This makes it much easier to script manipulation of flames and sheep, and would make a great foundation for a GUI editor.

The linux source distribution includes a patch to make FLAM3 generate a dynamically loadable shared object file. To apply it "cd" into the flam3 source folder, then say "patch < ..../pyflam3-0.3a/share/flam3-libtoolize.path". Unless you've used libtool before you should install it with "sudo apt-get install libtool" before you run "libtoolize ; autoconf" to complete the process. Then it's just "./configure ; make clean ; make ; sudo make install" as usual.

By default the shared object is installed into /usr/local/lib which means in order for it to be loaded you need to reconfigure ld.so or just say "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib" before using it.

This process, and this code, is still raw but it's already useful and working and I'm very excited about where it's going.

You may prefer to discuss or comment on this in the forum rather than below.

NYE 2008 with 28th Day and Freek Factory

I am proud to be playing at the best, and last, party of the year:

December 31, 2007
28thday and Freek Factory
present
ACTUATE new year's eve

in the psyroom:

MAGNETRIXX (AP, Germany) LIVE
TRON (Liquid Records, Mexico) LIVE
MONKS OF MADNESS (PsyCircle Records, San Diego) LIVE
SHADOW MACHINE (D-Space Studios, USA) LIVE
CHRISTER (Shiva Space Technology, Norway)
TONY UNORTHODOX (28thday, NYC)
MAYUR (Spectra, NYC)
Environment by JAMIN MURPHY
Visuals by SPOT
Sound by LIGHT-O-MATIC

up on the freektop: (heated for your comfort)

HAJ (Sub Swara | Freek Factory, NYC)
KUSH ARORA (Surya Dub | RLR | KAP, SF)
FREEK FACTORY LIVESET NYC
SPiRO w/ KARA TROTT (CoSM | Freek Factory, NYC)
MIKIO (CoSM | Freek Factory, NYC)
MANNY (DJ Dojo, Austin)
ALIEN AMBASSADOR (CoSM, NYC)
Tribal bellydance with SERA AND SOLSTICE
Master of Ceremonies BLACKLIGHT
Environment by SEQUOIA EMMANUELLE
Sound by ICARUS

GRANDSPACE
778 Bergen St, Brooklyn
9PM to 8AM

$65 presale | $75 door before 11pm | $85 after
free champagne toast at midnight
no outside alcohol

Chapter published by Springer

I am pleased to report the publication of The Art of Artificial Evolution by Springer, including a chapter I wrote about the Electric Sheep. You can pre-order from Amazon or order for xmas delivery from Springer UK. Thanks to Juan and Penousal, the editors.

sheep on archive.org

Electric Sheep Megapack 50a is now available on archive.org. I would like to eventually upload as much of the generation as i can to the archive, and then past generations too. i found even getting this one gigabyte was quite a chore since they require ftp, and my connection is not fast/reliable enough to transfer it flawlessly. I'll have to try it directly from the server...

i have in the past considered hosting sheep on archive.org, but i shied away from using a nonprofit with a serious mission. and they already unofficially kicked in a seeder now and then to "test some new gigabit links" (thanks!). but then the dreamhost account i was using to distribute the megapacks ran out of bandwidth and was shut down. a user suggested "why not use archive?" and i had no good excuse. to be clear, i am not pointing the robot army at archive.org, these are chunks of the past.

infinite gratitude to brewster and the archive!

Sheep v2.6.7b5 Client for Windows

Download it here. Changelog:

works on vista, updated zip and libtorrent libraries, compiled by new developer stefan sandberg.