The Golf Club Cover Colour Picker

I've been working on a Golf Club Cover Colour Picker this week for my little sister's new business.
I'm writing it in Processing. I cant believe how quickly it all fell in to place. I had trouble with the hex colour arrays despite trying all manner of hex converters. In the end I settled for a rather unwieldy case statement.
The big problem will be getting the processing variables chosen for the covers into the email form using JavaScript. It should be possible but it does look a little daunting.
My sis's response to my latest app is less than encouraging.
"You can't expect us golfers to bother copying strings of hex numbers into a form. We are busy people!"
"How am I supposed to track down those random colours of wool, theres millions of them!"
Mere details sis!


Form will be uploaded as soon as I get this laptop set up.
I'm really wrestling with the new template tool in Processing.
I keep overwriting it and having to start again!
Oh well its great to be coding again..... 

Tapulla Release

After much fun and hard work, I am proud to announce that Solundrian Software has released a game on the Android Market!
Tapulla features original chill out music and is ideal for winding down with when commuting home from work. The children will like it too and you can compete to see who is the overall family champion.
Tapulla only costs 2 pounds and is well worth it!
More levels free on next update too!
More info on the website

Processing the Flicker API

Digital Animation with Flicker

I've been experimenting with the Flickr Api this week and used it along with a sketch I had written previously for Chunk 16 images. I don't have that much experience of using Flickr, but it was relatively easy to use their API. The main problem I am having is that the URL I use seems to change on a daily basis. This would stop me posting an applet version on the Internet. Even if I got around this by not using my authority code I would still need to sign the applet as it gets its images from a different web site than the one where the applet started.
I used the flickr.interestingness.getList method in my URL to retreive the images. This returns the most viewed photos of the day on Flickr.
They have an excellent resource that can be used to generate the required URL. Processing doesn't need any extra libraries to use Flickr but it does require you to add 'format=json' to extras field when you fill in the details to allow it to use the images.
When you request the images you are sent an xml file with the details of the available photos. I just used Java substrings to get the info needed to build the photo URLs.

pids[i]=getTheString('photo id=');

I had to take down the images because the Flickr photos may not be licenced for derivative works...

Snap Happy Wedding Game

Well, after much consideration, I decided that allowing the customer to load any music file they already have on their hard drive was the only way I could see of avoiding copyrighting issues. Instead of displaying Lyrics the game will now display the details of the wedding and the names of the bridal group. This means the order form has grown a little but these things would be futher refined as the game is customised.

The copyright owners would have earned money every time a game was sold, but having to employ copyright lawyers whose fees can be over £100 an hour is not an option I would be willing to pursue right now. There is no way that applying for permission to use a different piece of music for every new order would be feasible. I could be waiting for months for a reply and the costs would be too high!

The Snappy Happenings web site has been updated and everything is now in place to receive orders. Anyone....?

Handling Copyright

After designing and coding the 'Snap Happy Wedding Game', I have ran in to an unforseen problem. I dont think it would be legal to include the lyrics and mp3 file of the couple's favourite song. This is a real disappointment. I was prepared to buy an MP3 to include with each copy of the game but as far as I can make out this would not be legal.
The wedding games I would be producing, would be for one single user, so I really can't see why I cant include a legally purchased MP3 with each game.
I could include a disclaimer that protected me from copyright infringement suits but this would have to be drawn up by a lawyer and would likely be too costly. In this case I would use the music file provided by the customer but I still wouldn't be able to include the lyrics for the song, as these are copyrighted separately.
I could write my own music and lyrics but this would probably not be as personal as the couples own favourite song. I would likely have to include a turn off music button if I chose this option.
At the moment I'm thinking of adding a load music dialog that would allow the customer to add their own choice of music. I would not be able to add any lyrics but at least this would keep it legal. (probably...?)

Snappy Happenings

I've been working on a Snap Happy Wedding game as a present for my sister. The amount of photos increased to 30, as I didn't want to leave anybody out. I had to edit all the photo's widths so they fitted on the cards. The music plays when ten snaps have been completed.
I changed the theme to the wedding colours and tartan.
I tried to use some freeware packagers for Java to make an easily installable package, but my files are for Processing. Perhaps I should make a main java class which loads the processing code but I'm not sure how to do this and info is a bit scarce.
In the end I found a 30 day trial version of a commercial program that works great with processing applications. Unfortunately, it would cost over 200 pounds to purchase! If the project were a success it would be worth the outlay but I cant justify this cost at the moment.

The installer generates an msi setup program that is great for Windows and there is an option for OS. Shortcuts are added wherever you denote and you can even have a product key that is checked online.
The file must be zipped if it is sent by hotmail or messenger but googlemail accepts it as it is. This is strange when you consider that the msi format is a Microsoft convention...

The photos in the lyrics section have a randomised tint applied.

Snappy Game in Processing

I've been working on a new version of the Snappy Game in Processing. It took me only 2 days to write. Most of the time was spent editing the photographs. My neice got married recently so I did a snappy game with pictures from the wedding.
One of the many advantages of Processing is that I can write the same code and have it run as an applet or an application. Applications can be set up to run in presentation mode or in their own sized window. I used the minim library for the sound, as it is really easy to use.
When the player completes the game I have it displaying the lyrics and playing the song that was played at the wedding service. Photos of the wedding are displayed on each page and I added a randomized tint to each one. This makes the photos look different each time it is run.
If I made this service available to users, I would need to decide whether to deliver the game as an applet or an application. I kept the size of the files down by converting the photos to PNGs and making them small but the final size is still over 10MB. If the game was delivered as an applet it might take a few minutes to load and some users experience java problems running the applets. I will likely test the load time this week sometime...
The standalone version loads very quickly and has less Java problems but set up is more complicated. The user would have to extract the folder from a zip file and double click the application icon.
If I set this up as a service I would need to find a way of letting the customer send me the photos. This would need to be done by email or file upload. It takes a while to edit the images and choice of music could cause copyright problems, I'm not sure how payment for a file in a one customer game works.
The game could be set up for any event such as a wedding, party or a baby's first birthday.
I think 25 pounds would be a fair price for the work involved, If anyone would like try out the service please contact me and we could work on it. :)