It’s been a while since we looked at tethered video capturing options. The first version of ScopeBox didn’t have HDV support, so I let it slip by. However the recently released ScopeBox 2 has included both HDV and multi-camera options. Exciting! I’ll be taking it for a spin in the coming weeks, but thought I’d […]

Speaking of drivers, PreSonus announced today that they’re allowing users to register for open beta drivers. They’re hardly the first to do this — M-Audio has done the same historically, even if I’m not thrilled with their pace at the moment. But this raises an interesting question: could opening a beta help improve driver quality […]

There aren’t many positive ways to spin this: if you’re a user of Digidesign and M-Audio products and looking to use current operating systems, very often you’re out of luck. In some cases, this isn’t so surprising — given issues with Leopard, I actually suggest running Mac OS X Tiger if you can until some […]

Flash Player 10 beta is here, and it sports some impressive new visual tricks — further illustrations of what I mean when I say the "rich" part of rich media is so important, whatever the JavaScript coders may tell you: 3D "effects" and API: this isn’t true 3D, as you can get with direct OpenGL […]

Beatesthesia Custom Visulizer from olly gore on Vimeo. Beatesthesia is a new open-source, cross-platform VJing/music visualizer application programmed in Processing. It sports some interesting design decisions, including an audio-reactive user interface. Its an interesting idea, and is certainly pretty and definitely novel. At first glance, I didn’t like the blinking UI; it struck me as […]

This illustrates why people are jumping for Processing.js, even if it cripples many of the things that make Processing cool. Paul Downey inadvertently hits the nail on the head: … somehow hadn’t got around to actually doing anything with it. You see it’s the whole Java thing that puts me off; when it comes to […]

Processing sketches by Ben Fry and Casey Reas, as ported to JavaScript. A great hack — but is it the second coming JavaScript bloggers say it is? I think ports, hacks, and tech projects are fantastic. I’m a believer in experiments and proof of concept. So when I saw the port of Processing to JavaScript, […]

This retro-inspired color-on-black loopset is a great starter pack. 282 Megabytes worth of 640×480 PhotoJPEG Quicktimes. Preview of the loops in action in a live set to Fabric 38 M.A.N.D.Y. Created by VJ Fader using the 3D-Stroke After Effects Plugin. Download Page || Direct Download

1893 Columbian Exposition, Chicago, and Vikings — basically a convergence of things I take geeky historical pleasure in. Reproduced from Stanley Applebaum’s The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, p. 51.  Snagged by Karla Kaulfuss, via Flickr. Daedelus remains one of my favorite electronic music personalities. A virtuoso of his hand-built Monome (the early prototype) dressed […]

We covered a source for cheap visualist miscellany last week. It included cheap NTSC CMOS cameras, but unfortunately DealExtreme doesn’t seem to stock much PAL gear. I had gone looking and placed an order with another site, but didn’t want to recommend it until that order had arrived intact. That order has arrived intact. The […]