I’ve been having a go at making an armature for  my stop motion character Tim Foyle.  As I am a man of little wealth I am trying to do it as cheaply as possible.

Stuff I Used

• General purpose garden wire
• Plumber’s epoxy putty
• Electric Drill
• Pliers

How I Did It

I pulled off a good length of wire, folded it in half then twisted it using the drill.  Then cut off sections for the arms, legs, body and head.  I bent them into shape and twisted then together.  I then moulded the hard parts (chest, pelvis, head and feet) with Plumber’s putty.

What I Learned

• I need to make the neck longer -- it’s not flexible enough
• Plumber’s Putty is a pain to work with -- it dries too quickly. I’m think that I’ll use air drying clay for the next version

The original Tim Foyle I made, constructed using pipe cleaners had his début in this video:

Technorati Tags: armature, putty, Stop Motion, Tim Foyle

This is the first full time lapse video that I’ve posted featuring a large blob of Science Putty (similar to Silly Putty).  The great thing about this stuff is that it behaves like a solid, but over time it flows like a liquid -- making it perfect for time lapse experiments.

This video was made by capturing an image every 23 seconds (I don’t like round numbers) over the course of 9 hours using a webcam and Flix v3.3.  This is the second attempt I had at doing this video, the first one was spoiled by an inquisitive dog, as this frame shows

Dogs and Time Lapse Don't Mix

Technorati Tags: dog, flix, problems, putty, time lapse, webcam

Where does the time go?  El Struthio’s Stuff has lain dormant for over a year.  Dormant, but not dead.  I have plans (cue evil maniacal laughter).

I’ve recently become interested in stop motion animation and time lapse and I thought that I’d re-purpose El Struthio’s Stuff to explore this new interest.  I’ll be posting my own efforts, naturally, but also posting cool examples that I discover, and there are a hell of a lot of cool examples out there, believe me.

With a new interest comes new and exciting software to explore too.  I’ll be posting about this and perhaps even doing a few how-tos,  tutorials, tips & tricks and the like.

I’ll be leaving the old posts as they are – ‘cos they’re still getting looked at even after all this time – but from this point onwards El Struthio’s Stuff will deal exclusively with animation, time-lapse and photography.  It’ll probably take a little time to get this sorted and organised around here so bear with me.  In the meantime, as always, please feel free to comment etc.

IT’S ALVE!!! (Cue thunder and lightning effects and more maniacal laughter)

I had a great idea (well I think it’s great and it’s my blog so I’m entitled to my opinions) for a new Murder Mystery Thriller book/movie/merchandise range today.

The killer dispatches his or her victims and then sells trophies (a locket, a mobile phone, a hair-slide, a watch – that kind of thing) on an online auction site.  There would be a scene where the good guys realise what’s happening and gasp “but this guy has over 1000 feedback!”   Cue chasing all over the world as they try to track down the evidence.

To create a bit of hype for the book/movie, long before it comes out they could use the killer’s username to sell trophy-like objects on a  real world auction site.

Cut me in for a share of the profits (including merchandising).

The Telegraph reports:

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into “autonomous systems”, the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

Full Story

Once again I feel as though I’m at the start of a science fiction movie. The scientist/government say “Hey we have a fab idea – and nothing can go wrong” and, of course, it all ends-up going horribly horribly wrong.  Have these people never seen Terminator or The Matrix?

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, robots can be cool when they’re serving drinks or they’re dog shaped, but arm them with guns and missiles and you’re just asking for trouble.

The thing that really bothers me, futuristic nightmare scenarios aside, is that by removing the human element from warfare makes it so much easier to go to war. The primary reason that people object to war is because of the cost in human lives and governments have to consider whether a cause is worth their people dying for.  Who really cares if machines get blown-up?

I’m also worried about the idea of programming ethics into these machines.  Firstly any program, no matter how well funded, will have bugs and problems. For example, one estimate for the development costs of Microsoft Vista is $10 billion!

Secondly, how do you program something that hasn’t been defined?  Right and wrong isn’t black and white – it’s various shades of grey with the occasional splash of colour thrown in for good measure.  What is or isn’t ethical depends on the situation, culture and the individual. It’s a subject that philosophers have been debating since the time of Socrates.

Humans are generally quite good at deciding whether a particular course of action is right or wrong even in unique situations. They may not be able to fully explain why something is ethical or not, they just know how they feel.  Just as I feel that getting autonomous machines to do your killing for you is somehow wrong.

Helvetireader is a userscript that gives you a ’stripped to the basics’ minimalistic look for Google Reader and has been primarily designed for those of us who read feeds in the extended view and use keyboard shortcuts.

It works with Firefox with Greasemonkey, Opera, Google Chrome (Nightly Build only) or any Webkit browser (Safari, Omniweb etc.) with GreaseKit installed.

The CSS file is also available if you want to customize the theme further.

Helvetireader (Click for Full Size)

Other Google Reader Scripts

While we’re on the subject of Google Reader and Geasemonkey scripts here’s a couple more that I use:

Auto Add to Google Reader – This script automatically selects Google Reader on that irritating “Do you want to subscribe to this feed in iGoogle or Reader” screen.  Until Google come up with an option to  always select one or the other this script saves that extra click.

Jasper’s Google Reader Subscribe – Adds a small RSS Subscribe button to the top right corner of the browser window when you visit a site with one or more RSS feeds.  When you hover your mouse over it it brings up a list of available feeds so you can select the one you want.

As an extra added bonus Jasper’s Google Reader Subscribe automatically takes you to Google Reader to subscribe to a feed so if you use it you don’t need the Auto Add script above.

I love Twitter but, as with most things, there’s always room for improvement.

If you use Firefox you can use a add-on called Greasemonkey to customize just about any site using scripts.  One of the things I like about Greasemonkey scripts is you can install them and try them out without restarting Firefox.

Here are six Greasemonkey scripts I use to enhance Twitter:

Search Twitter Grader Link Adds a link on Twitter profile pages linking to  the user’s Twitter Grader profile.

Twitter Grader Link in Action

Retweet This Adds a retweet button to the end of each twitter entry to compliment the reply and favourite buttons.  It’s quite easy to edit the script to modify the text that goes at the beginning of your retweet – for example I changed the default “Retweeting @user:” to “RT @user:” to save a few characters.

Seach Replies and Retweet Icons

Search Twitter Replies Link Adds an icon to search @replies for that user Search Twitter.  This is helpful to put tweets into context.  I’ve also found it a handy way of finding interesting new people to follow.

Endless Tweets This script automatically loads older tweets and adds them to the bottom of the page as you scroll down so you don’t need to keep clicking on the “Older” link each time you reach the bottom of the page.

Twitter Search I have no idea why Twitter don’t put an easy to get to search box on their site, but this script sorts it out by putting a search box in the sidebar.

A Search Box for Twitter

Twitter Sidebar Replies Shows replies to a user is the sidebar of that user’s Twitter page.

Sidebar Replies

Do you use these or any other Greasemonkey scripts for Twitter? Let me know in the comments.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on TED.com recently -- six hours non-stop the other night!  One of the videos that I really enjoyed was this one by Sir Ken Robinson entitled Do schools kill creativity?

Firstly it’s a highly entertaining performance -- better than many stand-up comedians.  Most importantly it carries an extremely important message.

If you’re a parent or spend any time around young children you will know that they have an immense capacity for creativity.  They dance, sing, play, create games, invent imaginary friends, draw, build etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.  They are able to slip seamlessly between the ‘real’ world of adults and their own world filled with imagination and creativity.

My little boy, who’s seven, has been home from school today because he was sick.  He was rather upset about this because it meant he missed several clubs that he takes part in: recorders, choir and Maths club.  I was lying in bed with him, giving him a cuddle before lights out, and he was telling me about Foxy -- his chosen soft toy of the night.  He told me that when he can’t go to school Foxy goes for him, does his lessons and brings home any homework for him.  I said it must be hard for a little fox to carry so much stuff and he gave me a look and said:

“It’s only three things.  He carries my lunch in one paw, my water bottle in the other paw and my book bag around his neck.  Anyway, if it gets too heavy, he can grow!”

The thing that struck me was that he was telling me all about Foxy as though it was literally true, that Foxy really and genuinely did go to school on his behalf. And in his own world it was true. He is obviously anxious about missing school and imagination is how he’s coping with that anxiety.

As we get older we lose much of the imagination that flows so freely in young children.  Look at the number of books, magazine articles and web sites that give tips and advice on how to be creative, how to get inspiration and how to overcome writer’s block.  We were all children once, we all had an abundance of creativity at one time.  As adults, however, many of us need lessons in how to get it back.

As Ken Robinson says in the video, children aren’t afraid to get things wrong.  Children are less likely to be told that what they are say or do is wrong.  No-one is going to tell a child that that cardboard box isn’t a space rocket, no-one is going to say “Actually, I think you’re mistaken.  Foxy is just a soft toy and couldn’t possibly go to school for you”.

While we may correct small children when they get something wrong (no dear that’s a horse, not a cow) it’s when we go to school that being wrong starts to have consequences. Wrong answers mean accusing red crosses, failed exams even ridicule. It is at school where we start to fear being wrong. We learn the ‘right’ answers and in the process imagination and creativity is stifled.

The problem is, is that imagination is vital for us to advance, and perhaps even survive, as a species.  Everything we have today is the result of someone daring to be wrong and trying something new or different.

Use your imagination now and think how things might be if everybody left school with the same creative minds they had when they entered it.

I’ve noticed that the WWW is starting to disappear.  Type www.twitter.com into your address bar and you’ll end-up at twitter.com – no dub dub dub.  The same applies to FriendFeed.

Is WWW an endangered species?  Is it destined to become the appendix of the internet? It’s there, but no-one uses it and you can remove it without any problems.

Are there any other sites that have had a dubdectomy I wonder?

The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it’s short for.

– Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999

Carrots by adactio

We are a stick based society rather than a carrot based one – that is we punish bad bad behaviour rather than rewarding good behaviour.

Of course, serious crimes should be punished. What about other aspects of our lives though?

The problem is people don’t like being told what to do or what not to do.  They hate being forced to do something (look at the number of people wanting to turn off SearchWIki).  People want to make their own choices and given the chance they will more than likely make the right choice.

Take recycling. The majority think that recycling is a good idea. The immediate response from councils when the call went out to recycle more was “We’ll punish those who don’t recycle enough by charging them more to collect their rubbish”.  Straight away this creates resentment and negative feelings towards recycling – people aren’t talking about the benefits of recycling, they’re talking about the guy who got fined because there was a plastic bottle in his paper bin and it wasn’t even his bottle!

Wouldn’t it be more effective to offer a carrot to encourage more recycling? Give a discount on the Council Tax if certain quotas are met or offer prizes to the household and/or street that recycles the most.  Even a window sticker that says “I Recycled More Than I Landfilled” would be better than nothing!

This would appeal to our natural competitive nature and even the most non-competitive person likes a discount. Instead of resentment we have willingness to comply and a goal to aim for.

Another example is motoring offences. Instead of fining people for speeding give those that don’t speed a discount on the road tax. You could even throw a lottery element into the mix and give monthly prizes to randomly drawn people who hold clean licenses.  It seems that many motorists agree with me.

The big problem with this idea, however, is that it requires the powers that be to put their money where their mouth is; do the really want people to recycle more/slow down/whatever, or do they simply want to raise more revenue?