Design that’s possible when crime rates are low.
Jean Renoir’s “Elena and Her Men”
I watched Jean Renoir’s “Elena and Her Men” (1956) last night. The relationship it has with his own “Rules of the Game,” completed some 17 years earlier, is striking. There’s no question that Elena doesn’t measure up to Rules visually: some lovely color homages to father Auguste notwithstanding, Elena has a bit of a feeling of filmed theater in contrast with the vivacious camera-as-mise-en-scène that is Rules. But the themes, some of the characters, and several motifs and devices are eerily similar. At the center of both films is a troubled high-society foreigner who is loved by too many. Competition for affection, complications of honor, and the complexities of class politics drive each narrative to tragic or potentially tragic outcomes.
Elena is more obviously a farce and treats its subject far more lightly. But both films embed the same warning: that a hierarchical society if allowed to develop without constraint will corrupt and eventually destroy the foundation of humanity. A message as relevant in 1956 as it is now.
My GPS Lifeplan
My occasional partner Stephen Kelly and I recently finished work on the beta version of myGPS LifePlan—a mobile and desktop-friendly version of a vast educational resource for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. It went live a short time ago.
Stems
The Verge has an interesting writeup on Native Instruments’ Stems, “a new audio format that stores up to four different tracks in a single audio file.” I (and I am sure others) had this idea back in the late 80s but based on multitrack cassette and synced MIDI control of mixing parameters. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes!
Messaging candidates
I added a page to my wiki wherein I explore options for desktop and mobile text communication. Read it and weep.
Taşkışla cat
I spent the day visiting a couple of my former design profs at I.T.U.’s Taşkışla campus. An unexpected highlight was running into the resident pictured here. She has one eye, a noticeable limp, food, water, and a place to meet her other needs.
Beautiful.
AVA adopts my audio module in new DAC and preamp designs
Audio by Van Alstine has adopted my discrete Class A audio module into two of their products. The Vision DAC uses the module in its differential anti-imaging filter and output stage and the Vision SL Preamp uses it for line stage amplification. The pair will be premiered at the Axpona Audio Expo in Chicago this weekend. Looking forward to feedback from the show.
Motorized potentiometer for FLOSS remote control
I’ve just published Volume-AlpsRK16814MG, an open source hardware design that integrates a high-quality Alps motorized quad potentiometer with an H bridge. The design lets you control the motor’s direction using two logic-level signals: VOL_UP and VOL_DOWN. The fact that it’s a quad pot means you can use it to control regular stereo volume by ignoring one of the dual gangs or a differential stereo signal.
Here’s the schematic* to give you an idea what it’s doing. Gerbers and PCBs are available at OSH Park.
*Subject to change!
Kimiko Ishizaka plays Chopin on an 1832 Pleyel
I don’t normally like promoting Kickstarter stuff in this space, but based on her earlier Well-Tempered Clavier and Goldberg Variations recordings, I’d say this is totally a worthwhile effort.
Happy Arduino Day!
Congratulating the core and the community for 10 years of creativity-enabling open source wonderfulness.