Abdulaziz Alhamidi

dickcat:

via the internets.

The dog’s reaction is priceless. Almost like “Sorry man, that thing is crazy. I’m out.”

Wolfram Alpha keeps a set of mathematical curves that, when plotted, create line drawings of celebrities. Joe Hanson of It’s Okay to Be Smart highlighted the curves on his blog Thursday. The equations produce portraits of Adele, Einstein, Barack Obama, and Charlie Chaplin.

A post on StackExchange from a couple of months ago inquired how to create the line drawings in the style that Wolfram Alpha has curated. Some debate ensued about whether the equations that produced the drawings were handwritten, but one commenter, Simon Woods, described a way to produce the curves.

Woods’ method, adapted from another comment by Rahul Narain, involves reverse engineering the curves using Wolfram's Mathematica by converting an image to grayscale, extracting the contours, and plotting the curve using a function “tocurve” that takes the line, a number of modes, and “symbolic parameter t” that parameterizes the line. The “Fourier” function in Mathematica will approximate the line with sinusoids, and the “Rationalize” function converts all the numbers to rational to produce equations that look similar to WolframAlpha’s collection.

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Arashiyama, or “Storm Mountain”, is one of Japan’s designated Historic Sites and can be found on the western edge of Kyoto. The district features Shinto shrines, natural parks, and a stunning walk that winds through its bamboo forest. Take some time to explore even more of Arashiyama’s beauty through photos from others who have visited.

Photos from * tathei *, Shibazo, Marser, Kevin Tadge / Laura Lamp, yocca, Teruhide Tomori, arcreyes, Marie Eve K.A., TORO*, and Silent Star 101.

Exciting news! You probably heard about it on the team’s Kickstarter page already. But if not, go there and check it out. Manami Matsumae, composer of Mega Man, is a signed Koopa Soundworks composer and is working on several projects with us. So, we hooked her up with a game! Shovel Knight is her first non-Japanese game to work on.

Although Koopa Soundworks is a music label that focuses on producing music albums, we are also trying to bridge the apparent gap between Japanese composers and non-Japanese teams — especially independent ones, those with no language skills or a clear path to work with them.

Shovel Knight will be composed by Jake ‘virt’ Kaufman, while Manami is contributing two tracks to the game. Shovel Knight, as the team said before, is going to have authentic 8-bit chiptunes. But that’s not all: they’re going to extend the 8-bit sound to using the VRC6 abilities; that’s 3 extra sound channels in addition to what you usually hear on a NES game. “The [VRC6] chip contained support for 3 extra sound channels (two square waves and one sawtooth wave). It was used in Akumajou Densetsu (the Japanese version of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse), while the western version used the MMC5 from Nintendo.”

The team has yet to decide which tracks should Manami compose, but here’s a hypothetical rundown of the process:

• The team will design an area. Enemies, level design, colors, stage gimmicks, and everything in between.
• The team provides us, Koopa Soundworks, with all the necessary documents to give to Manami. This includes screens, notes, composition notes (“we want it mellow”; “we want it fast-paced”), and so on.
• We put everything in a nice, printed document (translated to Japanese) and give it by hand to Manami. Crazy, huh? We will sit down with her and even give extended direct instructions.
• Manami does her magic, and everyone lives happily ever after.

So, that’s really exciting! We got Manami to finally work with a Western developer, and hopefully this opens up a lot of doors to everyone: us, developers, and composers. There’s no secret mission here: We simply want to resurrect our favorite living legends — be it on music albums or video games.

Things you could (and should!) do:

1. Spread the word! Share this post with your friends and pets.
2. Back Shovel Knight on Kickstarter. It’s a lovely game.
3. Follow us on Twitter. We never spam.

Now, let’s get shovelin’!

Should I use a QR Code?

Alaa Wardi (Twitter, instagram) is a Saudi singer whose a capella harmonies and one-man viral videos have become big hits throughout the mideast. His latest, "Risala Ela...", is out today in video and as a DRM-free pay-what-you-want download.

Lyrics:

I've been waiting for years, to find someone new, that would fill my hole, and make me forget you.
I promised you I'd leave, And sing from far away, but how can I walk away and forget, you are my source of inspiration.
Ya Bay, Ya Bay...
They told me time passes, and heals all wounds, but my only cure is you, from now till I die.
People tell me to forget, that it wasn't meant to be, but If you give me a chance, I've changed a lot.
Ya Bay Ya Bay...

More of his recent work below. I love this guy.

(Longtime Boing Boing reader Alexander Ringis recently turned me on to him—thanks, Alex!)

(NSFW: Language) Chell meets someone who speaks her language and helps her make a lie come true. Fortunately the folks behind HISHE were smart enough to add a few twists to the predictable jokes.

• Hat Tip
• Link

More Awesome Stuff for You to Click On:

LEGO Portal 2: Part 1
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Portal: Terminal Velocity
SSF II Portal Gun

In a regulatory document filed with the SEC today, Adobe announced that chief technology officer Kevin Lynch would be taking his leave as of this coming Friday.

“On March 18, 2013, Kevin Lynch resigned from his position as executive vice president, chief technology officer, of Adobe Systems Incorporated, effective March 22, 2013, to pursue other opportunities,” the filing reads.

Lynch, who came to the company in 2005 during its acquisition of Macromedia, led Adobe’s charge into some of the more cutting-edge areas of technology, including multiscreen computing, cloud computing, and social media.

For ages, Adobe had been rooted in the workflows of the print design community; Lynch was responsible for the company’s shift into web publishing, starting with Dreamweaver. He also oversaw Adobe’s research and experience design teams and was, as Adobe puts it, in charge of “shaping Adobe’s long-term technology vision and focusing innovation across the company during a transformative time.”

Rumors around the web have pinpointed Apple as Lynch’s next destination, and it’s not an entirely nonsensical rumor. Adobe’s transition to web technologies has been nothing if not profitable. Apple, still a giant in consumer hardware, could use a helping hand when it comes to multiscreen fluidity, social media, and web-based software.

Image credit: Kevin Lynch

Filed under: Dev

In case you haven't heard, Mailbox is the iOS app that everyone wants to get their grubby little paws on. The hip new e-mail app is an alternative interface for Gmail accounts (yes, it only works with Gmail). People who have used it love the gesture-based interface and the ability to “snooze” messages—this latter feature prompts a pop-up message to remind you to reply at some point in the future, like later in the day, later that night, or over the weekend.

On Friday morning, Mailbox announced that it was acquired by Dropbox. With any luck, that means Mailbox’s frustrating rollout policy might be relaxed. The app, which debuted in early February 2013, is so popular that the company has slowed its release through a “reservations” system. Presumably to stem the crushing demand, Mailbox restricts the number of new accounts that can be activated at a time.

Ars’ Jacqui Cheng had to wait roughly five weeks before she moved to the front of the line, and she only recently had her “reservation” activated. (I still have about 260,000 people ahead of me.)

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Hitler finds out Google Reader is shutting down