TDI Web Log

My partners got so excited about the ease with which one can create data-driven programs using QuartzComposer for the Mac that I just had to demonstrate to them that Apple doesn’t have any kind of lock on this domain. In fact, it brought to my mind a very old Mac OS 9 (or earlier I guess) visual programming language called Prograph, which has now become Marten and a handy little signal processing tool called Cantata, which has now become VisiQuest (look at the tutorials near the bottom of the page). And, of course, that’s not to mention the many other packages out there like PureData, LabView, etc.

Anyway, here’s my demonstration using Ptolemy II 7.0.1 over the top of FMJ (forget JMF - “Oh Sun Microsystems, why have you forsaken us?”):

At our company meeting, we were playing with a USB microscope Don borrowed from a friend of his. And one must admit that’s a much cooler thing to play with than a webcam. But, hey, my point can be made without the fancy hardware.

I got the new Silicon Forest Universe 2.0 poster and flashed back to SwarmCorp’s multi-scale Alzheimer’s Disease model.  We used a product called “TheBrain”, which has now been forked into several products by TheBrain Technologies, Inc..  Anyway, I dug up our old brain map from my SwarmCorp archives, imported it into the PersonalBrain I just downloaded and here is the result.  I love technology sometimes. … Of course, most times I hate technology.  But this was a nice fugue of nostalgia.  Thanks to TheBrain Technologies!

Note that the ADBrain was built by Chris, whereas I wrote most of the simulation and Visio code to which the ADBrain hooked.