Happy Pi Day!

Today is Pi Day. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I’d like to share the pi image that I created above.

The ascii art image is composed of the first 333 digits of π. I used the following to count the digits for me…
http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/charcount.shtml

Like everything I create, the ascii pi has been set free from any copyrights by using the CC0 waiver. Feel free to use it however you please.

Here are various formats of the ascii pi that you can download from archive.org…
- ascii
- svg
- png

Here’s a way to recreate the ascii pi…

1. Get an image of pi from wikipedia…
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pi-symbol.svg
2. Use GIMP to convert the svg into a flattened png
3. Use the png with this ascii art generator….
   http://www.glassgiant.com/ascii/
4. Copy and paste the result into a text editor
5. Replace the characters from the generator with the first 333 digits of pi…
   http://www.eveandersson.com/pi/digits/

You should now have an ascii pi image created from the first 333 digits of pi. You can copy and paste that into Inkscape to make a svg or png version.

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- Set Free

Tutorial: How to make a Silent Ringtone

cc photo by Sara Petagna

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Problem

I never answer calls from a number that I don’t know. If it’s important they’ll leave a message. I have this one caller that calls me everyday and never leaves a message. I’m thinking it’s an automated call. How do I prevent the caller from interrupting me on a daily basis?

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A Solution

As I mentioned before, I have a Nokia N85 mobile phone. Either there isn’t a built in way to block calls from certain numbers, or I’m blind and just can’t find this feature. In any case, here’s a quick and dirty workaround.

I can easily assign ringtones for certain numbers. Therefore, a silent ringtone would prevent the unwanted call from bothering me.

Here’s the 1 second silent ringtone I created which is available to download from archive.org…

http://www.archive.org/download/SilentRingtone/silence.mp3

Like everything I create, the silent ringtone has been set free from any copyrights using the CC0 waiver.

If you don’t want to use the silent ringtone I created, here’s how to create it yourself using a Mac.

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Overview

1. Install Audacity
2. Install LAME MP3 Encoder
3. Create Silence
4. Export Silent Audio File

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1. Install Audacity

Audacity is an open source audio editing application. You can download it here…
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_mac

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2. Install LAME MP3 Encoder

LAME MP3 Encoder lets us create mp3 files. You can download it here…
http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/

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3. Create Silence

• In your Applications folder, open up Audacity.
• In Audacity’s menu, go to “Generate” > “Silence…”
• In the “Silence Generator” window, enter “000,001 seconds” and click “OK”

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4. Export Silent Audio File

• In Audacity’s menu, go to “File” > “Export…”
• In the “Edit Metadata” window, click “OK”
• In the “Save As:” field, enter “silence.mp3″
• Choose a folder to save it in.
• In the “Format:” field, choose “MP3 Files” and click “Options…”
• For “Bit Rate Mode:”, choose “Constant”
• For “Quality”, choose “8 kbps”
• For “Channel Mode”, choose “Joint Stereo” and click “OK”
• Click “Save”
• An “Invalid sample rate” message should appear.
• For “Sample Rates”, choose “8000″ and click “OK”.

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You should now have a silent mp3 that you can use as a ringtone for phones that support truetones.

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Polyphasic Sleep Microformat Icon

With some inspiration from the official microformats icons, I was able to create a polyphasic sleep microformat icon using Inkscape. Get the complete Inkscape project svg here.

I think I’ll call it the Zzz format for use when logging polyphasic naps. Next up, develop the specs.

- Adventures in Polyphasic Sleeping