I bet that most of you don’t realize that years ago (when hooting flocks of pterodactyls darkened the daytime sky), programmers actually had to trap keystrokes as part of the regular operations of their programs. For example, in a data-entry prompt requiring only numeric data we had either to check the field’s contents after the page had been submitted or check during the inputting of data. The method of checking while inputting data was to ensure that the user could not type any character other than a numeric. Therefore, each time the user tapped a key we would simply ensure that the only character to make its way into a numeric column had an ASCII value between 48 and 57 inclusive (zero through nine).

Oh, those were the good ole’ days! (No, they really weren’t.)

I am thinking about this primarily because Galloway, in “What is New Media,” reminds us that “the Language of New Media comes out of the first generation of Internet culture” (377). Galloway continues that we need not look back with nostalgia to a simpler time or come away with a belief that Manovich has nothing to say to us today. Just as my numeric checking back in the day came from an earlier generation of computing so too does Manovich’s book, but as I reflect on his work more fully I find much that resonates today.

In my work on the fifth daily of the bubbles sequence where we were to create our own shape I was drawn to the Internet in search of ideas. This further connected me to Manovich through Galloway. What interests me is the idea of “open source.” For Galloway information, desire, and capital “wants to be free” (384). (I’m not convinced.) And, Manovich says, “new media transforms all culture and cultural theory into an ‘open source’” (334). In my searching for ideas I found a blending of the theories of both. There is a great website where many P5 examples can be found codepen.io. After looking through many of the examples I found that I might be able to coopt the ideas of one in particular found here. So with the algorithm to create the stars in-hand, I set out make it mine.

What’s interesting with many of these examples is just how cool they are and how complex some of the code happens to be. Noah, in his blog last week, intimated as much as he begins to break down what it will take just to make rain fall on the screen.

It’s also nice to see approaches and coding styles of others who are doing some very interesting things in code. It is frustrating as well. I begin to question “why didn’t I figure that out myself,” or “why I’m not as creative”?