I’ve just released version 0.2.
The main improvement is an extension system that lets you customize your menus, hopefully in a clean and generic way.
Check it out: http://code.google.com/p/django-treemenus/
I remember when starting using Django, I was a bit disappointed that there was no easy-to-use or straight-forward application to build menus, at least I didn’t find any that suited me. Yet, menus are something that you find on pretty much every website, and I wanted to fill that gap. So I started making my own app, and made it generic and open source so it could hopefully benefit other django users.
So here it is, django-treemenus, a simple and generic application that lets you build easily tree-structured menus for your django site. It contains all (and only) the essentials, and it should be easy for anyone to extend it to fit their particular needs. You can define your own templates, and there’s a user-friendly admin interface to manage the structure of your menus.
All the code and documentation are available at google code there.
Have a go, and please let me know about potential issues or bugs, either in this blog or on the google code issue tracking system.
Cheers!
Julien
Some screenshots
Here’s the customized admin interface:
Here’s how it could look like in the front end if you added a little bit of CSS:
Last week I’ve had a very interesting visit at Intuilab, a Toulouse-based company of 21 employees, 8 of which come from the same education as me (Masters in HCI of Toulouse). The staff is multidisciplinary, including graphic designers, interaction designers, ergonomists and developers.
Intuilab is involved both in the industry and academic worlds. They focus on the design of innovative interfaces, that is, not using classic WIMP interactions but rather state-of-the art technologies such as gesture/speach recognition and multimodal interfaces. Notably, they are developing prototypes to support localized collaborative work using DiamondTouch tabletops, which could particularly interest some of us at CCS.
Their clients are from diverse domains: air traffic control, the army, or aeronautics, and work with Intuilab to resolve problems that don’t find solutions with classical interaction techniques.
They have also developed a method based on participatory design and were one of the first companies to utilise it in industry. Their approach is to involve the end-users right into the design process. After briefly presenting the avaliable technologies (speach or gesture recognition, etc.), they assist the users in designing the interactions themselves by using low-fidelity paper-based prototypes (post-its, tracing paper, pens, markers, etc.). It’s an iterative process to gradually refine the prototype and guarantee that the final product fits real needs.
They also develop a toolkit (called Intuikit) that both let them quickly build prototypes for the research stage and also make products ready to use in the industry.
For more detailed info, check out their website, their demos and publications, and some videos on YouTube.
Hi CCSers,
I remember about a year ago, some of us discussed the idea of all CCSers spending a week-end on a wine tour in the Hunter Valley. Then months passed and we’ve all been absorbed by our stressing and busy lives.
The idea has emerged again a couple of days ago, while having some guiness in an Irish pub (that’s usually the sort of place where you get that sort of ideas).
So! I propose to try to organize a CSS get-together week end. The package would include: minibus, wine tour, relaxation, cosy accommodation, wine, fun, laughs, and with no moderation whatsoever (for the fun and laughs).
Now, I know some of you guys are going to be busy, with writing theses and upcoming conferences. At first glance May looks like most people should be around, but nothing is definite yet.
Please write a comment in this blog entry to express your interest, as well as your availabilities and non-availabilities. Please also tell us if you already have some good hints for some good accommodations and minibus rentals.
Cheers!
Julien
I thought I would post this 4-page document which I recently wrote and submitted to the PhD Consortium at CC07 (results to be given by the 19 February I think). Download here.
It outlines the issues I am tackling in my PhD. I sort of narrowed down my research to the collaboration between film composers and film makers. I’d be happy to discuss with you if you have any comment/criticism to make.
Cheers!
I’ll be Student Volunteer at OZCHI in November. A good way to mingle with ‘la creme de la creme’ of HCI! 
Busy November it will be for me: OZCHI, then the ACID Students Conference, then ENGAGE and finally the HCSNet summerfest!
Many thanks to Olivier Sébastien, from IREMIA at the University of Reunion Island, who’s recently pointed me out La Kitchen (named after Andy Warhol’s movie). This French research lab located in Paris, focuses its efforts in developing interactions tools crossing several art disciplines such as dance, music, video, handicraft and more on.
Unfortunateley I haven’t found any english version of their website yet, but I have recently contacted them for that matter, and I will post later some information in english.
In the meantime you can check out some of their demo videos, which give a good idea of what their products can do. It seems that the price of these products is quite reasonable, and this may be a good investment to upgrade our studios in the future. Links to the videos on this page: http://www.la-kitchen.fr/spectacle.html
… or directly here:
- video1
- video2
- video3
A poster has been published as the ACID’s Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) was visiting Australia in August.
Click here to view the poster.
Sony has just released a new product called CineScore, which supposingly let anyone, even non music-savvy, create a soundtrack for their videos. This is actually a library of pre-existing music loops, of which you can change parameters such as intensity, tempo, mood, etc. to generate an “original” score that fits to the drama and to time constraints of the picture, and that is royalty-free.
I have tested a little the trial version which you can get from there:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/showproduct.asp?pid=1013
So is that the end of business for film music composers? I don’t think so, not quite. I tried it out (trial version available on the website), and to me it is pretty basic in terms of the customization of the generated music. I agree it can fit the picture, but in a quite basic way, and probably not very creative way (as it is all based on pre-existing loops).
However I reckon this is a great tool to make mockups to get a first feeling of what the music should sound like. That could be done by the clients (director, producers, etc.) because it doesn’t require any musical background, to be presented later to the composer, who would then compose a proper score that is more adapted. Also, the quality is decent enough, as is, for (very) low bugdet movies and cheap corporate commercials. So if it won’t replace real composers, it is going to drastically toughen the competition in the lower-quality range of the market (by lower-quality range, I mean “less creative”, which is unfortunately also the largest and most lucrative).
Undoubtedly, with the improvement of such technologies the challenge for composers will be to value their creativity over this computer-generated music, and enhance their communication with the clients so the results get as close as possible to what they are commissioned for. This is well discussed my Mark Northam here: http://www.marknortham.com/?p=5
Hi everyone, CCS crew and all!
Well, first things first, I have attached my PhD proposal (PhD research proposal 2006.doc) so you know a bit better what I am aiming for for the next few years.
In a few words, I’ll be working at making it easier for artists that compose music for film (pretty much for any type of video material, commercial, cinematographic, purely artistic, etc.). Hopefully I’ll do a big survey with composers all over the world. By the way if you know any film music composer, in OZ or anywhere else, I am keen to get in touch with them.
cheers