Terry's Other Page       I have interests other than languages, and this page is intended to display some of them. As it happens, everything here now is a computer application (Windows only, sorry!), but that is just a coincidence. Mozart Waltz Game       The Mozart Waltz "Game" consists of a collection of snippets of melody by which one can compose an endless series of waltzes. It is a game only in the sense that it uses a pair of dice.          There are 176 numbered snippets of melody in the game. One uses a pair of dice and two tables to select a snippet for each measure of an 8-measure musical phrase. When all the measures of the phrase have been selected, a pleasant waltz tune has been created. Given the sheer number of possible combinations, odds are that this particular tune has never been heard before, and never will again.          The game has been attributed to Mozart, although this is disputed. I detect more than a little cynicism in this game, as if someone wanted to show that the rules for composing waltzes had become so formulaic that one could compose one with literally no thought at all.          The game has intrigued programmers for a long time, and there are many computer implementations of it. This is my implementation, using the MIDI format. You can read more about the Waltz Game, and you can download a set of the tables and melody snippets required to play it.    Mozart Waltz Game (download 1.66M)            EZCompositor v. 1.0       This application is used to combine ("composite") picture elements and CGI effects and output sequences of picture files for use in animated movie production. Although somewhat "bare-bones", it is powerful enough to produce some impressive effects. I used a version of this application to make my stop-motion animated LegoTM movies    EZCompositor (download 1.75M)            Binary Adder       My (then) 10-year old son had recently gotten very interested in computers. Not just in using them, but in understanding how they work. Being who he is, he was not content with just getting a grasp of programming or how peripherals hook up - no, he wanted to know how computers work literally from the ground up!          He understood that all computer operations ultimately depend on simple mathematical operations. One thing he wanted to know was exactly how computers know the numbers they are working with when they do those mathematical operations. I explained that computers don't actually know anything; they simply run current through switches, which in turn set other switches for current to run through. The "answer" to the computer's "calculation" is just a pattern of circuits turned on or off.          He had a little trouble understanding this, so I wrote this program to illustrate what I meant. Of course, he watched me as I was putting it together, so by the time I was finished, he already got the point and didn't need the program anymore! But, still, I think it can be useful, so I offer it here for your enjoyment:    Binary Adder (download 1.45M)        DMC-200 Virtual Computer       The DMC-200 is a "toy" computer, a virtual computer sitting on your desktop, that demonstrates in miniature the fundamental steps your own computer goes through to execute a program. Computers larger than the virtual DMC-200 may have larger instruction sets, bigger memories, and more internal registers, but the basic steps of taking a piece of machine code and executing it are common to them all.          The DMC-200 shows you how a machine code program is executed on your computer. You can also program in assembler code, or even the DMC-200's own programming language, LilBasic, and watch how your code is compiled, assembled, and eventually run.          The DMC-200 is based on a similar demonstration given by an old professor of mine years ago. I call it the "200" model because I've updated and added to that old demo.    DMC-200 Virtual Computer (download 1.45M)      Metric Clock       If your school system has anything like the "Science Fair" project that our schools make our children participate in each year, you know the frustration of trying to satisfy the judges, who seem to have an amazing ability to find little errors or omissions that escaped your notice. One year, we were penalized, U.S. citizens that we are, for not expressing our measurements in metric units (I know, that should have been obvious, but we were new at it). I decided that, if the judges wanted metric measurements, they should not be content to use the metric system for weights, volumes and distances only. Why not express the day in metric units? So I wrote this program in protest. Don't get me wrong; I like the metric system, for physical measurements, anyway (don't get me started on centigrade, however!).          This application gives you your choice of large display (pictured) or a small display that sits on your desktop, and a stopwatch, for timing your science fair experiments. Although this was written as a joke, it turns out to actually be both easy and fun to express the day in metric units. It should be a good way to pass a few centidays, anyway.    I found out later that I am not the only person (see here, here or here) to have had this idea, except I think they're serious!    Metric Clock (download 1.45M)    Other Applications Various applications from my other websites Flashglyph - a flashcard program for learning Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Senet - the ancient Egyptian boardgame, for Windows Javascript games with an Egyptian theme. Kliflash For Windows - a flashcard program for the Klingon language from Star TrekTM. Keep track of the date and time on the alternate Earth called Zyem.

Contact: other AT tdonnelly DOT org
© 2007, Terrence Donnelly