Desmond DoDecaHedron

It’s a long post, but (hopefully) there’s fun to be had so please continue…

This summer, the London Max/MSP users group hosted a very well received Max/MSP version of a pub quiz. A normal (UK) pub quiz is a team-based general knowledge test where people drink beer and compete for prizes which quite often consist of more beer or perhaps some shrink- wrapped meat from an unrefrigerated vehicle.

However the London Max/MSP version of a pub quiz is so much better than this.

Instead, team pairs of group members were invited to take part in a series of ‘challenges’ where they had fifteen minutes in which to find a Max/MSP solution.

Examples included “replace the imminent nuclear threat alarm in a 1950s UK government warning film with an alarm sound of your own”, “find a way of sending ‘fin’ to a message box without using text” and “given this audio segment of someone counting one to ten in French- find a way of being able to play back any combination of numbers e.g. trois neuf cinq etc”.

The winner won a Max/Gen/Jitter licence for a whole year, a Cycling 74 bell and a cash prize! And perhaps most gallingly of all - the winner was one who shall we say “his data is uncontaminated”.

Anyway the French one proved to be quite challenging, but the important thing here was that the teams of two were randomly assembled by a Max patch, which in turn created crazy juxtapositions of seasoned veterans and complete novices.

The beautiful thing about the evening was that each team came up with different approaches to solving each scenario, and the novices learned as much from the seasoned pro as the seasoned pro learned how they needed to brush up on their list of Max objects – some of which are quite new…

Most importantly people had fun, learned something about themselves, other people and where Max/ MSP fits in to all of this.

So, after this long post, would anyone from the Cycling 74 forum like to contribute a challenge to the London Max/MSP users Christmas Quiz ? – nothing too hifalutin- we want the challenges to be all inclusive, but please consider the joy and happiness you might be giving from perhaps thousands of miles away.

I know I shouldn’t have to say this but PLEASE don’t post any contributions here - my address is contained within the compressed copy -

Hi Everyone,
It’s a long post, but (hopefully) there’s fun to be had so please continue…

However the London Max/MSP version of a pub quiz is so much better than this.
Instead, team pairs of group members were invited to take part in a series of ‘challenges’ where they had fifteen minutes in which to find a Max/MSP solution.

The winner won a Max/Gen/Jitter licence for a whole year, a Cycling 74 bell and a cash prize! And perhaps most gallingly of all -  the winner was one who shall we say “his data is uncontaminated”.

Anyway the French one proved to be quite challenging, but the important thing here was that the teams of two were randomly assembled by a Max patch, which in turn created crazy juxtapositions of seasoned veterans and complete novices. 

So, after this long post, would anyone from the Cycling 74 forum like to contribute a challenge to the London Max/MSP users Christmas Quiz  ? – nothing too hifalutin- we want the challenges to be all inclusive, but please consider the joy and happiness you might be giving  from perhaps thousands of miles away.

I know I shouldn’t have to say this but PLEASE don’t post any contributions here - my address is contained within the compressed copy -


london-needs-you

Question though; why would the Max elite want an extra Max license for a year? Seems odd, since those people would probably own one already?

Hi Wetterberg, I want to dispel the notion that this is an event for an 'elite'. The group accommodates all ranges of abilities and indeed is a subset of the wider Music Hackspace community where people may not be using Max at all, but rather Super Collider or PD. So winning a Max license might be just the ticket for them.

Can you provide examples of former challenges ?

Sure - one of the challenges was that each team was given an audio clip of a female french voice counting 1 to 10 "Un, Deux, ....Neuf,Dix". The teams had to think of a strategy to detect the start of each number and then develop a mechanism to play the numbers back in any order so typing 1 4 5 would play un, quatre, cinq. This was the most complex challenge.

Another was to get the teams to come up with their own dystopian alarm sound to replace the one in an audio clip taken from a 1950s British B movie. Des

.. the challenge could even be a Max patch itself - like providing an incomplete patch and asking for the gaps to be filled in-

London needs you