Making Ambigrams

Ambigrams are hot. They've been around forever as a curiosity but are catching on in logos and type now because…I don't know – everything else has been done? Check out this gallery at wired.

A web-search on ambigrams will turn up a bunch of tattoo sites. Something about their symmetry and mystical puzzling quality makes people want to imprint it on themselves. Of course, does such a tattoo require you to prove to your audience that it's the same upside-down? Make sure you can still do a head-stand before committing to that tattoo.

I wanted to try making one but was hoping to leverage some computer technique to flip it for me, so I wouldn't have to do it all by hand. A search for ambigram software seems to pivot around one amazing proprietary tattoo software. Quite clever, but the cost and legal issues were daunting. Plus the gothic or script fonts that it builds on wouldn't let me design a high-tech software logo. It's clear after looking at just a handful of ambigrams that the medieval and scripting fonts let you add frills that your eye can choose to ignore or not. Kinda like captchas.

At any rate, I wanted to play with making them on my tablet PC, so I built on a some example code, and came up with a simple IE toy: AmbigramMaker.xaml. You can use your mouse but it's better with a tablet pen since it lets you erase and apply pressure-sensitive marks. When you open it, you can only draw on the left-hand-side. But with a little practice and help from this tutorial you can make one. Don't kill a lot of time with this – there's no save feature. The following was created with a "print screen." If you're interested in collaborating in improving this Silverlight-powered applet, please contact me. I have more ideas but little time.

So the following is a poor attempt to make an ambigram for the title of this blog. More time and more artistic skill does pay off.

Things We Learned on Square Day

1. Yesterday was squareday - for everybody, but it meant more to me. Yesterday was 4/25/09 – all square numbers. In a given century this'll happen 135 days out of 36,525 about 1 in 250 days - so not that big of a deal. But for me it marked my 36^th birthday – also a square number. This was the only day in my life when this will happen. In fact, for around 1 in 400 people this will only happen once. For everyone else it will never happen. Of course, if you were born on one of the 15 square-days in '00 you should get at nine of these, maybe ten if you don't smoke!
   
2. Oh, your birthday is all primes! Congrats. When will the special birthday come for you when your age and the year are both primes? Never. Sorry, if you were born in an odd-numbered year, you'll turn an even age in odd years (primes must be odd), and an odd (potentially prime) age in even years.
   
3. What do you call the special class of numbers that individually are the difference between two consecutive square numbers? Let's see. Let the first consecutive number be x and the second (x + 1). The difference in the squares is (x + 1)^2 – x^2 = y. Where y is one of the special class of numbers. Well, if you remember your FOIL method, y = 2x + 1. In order to ensure that both x and y are integers, the only stipulation is that y be an odd number. That's it. All odd numbers can be created by the difference of two consecutive squares.
   
4. Trying to find a square-root without a calculator? Check this out this page. http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/square-root-algorithm.php
   
5. So, some numbers have integer square roots (4, 25, 9, 36) but most have non-integer irrational number square roots. Is it possible to have a non-integer rational square root? I don't think so. Coming back to the FOIL method, we could write an equation like: (a + x/y)* (a + x/y) = P. All of which are integers. Where a^2 < P (P is the number we're taking the square root of); and x<y. A little manipulation gets us to:
   

   (P – a^2) = 2x/y + x^2/y^2
   with a little more manipulation we can get to 2xy + x^2 = Ky^2,
   

   Where K is some integer multiplier.
   Solving for x: x = y±√(4*y^2+4*K*y^2) = y ± 2*y*√(2*K)
   

   x = y(1 + 2√2K).
   

   Since √2 (square-root of 2) is irrational, no integer values of x,y or K will produce a rational number.

The Last Great Prog Album

Progressive Rock was dead by 1990. It was a nerd genre that defined my musical palette from ‘83 to ‘93 and it’s pomp and seriousness lead to its self-destructive in these last 2 decades. The 1989 release of Season’s End by Marillion tries really hard to save the genre. It’s a forgotten masterpiece of music that really sounds awful. I want to encourage you to hear it, but I’m afraid of what you’ll think of me. Let me explain.

The guitar and synth sounds are the finest 80’s cheese. The singer tries to sound like Michael Bolton but I fear his leather pants are too tight and his voice strains in unpleasant ways. But! But, the bass and drums are unbelievably tight. The music is so interesting. The lyrics are fatal – covering topics like global warming and abusive women’s prisons. And, the mix is even more fatal…in a glorious high-tech 80’s kinda way.

You will want to cringe but if you give yourself over to it, it’s quite a ride. This was the first album with a new singer. Can established bands really swap out the singer? Well, we see-hear the remaining members struggling with this question, but they work really hard at it, and in the end come up feeling pretty good about the result. The album cover reminds me of the music. It tries really hard but WTF?

Here are some highlights:

• the last half of “Easter”. The guitar solo and orchestration around it are stunning. When the group drops down into a 5/4 celebration groove – it’s goose-bump inducing.
• the title track it about global warming. You just might buy a hybrid afterwards - and this was in 1989.
• Feeling righteous and need a soundtrack? songs like Uninvited Guest and “King of Sunset Town” will have you punching the air with pleasurable indignation. The bass and drums stabs are off-beat, skillful, and memorable.
• The final track, “The Space…” with its haunting synth-strings is what synth-strings were made for.

Please listen to the whole album on headphones because a) the depth of the mix should be listened to loud to be appreciated, and b) you don’t want people to hear you listening to this pompous 80’s event. If they do hear it, tell them you were listtening to it for historical reasons: it’s 20 years old, and it’s the last great progressive rock album.