Comments on thisTangent: Ponoko's Puzzle & Game Contest

@Yanying: First off, please note that I thought yo...

2008-12-06T12:07:08.254-08:00

@Yanying: First off, please note that I thought your design should have been selected as a finalist. It is very cool.

And, just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that you the design wasn't original -- but it seemed to me that you had originally designed it to not be laser cut -- I based that on the fact that the hammers weren't laser cut. It's possible that the jurors had that feeling too and that's why you weren't chosen. Now that you've explained it, it makes perfect sense -- one side or the other has to be a single point or you get a dead sound, rather than a clean sound radiating from a single point. So, since it's xylophone bars, not strings, they have to be round heads to get that point.

On wood versus acrylic, makes sense -- but it is gorgeous in the acrylic.

Thanks for the extra info. I'm even more impressed now knowing you designed it from scratch for the contest.

Hello, I am the designer of the player piano. Than...

2008-12-06T11:08:22.280-08:00

Hello, I am the designer of the player piano. Thanks for your comments on my Two-Re-Me toy piano. =)

Some clarifications on the design.

My piano design is completely original, and designed from scratch. It wasn't based off an existing design. Basically, it was a "I want to build a piano, okay, let's go about designing it" kind of thing.

The hammer design itself went through 4 iterations and testing, because of acoustics and physics issues.

Regarding the issue of the hammer not being lasercut, it was because the ball hammer works the best in terms of acoustics. I think it has to do with the surface area and volume of the the ball shape. When the hammer hits the xylophone, not only the metal pieces vibrate, the hammer does as well and both of them affect the volume and resonance of the sound. A lasercut hammer was too thin.

I had to throw away my original hammer designs (some of them designed to be lasercut in very beautifully curved shapes) because the notes sounded dead or tinny. They just don't work as well as a ball hammer.

The piano is currently in my school basement now. People play on it occasionally... and I am happy to say, the piano is so loud, you can hear the music four floors up the entire building. =)

@flights: Thanks for the nice thoughts about WIM. ...

2008-05-31T19:47:02.585-07:00

@flights: Thanks for the nice thoughts about WIM. I think a number of us failed at describing our entries very well. And, yes, you're right about my inspiration for Puzzle Coasters.

I do plan on making some copies of WIM, so your wife can buy one yet!

On your Soma cube, a few thoughts.

I think the idea of a puzzle layered on top of Soma is a good idea. In fact, I did one myself a few years ago. But, I think you can do better than you did. It might be fun, but it's basically just Soma. Stretch yourself more. Another puzzle that didn't make it was the Sam Loyd ripoff and maybe that factored in.

Construction is also a potential issue. I had a couple of 3D puzzles that I was working on that were also constructed the same way (they consisted of either 4 or 8 cubes with rastering on all 6 sides). But, I was concerned that the cubes wouldn't stay together and glue is just inelegant. I'd love to know if/how that works out.

You mentioned that you couldn't sell your puzzle with the Fiducial art because of the GPL, but that doesn't make sense. The GPL doesn't prevent Dell from selling a laptop with Linux on it. If the Fiducials are GPLed, you can use them. If you modify them in the course of your use, you must make your modified version available, but you don't have to give away your puzzle any more than Dell has to give away laptops. If they are licensed instead of GPLed, then it's a different story. Even so, I think you could do a better puzzle with different art.

Drop me an email and we can discuss more (and I'll send you that Soma cube puzzle that I did a while ago).

You didn't have a critique of my design "soma thre...

2008-05-31T04:39:25.202-07:00

You didn't have a critique of my design "soma three" (I guess it's because I pulled it from my show room rather than it not being worthy of mention ;-P ), so I thought I'd supply my own critique (I didn't make the first round either in case you didn't guess already). http://flightsofideas.com/ - I'd value your feedback.

I am surprised that WIM didn't make it to the first round - but I have to admit that I didn't fully appreciate your design until I read your blog (I was lazy and didn't read your showroom instruction sheets - this is by no way a comment on the judges ;-) ). My wife is a wordsmith and would love a puzzle/game like this permanently on the coffee table (I guess that something like this was your inspiration for the puzzle coasters).

Looking forward to seeing a product in you showroom soon.

- Flights