Unloading autoenv based on a directory

AutoEnv is a killer tool that will automatically activate your virtualenv environment based on the directory you are in (based on the contents of a .env file). But what happens when you move out of that directory? Unfortunately, the same environment stays activated until you land in a directory that contains a new .env file.

Simple workaround: place this .env somewhere high in your directory tree (possibly in the root)

if [ -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ] ; then
    deactivate
fi

I dropped the above .env file into my user’s root folder, changed directories above my current directory and my virtualenv environment quickly changed. Thanks to kazagistar who suggested the fix!

 

Thoughts on the “performance lab” at Music Tech Fest

I love this discussion of people coming together to create an interesting experience in “The Absorption Chamber” (a cavernous concrete space built around the DDR-era concert halls of Funkhaus Berlin, the East German radio and sound facility):

But I could go on about each of the individual artists, neuroscientists, engineers (some migrating in from the MIT lab), designers, and hackers who got involved. Via an invited international group, we had people who were as handy with a Max patch as they were with a needle and thread, who could sing and write code, who could parlay research knowledge into on-the-spot experimentation. In just one week, they invented from-scratch performance interventions – most of the collaborators meeting for the first time. Everyone shared with everyone else, but there were eventually three distinct performance groups (one including Viktoria), plus some offstage experiments, presented to the public in an afternoon.

Link (CreateDigitalMusic)

Great take on why Ghost in the Shell movie misses

Masamune Shirow created an interesting set of complex characters in Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. I appreciated the thought he put into constructing a world that involved deeper questions about life. Read through the Appleseed manga, I was struck with the themes of humanity, struggle, political positioning and the theme of a digital soul. Example of some dialog:

Deunan: “Still, I like the way they’re picking a fight with Olympus and both Americas straight on. You gotta give ’em credit for balls.”
Briareos: “All the third world countries are like that. What they don’t have is money. This whole OP could be an Aegis-backed diplomatic ploy.”

I highly recommend the great write-up on the recent Ghost in the Shell movie. I haven’t seen it yet, and after reading this excellent review, I’m not sure I will.

Apparently, “you can’t lead” with philosophy in Hollywood….But I’m not sure Sanders understands how or why these moments became so iconic. His interpretation of the original film—which was slower, indeed almost glacial in places—centers on explosive energy and plumes of broken glass; it’s Daft Punk gone the way of the Boondock Saints. Consequently, Sanders’ rebooted version of Ghost in the Shell is a peculiar hodgepodge of original scenes and lines, sutured together without much rhythm. We get the hacked garbage collector without the poignancy of his subsequent revelations, while the water fight that Sanders mentions is almost caricatured. And Mira Killian has none of Motoko Kusanagi’s restraint as she beats her quarry without compassion.

As the action gets more frenetic, the thoughtful theme of humans merging with machines becomes blander. –Cassandra Shaw