[edit : I did find some awesome grids with more extensive googling! Interestingly, each one's totally different. Bottom for links. ]

So I got to work to create a template that anyone can print out and pop into their Kaosillator for a perfectly mapped grid. Skip to the bottom of the page for the template. (Fear not, the template is sans Hello Kitty. I’m not about to impose anything on you.) Why a grid-mod? So that if you like, you can get specific about which keys you’re hitting.

For those of you who don’t know what a Kaosillator is, it is techno-dust-in-a-box. Here’s a video to save you the reading.

I’m going to start by explaining how I arrived at the grid itself here. To skip to how to use the template click here.
I started my process with some good old trial & error testing, with scrap paper laid over the touch pad:

After some measuring, I sketch out a preliminary grid on illustrator:

Printed it out. :

Checked it for fine-tuning:

And pretty much kept repeating this part till I got a grid that was accurate:

Then I made it pretty:

With is grid ready, it’s time to figure out how to stick it into the Kaossilator more permanently:

If you’re following this as a tutorial, have a print out of the template and a piece of acetate or transparency ready.
There are four screws at the four corners of the Kaosillator, remove them :

Pop the knob out :

Pry the silver face out, starting at the end close to the volume dial:

I used a paper clip to help. Be careful, the three buttons (Tap, Scale, Loop) can get caught by the metal casing and damaged at their joints. It happened to me. :

Remove the battery cover and undo the fat screw :

Keep these safe. The round-top one is from the back, the other four are from the corners :

You should now see :

Remove the four screws at the four corners of the circuit board :

You must pop the little circuit board with the audio jacks away from the plastic casing before the rest of the circuit board can be removed. It’s stubborn, use tools!  :

Gently push the dial to free the board from the casing :

Gently lift the board, don’t yank, the touch pad is still attached to the plastic casing :

Remove the three screws remaining on the plastic casing :

The touch pad is free! :

After looking around inside the Kaossilator, I realized four pins anchored the touch pad where it needed to be. So I traced the shape of the touch pad, along with holes for the pins, and through a little trail and error, aligned it with the grid I already had. :

At this point, I had not realized the chamfers (cut off corners) should have been at the bottom, not the top, of the touch pad:

Finally, a perfect fit:

Cutting the transparency to match the size & shape of the final print out:

Punching small holes where they belong:

Grid and screen-protecting transparency :

Installed! :

Now, just re-tracing the steps. After using a little tape to hold the touch pad & grid in place, put the plastic plate back :

Special note : The little circuit board & big circuit board interlock rather delicately at the top. Check for alignment before popping the boards back into the casing:

Special note: It takes some wiggling to get the on/off slider to fit the button properly :

Special note: I had to push the wire parts around a little to get the cover to fit perfectly :

And, the final product :

• DOWNLOAD>> GRID TEMPLATE (tiff, 300dpi, 8 x 6.3 cm)
  
• DOWNLOAD>> Grid in Illustrator format (in case alignment needs adjusting)
• Great link for grids : http://kgridmod.blogspot.com/
• Kaossilator grid mod by Vtecgogos : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33J5JYC5RLg
• Kaossilator grid mod by Kgridmod : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d5QrCCxc_Y
• Vimeo group : http://vimeo.com/groups/kaossilator

[ EDIT, Sept 7th 2010 ] I learned about scales today! Yay! The old grid now seems too primitive. The diagram  of the new grid should explain it all.

You’ll have to be in the Chromatic scale mode to see the whole grid in action. With the Ionic scale activated, just ignore the dotted lines and use the solid lines.

Download the updated, more detailed grid below.

If you have a go at this new grid, drop me a note, I’m curious about how it goes.

- Pat

• DOWNLOAD>> GRID TEMPLATE V2 (Chromatic Scale compatible, tiff, 300dpi, 8 x 6.3 cm)
  
• DOWNLOAD>> K-Grid v2 in Illustrator format

Seldom does the world collectively experience a disappointment so great, it is humorous. Then again, as we sober up from the punchline, we begin to wonder if there is more to the iPad than a flub. Apple is, after all, the industry game-changer. It wouldn’t be wise not to watch closely.

The iPad could shift the rules of advertising, graphic design, blogging, journalism & publishing from right beneath your feet.

Iconic design house, Pentagram, has published a great trend-watch article, “5 Ways the iPad will Change Magazine Design“. Indeed, the iPad will, as an e-reader (as opposed to a half-assed excuse of a smart-phone-laptop hybrid) may revolutionize reading itself.

Magazine content, online and in print, will be influenced by the screen, interface, even processing capabilities of the iPad. Think this is an exaggeration? Just look at how graphic design both on- and off-line has been influence by the mouse and resolution for the past decade:

• Images got smaller and took the form of pop-up slide shows
• Content structure became dominated by overviews, excerpts and short articles while longer pieces sit on a lower hierarchy behind “more” tags or further into the heart of the publication.
• Video content flourishes and demands integration with text and still (often with awkward results).
• Advertising copy and images became miniaturized to integrate into layouts.
• The miscellaneous (archives, categories, similar posts, about-the-authors) became necessary browsing tools, equivalent to running one’s fingers through the pages of a magazine.

And all of the above will be changed, again, with the iPad. People will spend considerably more time, well, reading, than on a laptop or a computer. Trends that came about to adapt to people’s shrinking attention spans and patience will be, again,transformed. The screen real estate also changes when scrolling is eliminated or re-integrated into user interaction, or when reading patterns change.

Come to think about it … the iPad has even influenced the market as we know it before it’s release.

And of course, the iPad might just be the nail in print’s drawn-out descent into it’s coffin – with an iPad on every coffee table, where will print stand?

the iPad might just be the nail in print’s drawn-out descent into it’s coffin

But while the iPad’s potential is formidable, it must first, like every product, be purchased. And even as the kind of consumer who’s willing to part with a little more cheddar for a little more shiny, I must say that the iPad just won’t cut it. Lack of multi-tasking, limited processing power and no usb at that price tag? It’s almost vulgar.

Hopefully, all that speculation about Apple having something more up their sleeves is right…

EDIT: Haha,  Stanford does not heart the iPad.

The mass-discussion of such shitbits for profit is known as an industry.

Graphic designers wax kerning, painters argue composition, filmmakers fuss the mark of the auteur and advertisers, God bless their understanding of virals, tinker with social media.

If the working world is anything like crit sessions in school, then it will be clever to equip yourself with shitbits and the stamina to dispense them at length. Along comes these three delightful guides by Anneloes van Gaalen.

Good read? Not entirely, but definitely a good browse. And a great little pre-crit / pre-pitch pick-me-up.