C[omp]ute

From: andrew cooke <andrew@...>

Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 20:52:56 -0300

This is a command line tool that will print an oblique strategy.  By default,
it prints a different strategy each day.  Alternatively, you can give an
argument that is used to generate a "random" index.  So, if it's saved in a
file called "oblique"

  > oblique
  prints a strategy for the day
  > oblique `date +%s`
  prints a strategy that is randomly selected on each call

It assumes openssl, bc and awk are installed.

Andrew


#!/bin/bash

# http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001643.htm
strategies=("A line has two sides"
"A very small object. Its center"
"Abandon desire"
"Abandon normal instructions"
"Accept advice"
"Adding on"
"Always give yourself credit for having more than personality"
"Ask people to work against their better judgement"
"Ask your body"
"Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle"
"Be dirty"
"Be extravagant"
"Breathe more deeply"
"Bridges -- build -- burn"
"Cascades"
"Change ambiguities to specifics"
"Change instrument roles"
"Change nothing and continue consistently"
"Children -- speaking -- singing"
"Cluster analysis"
"Consider different fading systems"
"Consult other sources -- promising -- unpromising"
"Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element"
"Courage!"
"Cut a vital connection"
"Decorate, decorate"
"Destroy nothing; Destroy the most important thing"
"Discard an axiom"
"Disciplined self-indulgence"
"Discover your formulas and abandon them"
"Display your talent"
"Distort time"
"Do nothing for as long as possible"
"Do something boring"
"Do something sudden, destructive and unpredictable"
"Do the last thing first"
"Do the washing up"
"Do the words need changing?"
"Do we need holes?"
"Don't avoid what is easy"
"Emphasize differences"
"Emphasize repetitions"
"Emphasize the flaws"
"Feed the recording back out of the medium"
"Fill every beat with something"
"Find a safe part and use it as an anchor"
"Get your neck massaged"
"Ghost echoes"
"Give the name away"
"Give way to your worst impulse"
"Go outside. Shut the door."
"Go slowly all the way round the outside"
"How would you have done it?"
"Idiot glee"
"Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events"
"Infinitesimal gradations"
"Intentions -- nobility of -- humility of -- credibility of"
"Into the impossible"
"Is it finished?"
"Is something missing?"
"Is the intonation correct?"
"It is quite possible (after all)"
"Just carry on"
"Left channel,right channel, center channel"
"Listen to the quiet voice"
"Look at the order in which you do things"
"Lost in useless territory"
"Lowest common denominator"
"Magnify the most difficult details"
"Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame"
"Make what's perfect more human"
"Mechanize something idiosyncratic"
"Mute and continue"
"Only one element of each kind"
"Openly resist change"
"(Organic) machinery"
"Put in earplugs"
"Reevaluation (a warm feeling)"
"Remember quiet evenings"
"Remove a restriction"
"Repetition is a form of change"
"Reverse"
"Short circuit (example: a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)"
"Simple subtraction"
"Spectrum analysis"
"Take a break"
"Take away the important parts"
"Tape your mouth"
"The inconsistency principle"
"The tape is now the music'"
"Think of the radio"
"Tidy up"
"Trust in the you of now"
"Turn it upside down"
"Twist the spine"
"Use an old idea"
"Use an unacceptable color"
"Use fewer notes"
"Use filters"
"Use your own ideas"
"Water"
"What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving"
"What are you really thinking about just now?"
"What is the reality of the situation?"
"What mistakes did you make last time?"
"What would your closest friend do?"
"Work at a different speed"
"You are an engineer"
"You can only make one dot at a time"
"Your mistake was a hidden intention"
"Don't break the silence"
"Don't stress one thing more than another"
"Use 'unqualified' people"
"What wouldn't you do?"
"Try faking it [Stewart Brand]"
"Slow preparation, fast execution"
"Is the style right?"
"Where is the edge?"
"Voice your suspicions"
"What is the simplest solution?"
"Make it more sensual"
"Use something nearby as a model"
"Think -- inside the work -- outside the work"
"What context would look right?"
"When is it for?"
"What to increase? What to reduce? What to maintain?"
"How would someone else do it?"
"Would anyone want it?"
"Go to an extreme, come part way back"
"Once the search has begun, something will be found"
"Be less critical"
"From nothing to more than nothing"
"Retrace your steps"
"Only a part, not the whole"
"Faced with a choice, do both [Dieter Rot]"
"Always give yourself credit for having more than personality [Arto Lindsay]"
"Revaluation (a warm feeling)"
"Lost in useless territory"
"It is quite possible (after all)"
"Idiot glee"
"Move towards the unimportant"
"It is simply a matter of work"
"Not building a wall; making a brick"
"The most easily forgotten thing is the most important"
"State the problem as clearly as possible"
"Always the first steps"
"Question the heroic"
"Go outside. Shut the door."
"In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly"
"Which parts can be grouped?"
"Change specifics to ambiguities"
"Use cliches"
"Consider transitions")

key=${1-`date -I`}
key=`echo -n $key | openssl dgst -sha1 | awk '{print $NF}'`
key=`echo $key | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'`
key=`echo "ibase=16;$key" | bc`
n=${#strategies[*]}
i=`echo "$key % $n" | bc`
echo ${strategies[$i]}