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David Morgan-Mar

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David Morgan-Mar
Other namesDangermouse
Occupation(s)author, designer, optical engineer
Websitehttp://www.dangermouse.net/

David Morgan-Mar (a.k.a. DangerMouse) is an Australian physicist,[1] best known for his webcomics,[2] and for creating several humorous esoteric programming languages.[3] He is also the author of several GURPS roleplaying sourcebooks for Steve Jackson Games, as well as a regular contributor to Pyramid magazine.[4]

Morgan-Mar is a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Sydney, Australia, and works on camera, lens, and image processing projects at Canon.[5]

Esoterica

Morgan-Mar has created a number of esoteric programming languages (including Chef and Piet) and algorithms. He invented Piet as part of an esoteric programming language project.[6] Some of them are full Turing-complete languages while others are simple jokes, often based upon the idea of how a given group (e.g., chefs, orangutans, or necromancers) would be expected to program.[7]

He was one of the inventors of "Determining a depth map from images of a scene" which was granted a patent in 2013,[8] and "Geometric parameter measurement of an imaging device" which was granted a patent in 2014.[9][10]

It is a mark of Morgan-Mar's humor that his algorithms often reflect the practices of or misconceptions about the computing industry, for instance "LenPEG", an image-compression algorithm, is designed such that if it is given the standard Lenna image it produces an output file of 1 byte, otherwise implementing a standard JPEG, GIF or PNG compression, therefore beating these in benchmark tests. His intelligent sort algorithm (a parody of intelligent design), which suggests that any sufficiently complicated list is already sorted according to the whims of a sorter implying any further sorting is unnecessary, was referenced in the "Feedback" section of New Scientist.[11] The Intelligent Design Sort algorithm just says that information must already be sorted according to the will of a great unknowable being, instead of actually sorting the information.[12]

Comics

Morgan-Mar is known for his webcomics: Irregular Webcomic!, Infinity on 30 Credits a Day, Darths & Droids, Square Root of Minus Garfield and mezzacotta.

Irregular Webcomic!

File:Irregular Webcomic strip 3626.jpg
A typical Irregular Webcomic strip featuring a parody of Mythbusters

Established at the end of 2002 and running until late in 2011, Irregular Webcomic! was a photo-comic that consisted mostly of photographs of Lego characters[1] and sets with speech balloons added above them (although there were some strips named Me - with Morgan-Mar in them - as well as the fantasy and space themes - which were photographs of painted miniatures) and had several (usually) distinct casts of characters (called "themes") with many different kinds of jokes and story arcs. Since completing its run as a webcomic, Morgan-Mar uses the site for a weekly blog, as something of a carry-over from the occasionally-long notes to the former webcomic.[citation needed] After a successful Patreon fundraiser, Morgan-Mar resumed the webcomic on April 26, 2015;[citation needed] the strip updates on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with reruns appearing on other days.

Infinity on 30 Credits a Day

Infinity on 30 Credits a Day is an idea that was developed by David Morgan-Mar in response to a poll he conducted, asking the fans of Irregular Webcomic! whether they would create a webcomic, given the ability to do so. It is a webcomic created entirely through collaboration between the 500 or so fans that signed up to help. Essentially, the creation of each comic is a collaborative effort by several people, chosen for their skills.[citation needed]

The comic started off with many contributions, but input tapered off during 2008.[citation needed]

Darths & Droids

Inspired by DM of the Rings,[13] Darths & Droids takes place in a universe where Star Wars was never created. The concepts of Star Wars are thus largely unknown to the characters, with concepts such as lightsabers' deflection abilities, midichlorians, the Gungan race and Anakin as either made up by the players themselves or hastily invented by the Game Master after the players go off his prepared plot line.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b Bradley, Stephanie (20 November 2008). "Another brick in the wall". The Newcastle Herald. p. 43.
  2. ^ "Jane Goodall Meets Webcomics". Wired. 8 August 2006. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Basu, Saikat (30 July 2012). "10 Programming Languages You Probably Never Heard Of". MakeUseOf. Archived from the original on 14 August 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2013. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 14 August 2014 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "GURPS Update". Warehouse 23. Archived from the original on 23 September 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Morgan-Mar, David. "The Flowers in My Mind". Redbubble.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2012. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 14 September 2015 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "Piet: Turing-complete abstract art". 8 January 2016.
  7. ^ Morgan-Mar, David. "Morgan-Mar's Esoteric Programming". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "Determining a depth map from images of a scene".
  9. ^ "US Patent Issued to Canon on Aug. 26 for "Geometric Parameter Measurement of an Imaging Device" (Australian Inventors)". 29 August 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ "Geometric parameter measurement of an imaging device".
  11. ^ "Feedback". New Scientist: 84. 12 May 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2007. Subscription required
  12. ^ "Why Not: A Sorting Algorithm Based on the Fake-Theory of Intelligent Design".
  13. ^ "Darths & Droids". Darthsanddroids.net. 2 January 2011. Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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