Affect Browser - Christian Nold - Copyright 2006

This is software is version alpha 5 (ie. buggy and clunky but you get the idea and can use it)
The final version will be released under some kind of open license.

The Affect Browser is a tool for extracting the emotional slant of any text (English for now). In particular it helps to visualise how the particular words used in one text relates to the language of other texts that are focused on the same topic - RFID tags for example. To do this you can load in texts from individual internet webpages or ascii text files from your hardrive.

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Requirements:

Java virtual machine installed on a fast computer.
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Instructions:

To load a URL type it in like this "www.whatever.com" into the url box and hit ENTER.
To load individual texts from your hardrive they need to be plain ascii text files with a "txt" extension.
The Load URL button expects a number of URLs in plain ascii text file with a "txt" extension like this:
http://www.rfidtribe.com/maps.html
http://www.rfidlowdown.com/
The Make Links button allows you to step through any loaded texts showing any matched words. Keep clicking to remove the grey links again. This button only works when you have a number of texts loaded.  When no matches are found, no links will be displayed.
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Keys:

Use <> keys to zoom in an out.
Use arrow keys to navigate 
Space resets the view.
ALT + H hides the menu.
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Issues:

I have had reports that there are problems with the Linux version.
PDF export seems to hang the Windows version right now .... bad windows
You can't copy and paste URLs into the text box.
There is no feedback of what the program is doing. Give it some time and it should load your text.
The program needs multi-threading to run more efficiently.

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"Affect is the bodys way of preparing itself for action in a given circumstance by adding a quantitative dimension of intensity to the quality of an experience."
(Eric Shouse 2005)

Speech is performative "in which by saying or in saying something we are doing something" (Austin 1976).

What holds for the receiver also holds, for the same reason, for the sender or the producer. To write is to produce a mark that will constitute a sort of machine which is productive in turn, and which my future disappearance will not, in principle, hinder in its functioning, offering things and itself to be read and written.
(Derrida 1977)




