Console Cowboys In Cyberspace (Name Subject to Change)
####Particle simulator and art project by Alberto Ancona
This website was created with two goals in mind: to help you build intuition about how classical mechanics works and how planetary bodies move, and to provide a way for you to work together with others to create art using well-placed particles and your imagination.
In its current iteration, the site allows you to create your own little galaxy by clicking on the screen and introducing particles to the empty canvas of space. If you create an account and log in, you may save your progress at any time by clicking "Take Snapshot." The website is live here.
The site is still under development, and I will soon implement a shared galaxy where anyone can contribute, as well as private galaxies for you and your friends to create a world of your own. I have other features in the works, but I think I'll let them be a surprise.
Thanks to Michael Herman, whose code I used to make Passport.js work. The code I used (and translated into CoffeeScript) can be found here.
Thanks to William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and creator of the phrase "Console Cowboy."
Thanks to Rick Regan, who taught me how to tell if an integer is a power of two. Find out yourself here.
Special shout-outs to Jimmy Zeng for telling me how to map integer coordinates to positive integers correctly, Andy Wang for pointing out that I could save lots of space with a hash table, Kyle Swanson for his thoughts on the color scheme and possible next features, Ziv Scully for helping me think about optimizing my particles' physics calculations, Daniel Shaar for some math help, Bridget Bohlin for introducing me to Neuromancer and for trying to break this website (for debugging purposes, of course), Amelia Paine for telling me that if my website were a fruit, it would be a starfruit, and all of my friends for putting up with my code binges and continual ramblings about my project this IAP. You're all the best :)