| Monday, April 13th, 2009 |
| 9:41 pm |
A couple years ago I told a friend I would make her a watch. I finally finished it.
It's made of silver and the stem is onyx. The crystal is made from glass.
I had originally planned to make the crystal more rounded (like a cabochon). I tried to cast it from polyurethane - which is a material I work with often - but I was never happy with the result. Despite using my vacuum chamber and various techniques I was never able to get the casting completely free of tiny bubbles. In the end I decided to make it from glass instead. I'm happy with the glass crystal since it distorts the face less and it's more scratch-resistant. I cut a small piece of glass from a large sheet, then ground it to shape and used my torch to round the edges.
I made the dial in Photoshop and printed it on acid-free paper. It has two newts (one at each end).
The hands I bought for it were too long for the dial I made, so I cut them to length and then used a diamond file under my microscope to file the ends to points.
( Click here to see more. ) |
| Friday, April 10th, 2009 |
| 10:03 pm |
My thoughts about the massive phone outage in Silicon Valley yesterday.
People have talked about the need to add more redundancy or security to telephone/Internet communications - it's not a bad idea, but it is obviously expensive. I think a good place for them to start would be to add software to the cell sites which allow them to route emergency (e.g. 911) calls and text messages tower to tower in a mesh network topology in the event that their landline connection goes down. Even if all the landlines were cut, provided that the towers have backup power, emergency calls could bounce tower-to-tower all the way to the emergency service provider. Cell towers are usually placed within range of other towers, so presumably they should be able to communicate with each other via their existing equipment. Clearly I don't know all of the idiosyncrasies of the cell phone system, but it seems conceivable that this could be a simple software upgrade requiring very little investment.
The tower-to-tower bandwidth would obviously be lower than the landline bandwidth, but it should be sufficient to route emergency calls and text messages.
This sort of backup system could make the cell-phone system even more valuable and reliable in the event of certain kinds of disasters.
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| Sunday, April 5th, 2009 |
| 11:10 am |
Thought of the day
The year is 2209. A post-human's mind is "sitting" in a retro virtu-club, enjoying the digital approximation of an ice cream sundae and discussing the true meanings and motivations behind 20th century poetry.
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| Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 |
| 2:37 pm |
Some people have noticed that lately I've been worse than usual at responding to text or voice messages. It is true - it's not you - I've been hiding from the world - unfortunately.
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| Sunday, March 29th, 2009 |
| 6:25 pm |
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| Monday, March 23rd, 2009 |
| 8:07 pm |
T9 has ruined my brain!
Now whenever I type the word "me" even on a computer, I see the word "of" first - even though I've typed it correctly. After I do a double-take then it says "me".
I've even done a reality test and confirmed that I'm not asleep.
This has happened several times already.
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| Saturday, March 21st, 2009 |
| 3:21 pm |
If I'm drinking a beverage while wearing lipstick I generally use a straw. There are two problems with this however:
1. Using a plastic straw at elegant affairs can cause one to be laughed at (I won't name names).
2. Carbonated beverages without ice can cause the straw to flip out of the glass (see above).
To solve these problems I made a some stainless steel straws. I was talking to someone about this a few weeks ago and she said that she would really like to have a glass straw, so I made this one for her:
No need to point out that people could use it for other purposes, I am well aware of that however drinking beverages is the use for which it was designed.
I also made a metal case to protect it while being transported.
( Click here to see more pictures of the straw and its metal case ) |
| Friday, March 6th, 2009 |
| 9:17 am |
Maybe I should enter this in one of those obfuscated coding contests.
:)
Here's a fun little piece of nearly un-readable code I wrote yesterday:
| | X Y A - A Y - ? DUP Z > IF Z= 1 ELSE DROP 0 THEN Z X Y A - A Y - ? - 0.50 > IF DROP 2 X Y Z - Y Z + ? Y= 0 Z= X ! X= THEN | |
Oh, and yes it works perfectly.
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| Thursday, March 5th, 2009 |
| 1:35 pm |
Design for 3D heads-up VR / AR glasses
This is an idea which, once it hits the market, everybody will want and they'll wonder how they ever lived without it. Not geeky, but stylish, sexy glasses which project a 3D image floating in space. They connect wirelessly to your cell phone or any CPU which you happen to have on your person.
They solve a perpetual problem: "I want the screen to be bigger, but I want the device to be smaller". This is a request which I hear from people all the time.
This also solves some of the liability issues which (I've heard) the major manufacturers have with heads-up display technologies.
My #1 design goal was that they be stylish, sexy and something that everybody would want to wear. My design is almost completely transparent and free of bulky components. I wanted to design a set of VR/AR glasses which look as good on a super-model, as on "Comic Book Guy".
I will say up-front that there may be some errors in my design. A friend said he would ray-trace the optics for me, but he never did. Still, I think that if there are any errors, they can be overcome. If you find any errors, please come to me and let me solve them rather than giving up on the design outright. Also, some components of the design may be replaced with HOEs (holographic optical elements).
I give this design to the world. I would love to build it myself, but I would rather see it take over the store shelves than see it make money for me in some niche. That being said, if you would like to send me money, I would certainly appreciate it.
If you have the ability to view a PowerPoint presentation, click on the link below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
PowerPoint presentation of VR/AR glasses design
Please pass it on to your friends. I want everybody to have these.
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| Thursday, February 5th, 2009 |
| 3:19 am |
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| Friday, January 23rd, 2009 |
| 11:35 pm |
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| Sunday, December 7th, 2008 |
| 8:54 am |
My letter to President-elect Barack Obama
It appears that President-elect Obama is actually soliciting advice from the general public. Ordinarily I wouldn't even consider writing to them figuring that there's no way my letter would be read, but it looks like they might actually be reading some of them (I don't know if they're reading all of them). So I figured I'd give it a shot and sent them my plan to:
1. Increase the efficiency of U.S. citizens (causing the U.S. to become more competitive in the global marketplace and thus improving the U.S. economy)
2. Reduce U.S. energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (a 20-25% improvement in vehicle efficiency on top of any improvements provided by other technologies)
3. Greater leisure time and improved quality of life for U.S. citizens
4. Reduce loss of life (eliminating over 40,000 deaths per year)
5. Reduce load on our hospital system (Eliminating over 2.5 million injuries per year)
6. Reduce traffic congestion and the need to expand existing highways
( Letter behind cut ) |
| Thursday, September 11th, 2008 |
| 4:52 pm |
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| Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 |
| 3:39 am |
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| Thursday, August 28th, 2008 |
| 10:53 pm |
And now for a look back at the past and some words of wisdom from my days working in technical support. The following priceless gems were spoken to customers by some of my coworkers:| |
"You're supposed to USE the compiler not MANGLE IT!"
"Oh, it's in the ReadMe. I know, 'cause I've read the ReadMe. I could read the ReadMe TO YOU if you'd like."
"Now before you start THINKIN'..."
|
I don't mean to be critical. I just think they're funny. |
| Sunday, August 24th, 2008 |
| 12:16 pm |
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| Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 |
| 7:36 am |
I really don't understand people sometimes. I was at the café and I ordered a bagel:| |
Guy Behind The Counter (G.B.T.C.):
Would you like me to toast that for you?
Me:
Oh, I thought customers usually toast them themselves here.
G.B.T.C.:
Usually they just throw them in the microwave.
Me:
They microwave a bagel??!!
G.B.T.C.:
Yeah.
Me:
But isn't there a toaster sitting right there? (pointing)
G.B.T.C.:
No. Just a microwave... and a toaster. | 
Image stolen randomly off the web - but it is cute, isn't it, ( and appropriate ) |
(He either does deadpan well or he actually thought that made sense.)
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| Saturday, April 12th, 2008 |
| 4:17 pm |
Newt Village pool opens tomorrow (Sunday)
The pool is clean and warm.
Projected water temperature: 80°F
Because we're in the trees, the pool is shaded by about 3:30PM, so show up early.
|  |
As always, the pool rules are:
1. No glass near the pool
2. If you show up when nobody's home, bring your own towel.
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| Thursday, March 6th, 2008 |
| 4:41 am |
I'm not going to say what this is, except that it's the output from a program I've been working on. I just put it here because I like the way it looks. | |
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| Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 |
| 12:42 pm |
Bye, bye bedroom...
 I'm posting this picture of my bedroom to say "goodbye". I thought it looked quite beautiful like this and a number of people commented that they felt the same way. I enjoyed it like that for several years, but now I feel like I need a change. As of today, my bedroom no longer looks like it does in this picture. Actually right now, the bed has no sheets on it, the pictures are crooked on the walls and tangles of electrical cables are strewn about the floor. But with any luck my second vision for this room will be just as beautiful as my first. Unfortunately it won't be done today. In fact I estimate two months before my full vision comes to fruition - but hopefully sooner. |
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