Impetus Lost

Color at the End of this Tunnel

2012-01-30T15:53:00.000-06:00

fireworks, anyone?

I started this game several years ago. It got interrupted by several things, such as work, moving, getting licensed, finishing another game started previously, moving again, new job, moving again ... You get the picture.

So it's down to the music. I could still refine the UI experience a hundred more times, but I think I just need to get this project done while the time (and winter) is here. And nothing but the music stands in my way. Too bad my piano's 4,000 miles away. Where are you, Live? Actually, I've already started to to take samples and clips from inudge and assemble them in Live with some midi instruments and effects. So far, so good.

A 2012 release appears likely. Heh.

Photography Poster

2012-01-24T06:28:00.004-06:00

Infographics

2012-01-23T07:02:00.001-06:00

Skills

2012-01-05T07:54:00.001-06:00

Just got this in my inbox:

Am I playing The Sims? Some sort of RPG? When did real life become a character sheet stat builder?

Privacy

2011-12-11T04:31:00.001-06:00

Maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but I've been trying to pay more attention to the app permission requests now flooding phones and laptops. For example, I was going to install Amazon's Wishlist Browser Button, but was informed by Chrome that it needs permission to access all my "data on all websites."

What scares me (besides the fact that Google knows everything about me) is the horde of people out there installing these sorts of apps, giving full legal permission to a company like Amazon to look over their shoulder as they read their bank statements and compose personal emails.

Meanwhile, phone carriers actively monitor their user's keystrokes. Okay, so there may be not "threat" to security or privacy there, but I'm sure there's certain concern brewing.

I'm a huge fan of Pandora (sadly not available outside the US), but raised an eyebrow when their app wanted access to all of my contacts. On one hand, playing radio does not require knowing who my friends are. On the other hand, this is probably a large part of why Pandora is still free to use because they can sell this info to third parties, which they certainly do.

So here I am, questioning my new friends, Google, Amazon, and probably a slew of nameless demographic analytics companies ("Consumer Recreation Services," heh). They likely know more about me than my closest friends and relatives. It's scary, but I'm an optimist that this will make my life more enjoyable. Someday. I just need to get over the paranoia and install that wishlist button...

Right Triangles && Integers

2011-12-09T05:34:00.001-06:00

Now that I'm in the world of creating exams, I find that it is helpful to keep as many integers involved as possible so that students don't get hung up on significant figures and rounding. In the end, more integers means easier grading.

Also, the problems (it's a statics class at the moment ... stupid pun) involve lots of right triangles, and one can use a 3-4-5 triangle only so many times before it becomes passé.

A little ruby spits out leg dimensions of uniquely proportioned right triangles with integer legs:

http://codepad.org/O43BQ0H0

(lookUp marks legs that are a multiple)

Output:

4 x 3
12 x 5
15 x 8
21 x 20
35 x 12
40 x 9
45 x 28
55 x 48
60 x 11
72 x 65
80 x 39
91 x 60
99 x 20
105 x 88
112 x 15
132 x 85      ***
140 x 51      ***
165 x 52
168 x 95
180 x 19
195 x 28

Lightroom Backups

2011-11-26T07:21:00.001-06:00

I've been using Adobe's Lightroom 3 for a few months now, and due to my limited laptop hard drive space, I need to start seriously learning backup options. I'm working with JPG / NEF pairs ("side cars" if I have my LR terminology down). A few things I've learned:

Lightroom keeps all edits and metadata changes in its own catalog stashed somewhere out of sight
You can choose "Save Metadata" on a folder in LR, which will output in the same folder an XMP file with all the metadata of all images

Note: this does not save the metadata to the originals in order to avoid file corruptions
So it's really just a means to move / copy / apply metadata to files via LR's catalog

There are a series of "Publish" options for sending images to Facebook, Flickr, hard drives, etc. But this feels more like, well, a publishing feature and not a backup feature.

Because I want to backup a folder with edits, metadata, and original files, the proper choice seems to be "Export this Folder as Catalog..." This creates a new folder that contains copies of all the above: edits, metadata, and original files. Once this is done, I send these exported folders for typical backup.

Stormy Chicago Night

2011-10-10T06:11:00.001-05:00

Over this past summer we had a wild storm roll over Chicago. It hit while I was on the train, and I realized that it would be leaving just as I arrived home. Upon arrival I ran inside, grabbed my camera and tripod, and headed up to the roof.

Lesson learned: long exposures are very difficult with gusty winds. In the end, I did not capture as much lightning as I had wanted, but a composite still looks cool:

American Prosperity

2011-09-12T02:19:00.002-05:00

Unicode + PHP = Headaches

2011-01-31T15:45:00.000-06:00

After plenty of googling, I have managed to get my company's web server to throw out properly-encoded Chinese characters from our database.

First, we're using MS SQL Server 2005 to store our information, so the text field(s) to be holding Unicode characters need to have a "N" (national) data type. For this case, I used "ntext". (As an aside, I believe MS is/has deprecated this data type and now wants nvarchar(max) or something equivalent.)

This allowed the front end client to enter Chinese characters into the database.

Then back to serving pages, I immediately ran into problems retrieving the selection set through PHP:

Warning: mssql_query() [function.mssql-query]: message: Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier. (severity 16) in...

I determined that our web server was using a FreeTDS library and updated freetds.conf to use tds version 8.0 instead of 4.2 for global settings. (The file on our system was located in /etc/freetds/)

With that done, I could at least get the text out of the database, but PHP was still treating / serving it as single-byte encoded. The final settings tweak was to set the mssql character set. Before establishing any connection. I do this, so:

ini_set('mssql.charset', 'UTF-8');

This finally establishes a flow of characters from database to browser that are Unicode encoded.

EVO 4G: Speed Tweak

2011-01-24T11:12:00.000-06:00

I came across this thread, which suggested some changes on a rooted EVO 4G to increase typical 3G speeds. Here are my quick results:

I was testing from my work desk, which is nested in a massive concrete warehouse building located on the west side of River North in Chicago. Said another way, I was testing from a bad location for signal and speed. (Yeah, that screen shot was not from my phone...)

I also restarted the phone for each series of tests. Each series was a run of 15 download / upload tests via speedtest.net's app, which automatically chose a close server ( sadly, I don't remember if it grabbed a Chicago server or not ).

Also, in addition to resetting the HTTP settings, I also did the same for the RTSP settings. I couldn't say whether this affects the speed tests.

Naturally, you can see, this is anything but scientific:

So, the tweak resulted in a suggested 41% increase in download speed, but a 30% decrease in upload. Meanwhile, the down / up standard deviation decreased by 32% and 40% respectively.

It seems that my phone will now download a lot faster with much more consistency, but will upload slower with the same consistency. Ultimately, better downs with overall more consistent connections sounds great to me!

Random Numbers

2010-11-29T14:46:00.002-06:00

I never took a statistics class, but this just occurred to me:

If R is a random number between 0 and 1, then the average value of R taken to the power of N is the inverse of N+1;

EVO 4G: First Impressions

2010-11-10T16:45:00.000-06:00

Having been an iPhone user for 2+ years, many of my comments will occasionally refer to that new iPhone thinger that all the cool kids are sporting. Kids, like the guys over at Engadget who seem to keep a decent perspective with the insane pace of the phone industry. In order to help my own perspective, I have read their articles, specifically: a review of the EVO 4G, and a comparison between the EVO 4G and the iPhone 4, which confoundedly ends with "follow your heart." Maybe I should be more emotionally attached to my electronics...

With all that said, here are my first impressions of the EVO 4G:

Beautiful screen, and considering I'll be staring at this, like, all the time, it's a good thing.
A bit heavier and obviously bigger than my iPhone 3G, but not in a bad way.
Won't that protruding camera lens get scratched up?
The power button is a bit difficult to press because of the way the phone's edge profile is shaped with respect to the button.
The UI is slightly more sluggish than I was hoping, but I'd still label it "very fast."
After a quick login to Google, everything was automagically synced: contacts, gmail, calendars (even the shared ones). Could not ask for more.

My Hungover iPhone

2010-11-03T17:47:00.000-05:00

It's actually not me that's hungover. It's my phone. Here's my theory: Apple released iOS v3 and it was so splendiferously good that my phone secretly went on a drinking binge. By the time iOS 4 came out, the phone had had enough with the bottle and simply fell into a nasty hangover.

Search speeds, browsing speeds, even navigating the freaking settings was slow. The phone that had once been so snappy was now a sluggish beast that could barely manage playing an mp3 whilst placing a "Q" tile on the board in Words with Friends.

And I'm not even going to bitch about AT&T's network "service."

My point here is to provide a little back-story to why I want to move away from my current phone. AT&T is less than admirable (text costs), their connections are spotty and drain my battery quickly in Chicago, Apple has bloated my iPhone 3G and provides me no way to make it lean and mean again, and I have a slight desire to do more phone-tweaking (read: root).

And a switch to Sprint's EVO 4G = cheaper monthly cost (we'll see about that) + a phone with more features + allegedly a faster network. Oh, and they offered a 30-day return policy. I was sold, and so the testing begins.

Reward: EVO 4G

2010-11-03T17:24:00.001-05:00

I wrapped up taking (again) the SE II exam here in Illinois on Saturday. Naturally, one must reward oneself for such a thing, so I went and did what any respectable geek should do in such a situation: buy an EVO 4G. You know, that one phone that is the first to make sliced bread, the wheel, and will babysit your kids:

I searched high and low for a decent EVO 4G review for Chicago, and barely one was found. So, granted it's late to the show, I plan to leave a few remarks, comments, and maybe even a video over the next 28 days as I "test drive" the phone (before I need to return it, if so decided).

The EVO Test Drive continues...

Thoughts, In-Out

2010-08-12T13:37:00.002-05:00

in: afternoon coffee
out: morning coffee

in: capitalizing sentences
Out: "definitely", "literally"

In: "presume"
Out: "assume"

In: Dominion
Out: MtG

In: Revit
Out: AutoCAD

In: mortgage rates under 5%
Out: rates over 5%

Y'another iPhone (or a Bit on Hi-Res Displays)

2010-06-08T09:13:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Apple, for still making impressive improvements on your devices and software. Meanwhile, back here in reality, we'll all continue suffering through AT&T's contemptible service.

With that out of my system, I wanted to blab a bit about Apple's "retina display." Besides being a brow-raising brand, it does embody what's so awesome behind the display. At 326 pixels per inch, it opens the doors for unique human/computer interaction. Magazines, brochures, and just about anything that's printed and viewed from one's hands uses a printing resolution of around 300 dots per inch. One can deduct that Apple's new display thus offers a viewing experience on par with the printed world.

What's so cool about this? Digital ink, as they call it. I know Steve thinks any sort of interface between a human and computer that uses a "stylus" equals failure. (He may want to reconnect with Apple's huge following of creative professionals.) To this day I would never have suggested that digital pens would make a good input device, solely because of our displays' resolutions. Digital ink fails from the start if a person can differentiate the pixels. But with a display at Apple's RD's 326 ppi, we can draw digital lines and curves, and paint with brushes and colors at arm's length without the distraction of zooming, pixels, or resolution. A wall is being torn down between creative professionals and being productive.

Of course, the iPhone is still just a 3.5" screen, so that in itself is a barrier. But it won't be long before Apple will offer these displays at workable sizes.

I come from a heavy architectural background, which stemmed into my current occupation as a structural engineer. We work daily with line drawings. Back in the printed world, line drawings need to be kept vector to be printed well. Rasterized, such drawings need to hit 600 or higher dpi to keep the human eye happy with what it sees printed. However, we continually need to convey information to the rest of a design team: the architects, the structural engineers, the mechanical engineers, the contractors, the owners, the developers, and the multitude of sub-consultants for a project. This industry has been slow to acclimate to a digital world when it comes to coordination and sharing information. One of the barriers here has been the process of marking up drawings. For several reasons, it's still usually best to print a drawing, mark it up with good ol' real-life pens and pencils, scan the thing back in, then email it away. With a display at 326 ppi matching at least a letter-sized page (8.5" x 11"), the process of sharing information on drawings could be drastically more efficient, clearer, and faster. Give me a display hitting 11"x17", and we're getting gold.

So, Apple: When can we see your spiffy Retina Display at something larger than pocket-sized?

styles, publishing

2010-04-30T10:59:00.000-05:00

I've been doing more and more InDesign layouts at work for our architect clients. We often assemble these for the same architects, who do send us "templates." Unfortunately, these templates have formatting styles spottily applied and often existing with overrides, so on the last project, I spent a decent chunk of time to define my own cleaned up, reliable styles.

I won't claim to be an InDesign expert, so I ran into a new task today: grabbing the styles from the last document. It being an Adobe product, I believed it might be a simple copy-paste job similar to Photoshop layer styles, but it's a bit different in InDesign. You essentially have to "import" the styles from the other doc. From either of styles palette menus, clicking on "Load Character/Paragraph Styles..." lets you do this. It's quite straight forward from there on out.

Now this got me thinking about WYSIWYG editors and how the latest version of Word has made Styles a much more obvious tool to users. Unfortunately, I'd bet that the majority of people still have no idea how to use them properly. I would suggest that part of the problem is that the separation between content and styling doesn't fit the mold of a wysiwyg editor, and is better understood through a typesetting software such as LaTeX. But writing in that looks like scary code...

These are just random thoughts of the moment. I've heard rumor that I might be sharing my InDesign knowledge within my office, a scary thought; teaching InDesign to engineers... I wonder if an approach focusing on the separation of styles and content might be of interest to such an audience.

javascript back

2010-02-08T11:00:00.001-06:00

Another little note to myself in the future: despite what w3schools says, history.back() is not the same as history.go(-1). Now, I don't know what the standards say, but the behavior of these two is different in the following way (at least in IE at the moment).

history.back() seems to return the previous page, but adds it as a 'new' page to the history. This means, that if every page on a site has a link for history.back(), the user will simply bounce between two pages, never actually going back through the history.

history.go(-1) seems to behave just like the back button of the browser: it moves the pointer of the current page back one in the history.

giving aid to Haiti

2010-01-28T08:41:00.001-06:00

Food for thought:

And there's more to this data. And the full image.

hexcelle: 100k plays

2009-10-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

Heh, who'd've known? My little Flash game, Hexcelle, hit 100,000 plays today on Kongregate. I just might have to follow it up with a sequel...

Loaders

2009-10-28T16:51:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make a note to myself for the next time I pull my hair out for too long hunting down this ... bug?

In short, after a Loader object has completed loading, references to its DisplayObject content as well as its LoaderInfo content are not reliable. I found that occasionally simply using the Loader class as the DisplayObject to add to the display list was inconsistent, too.

For now, I'm finding that saving references to the Complete Event's currentTarget.content is the most reliable choice for accessing the loaded content.

finding the farm

2009-08-20T11:10:00.004-05:00

I've been playing with Adobe's Flickr library (link), and have been stumped in locating how to pull a pic's static farm id from a person's public photos list.

After too much time googling, searching, and reading documentation, I finally weeded thru the source to discover the library simply fails to record the farm id retrieved from flickr. Oops.

I have updated two of the Actionscript files to correct this:
http://adam.gimpert.com/docs/farmfix.zip

Two things needed to be added:
1. The Photo class needed a new property (farm), and
2. The parsePagedPhotoList method in MethodGroupHelper needed to record the farm id from each photo's xml.

Now I can build photos' static urls. Yay.

Lollapalooza 2009 Thoughts

2009-08-10T13:28:00.006-05:00

Before I completely forget the fest...

Ben Folds - Still wonderfully talented, great tongue-in-cheek, funny, nerdy, rocks a piano. What's there not to love?

Thievery Corporation - Groovy music, good group deal goin on, and a dude jamming on a sitar. Good fun.

Of Montreal - Strange, bizarre, a bit disturbing stage acting, yet the music was thumping. Worth seeing and dancing.

Depeche Mode - Classic, but their music is showing its age. I wish they had more anthems. And what was with the boring sphere visuals? I can't help but feel they could do better.

Gomez - Great jams. Good listening.

Arctic Monkeys - I have a soft spot for these guys. The show was a lot of fun, but I think they could up the stage presence.

Santigold - Only listened because my legs were failing me at this point. This is a fresh sound, and was totally welcome.

TV on the Radio - From where I was in the crowd, these guys sounded like a high school garage band playing thru a rubber tube. I later heard that the sound on my side of the crowd was "bad" due to breaking speakers... I haven't given up on these guys, yet.

Tool - Still amazing. They rock their formula with expert precision. But I kinda wish their formula was a bit broader. The visuals are always a treat.

Bat for Lashes - Another fresh sound, and how can you not dig a female drummer? Oh, and the leotard was kickass.

Kaiser Chiefs - Probably my biggest surprise of the weekend. These guys know how to rock a live show, and their songs are great and lasting.

Vampire Weekend - Yep. Just what I was expecting: preppy boys riding a big-ass popularity wave. I hope they have the chops to churn out another great album.

Snoop Dogg - Digested the first few songs. That was sufficient. I was a bit surprised how his/their songs have lost all original context. It's a new generation, I guess.

Silversun Pickups - A bit too whiny. I would have a hard time listening to a lot of these guys. But in small doses, it's worth every aural second.

The Killers - So many great songs. I didn't know the singer was such a pretty boy. They actually made me want to seek out the albums I don't already have. The crowd was so pumped, lots of dancing, all energy was spent. It was a perfect way to end the weekend.

hexcelle and looking ahead

2009-08-06T08:46:00.004-05:00

I was inspired by a game on Kongregate called Bubbletanks 2. I found it to be very simple, fun, and full of potential, but it fell short and remained a dumbed game. However, it's still one of my favorites on the gaming site.

So I set off early this spring to experiment with some cell evolution simulations in Flash. This evolved into a little demo, which developed into a small addiction that I needed to complete by the 1st of August. A week ago today, on the 30th of July, I posted the results of this project here. Hexcelle (short for hexagon cell evolution) is an online 2d flash shooter / builder.

In a week's time, I've been surprised that the game was so well received. As of this writing, it's been played over 35,000 times and even gets a decent rating despite all the lurking bugs. I am more than satisfied.

Looking ahead, I now focus on two exams: the first is the Fundamentals of Engineering, which I'll take in October. This is an "easy" exam that most engineering students take in college. However, I -- with a relatively untechnical background in architecture -- am at a disadvantage. I get to spend the next several weeks reviewing calculus, limits, electronics, physics, chemistry, and who-knows-what-else. The second exam will be in April, and that shall be for licensure as a Structural Engineer in Illinois. I plan to take a review course for that one over the winter.

And that's a quick update on me. Lollapalooza is this weekend - should be awesome.

And here's a crazy video someone took of Hexcelle's gameplay:

Bones and Concrete

2009-05-07T08:43:00.000-05:00

Bone is built of two basic components: flexible fibers of collagen and brittle chains of the calcium-rich mineral hydroxyapatite. But those relatively simple ingredients, the springy and the salty, are woven together into such a complex cat’s cradle of interdigitating layers that the result is an engineering masterpiece of tensile, compressive and elastic strength...

Bone also has a crack repair team, in every sense of the word: osteoclast cells that dig around the cracks, using acids to wipe away the old matrix, and osteoblast cells that migrate in and secrete fresh spacklings of bone.

Read it.

In the lab, self-healed specimens recovered most if not all of their original strength after researchers subjected them to a 3 percent strain—enough to severely deform metal or catastrophically fracture traditional concrete. Traditional concrete fractures and can’t carry a load at .01 percent strain.

Read it.

better building business in the future?

2009-04-13T16:53:00.001-05:00

Graphs from AIA, for actual words and stuff: archrecord.

BumpTop

2009-04-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

I've been enticed by the prospects of 3d environments for every-day workflow efficiency. A while back I saw the preview for BumpTop, and today the program has left beta for the public's consumption. So, of course, I grabbed it and am giving it a go as we speak. I thought I'd leave a few of my comments (from a perspective of work efficiency).

First, it's fun to play with. Second, the fun wears off, real quick. So what's left:

1. Different sized icons. You can shrink and grow icons of files and piles as you like. This is probably the most beneficial aspect of the program I've found, as it gives me a quick and easy way to visually organize my files beyond the constraints of the desktop's two dimensions.

2. Piles. A quick and convenient way to pile up a bunch of files, so they don't take up so much visual space. Unfortunately, piles do nothing more than normal folders do - or at least, I haven't found such a function. When you view a pile of piles, you see all the files in all the piles. Not very helpful for organizing (why wouldn't I just make a big ol' pile in the first place?). Althought it would mess with the physical metaphors being used, keyword piles would be helpful, where a single file can be part of multiple piles sorted by keyword.

3. Gestures. Probably another best-of feature. Love the pie menus. Circle a bunch of files to make actions on them, such as pile by type. When viewing images, drag to the left or right to navigate between images, etc. BumpTop also uses drag-n-drop features, such as dragging files onto the email icon to automatically attach them to an email. You can also drag icons onto walls, but I find that every time you click them or double-click them, the slide down the wall. A bit annoying.

4. Photo frames. Who cares? If I want a cool way to view images, I'll use a real image-viewer. However, if you want a constant distraction, you can set up a photo frame to cycle thru pics from a folder or rss feed. Neat?

5. Facebook and Twitter icons. At first I thought these were just dumb links. They're actually "widgets" to which you can throw or drop files such as pictures to share them via each service. Slick.

9. Physics and 3d: I find the physics to be a bit clunky, but I think that's more a matter of me getting used to the gestures (such as a 'throwing' a file towards a pile to add it to that pile). I have noticed that larger objects are more difficult to move - I'm anxious to see if this helps organize tons of files or not. I think the 3d aspect is one of the stronger aspects of the program. This allows users to spatially attribute organizational control to many more files than a simple 2-D desktop.

Conclusions: I've always avoided using the desktop as ... well, a desktop because Windows offers such crap options for the way to view it and organize it. Therefore, I always stick my working files in a folder (aptly named, "Working") so I can view by list or details or what have you. BumpTop offers a fun way to keep all my working files in one location, so I'll be giving it a try. The extent of its usefullness will be determined in the future.

Wish list:
- Keyword piles
- Make one of the walls a browser
- Keep your metaphors consistent: piles of piles should be piles of piles.
- A way to view details of files as well as sort and search by them

modern art

2009-04-08T08:12:00.001-05:00

big spending

2009-04-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

I read this economist's posts, and today's has some scary graphs about projected government spending.

http://www.thredgold.com/html/leaf090401.html

I Just Twoted All Over the Place

2009-03-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

Twitter, explained:

bloody fun

2009-03-16T12:55:00.000-05:00

A bit sick and twisted, but silly fun:

Play free games at Kongregate

fish moment of zen

2009-03-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

Gimme back that filet-o-fish
Gimme that fish
Gimme back that filet-o-fish
Gimme that fish
What if it were you
hanging up on this wall?
If it were you in that sandwich
you wouldn’t be laughing at all!

This song gets in my head like nothing else. And it makes me laugh every time. And, amazingly, make me kinda want to go out a buy a fillet - o - "fish."

arch.unemployed

2009-03-10T08:22:00.000-05:00

"There it sits among the produce and fish, amid sellers of honey and jewelry and pastry in the Ballard Sunday farmers market. Simple and unadorned, it reads like a wry joke -- except maybe to anxious students in the University of Washington's Gould Hall."

Crisis of Credit

2009-03-06T09:09:00.000-06:00

Saw this shared this morning (thanks, Mark!):

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

level 3

2009-02-18T15:50:00.001-06:00

level 3
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I gained enough experience at work today to level up again.

Level 3 engineering geek.

Happy V-Day!

2009-02-13T11:28:00.001-06:00

it's been a while

2009-02-11T19:16:00.001-06:00

Wow, it's been a while. That's what happens when the holidays hit, and then I just check out of reality for a while. I suppose a trip to Colorado, and a subsequent one to Cairo don't help.

So a quick update on things new: I've been indoor rock climbing several times now - enough, I believe, to call myself a beginner instead of just some lame ass on the wall. The economy has affected even my side projects, canceling a website project I was ramping up to do. The bright side of this: I've redone the koasynth site because I had some time, and I was sick of the flash placeholder that had been there for almost two years. My day work is still solid, though the number of projects has slowed dramatically, leaving some days a bit longer than they should be.

I'm still flabbergasted at how differently browsers render sites, still. It's frakin 2009, and still they can't settle on a standard that they all follow correctly? Amazing.

And speaking of frak, BSG has nearly gone off the deep end. It's now the 'Weekly Kill Show.' Yet still entertaining...

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T17:32:00.000-06:00

Or "Happy Holidays" if I'm to be politically correct. So Schuba's is on the list for tonight to see an old high school acquaintance that happens to be a friend of my girlfriend play with his band. Should be a fun time and a good way to kick-off my holiday break.

I'm still not done with gifts. 30 hours until Christmas and I've got one Amazon order trickling in, a few more to wrap, and they all need to get from Chicago to Elgin tomorrow in a wonderful snow/rain storm. I can't wait. Actually, I'm way ahead of schedule compared to my norm for the holiday season. Looks like I won't be up til the small hours tomorrow night. Sweet. Sleep.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Enjoy what warmth you find in family, friends, and bottles of joy.

And if you need some lewd humor from a few years ago:

chi-city

2008-12-15T19:05:00.001-06:00

chi-city
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

Friday night was my company's holiday party. It was a festive evening up on the 95th floor of the Hancock tower downtown. The view was incredible, and I did my best with some long exposures and a steadied camera next to a frozen window mullion.

superintendent's words

2008-12-10T09:33:00.000-06:00

Fell into my inbox this morning: An email with quotes from "a central-casting superintendent of the old school." The words belong to Jim Roosa, who passed away November 6, 2008. As the email's author says, "look past the 'construction language' and enjoy."

1. I’d rather be the only girl on a Greek freighter than sit in that meeting
2. He wouldn’t say XXXX if he had a mouth full of it
3. Run a job? He couldn’t organize a one car funeral
4. He’s slower then the second coming
5. It’s like killing chickens, there really is no clean way to do it
6. He’s stuck in my neck like a chicken bone. Can’t swallow him and can’t spit him out.
7. It’s so messed up it stands out like a XXXX-house in a fog.
8. He doesn’t have enough common sense to know to get out of the rain.
9. If I tell you it’s Easter, you better start looking for Easter eggs.
10. If I go in there without knowing the answers, they will be looking at me like a bug in a jar.
11. Hey what’s done is done, you can’t put XXXX back in the donkey (credits to Tony Soprano)
12. They are so stupid they would XXXX up a free lunch.
13. He doesn’t know if it’s raining or Thursday.
14. I’ll be watching you like a chicken hawk
15. If he were a gazelle on the Serengeti he would have been eaten by now.
16. They want us to track every bolt. Next thing you know we'll be counting light bulbs. It's like picking fly sh#% out of pepper.
17. He doesn’t know sh#% from Shinola
18. Let me tell you something, I ain’t as dumb as you look
19. The moron couldn’t put together a two camel caravan
20. If I tell you it’s Christmas you’d better start singing me Silent Night
21. Why don’t you just go back to the office and count some more paperclips, pretty boy?
22. Drawings? You can roll up those drawings real tight and stick them up where the sun don’t shine.
23. You’d better square up you’re a$$ and start XXXXing me Tiffany cufflinks (borrowed from Full Metal Jacket/ Sgt. Hartman, but used often)
24. He’s just an office rat, you know, a Wall Street Journal in one hand and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the other
25. Hey, you, how come I’m talking and I don’t see pencils moving! (from a subs’ meeting)
26. Your extra tickets? Yes I got them, they are going through the shredder as we speak.
27. How ‘bout I sign your extra tickets as “Abraham Lincoln”
28. Shut up. When I want your opinion I’ll give it to you.
29. If it can’t kill you it ain’t construction
30. Do I have to get an Act of Congress or call George Bush to get you off your lazy a$$?
31. Get out of the trailer and knock on the door first
32. He’s a real BS artist, can talk his way out of a traffic jam
33. Think about how many mouse-clickers we can fit on this floor
34. I’m gonna go out there and stir up some XXXX just for the heck of it. Keep’em on their toes.
35. Watch your step buddy, I got a caisson with your name on it.
36. Did I tell you about the job that burned down to the ground in Cleveland in 1961? That’s not in the corporate brochure.
37. Make sure you don’t lose (insert name of an Executive Vice President) in the building
38. And tell him not to wear his Gucci slippers when he comes to my jobsite.
39. I don’t give a XXXX how you did it at (insert name of another superintendent’s job)
40. Sometimes I think he screws things up just because he can’t stand prosperity
41. Cheap SOB’s – they’d take the low bid if it was from Charles Manson
42. I remember him well, used to take his lunch money in grade school
43. Laptop? You won’t be needing a laptop. You won’t be spending much time in the trailer. Better go buy some thermal underwear.
44. Not much you can do with him. All you can do is give him a map and a ham sandwich and send him on his way.
45. If you can draw it up on your funny paper, I can build it.
46. If you have to talk, make it real quick. One word or less.

brain dump

2008-12-08T21:14:00.000-06:00

I should do this more often, but I'm trying to force my brain to excrete what it likes to think about. Easier said than done... This was a stream-of-consciousness thing, so please excuse the typos.

'architectural digital technology'

understanding computers
ones and zeroes
moore's law - when will it end?
affect of digital on the world's economy
efficiency, collaboration
breaking borders, geography no longer matters
work in a cube
your computer is your new home
spatiality of the digital world
spatial metaphors
information is wealth more than ever
common appreciation for design
apple, microsoft, google, yahoo, facebook
visualiziaton
communication
conceptualization
2d vs 3d vs 4d
mathematics of rendering
turning reality into numbers
blue pill, red pill, the matrix
virtually boundless capacity for storing information
grid computing
the cloud
capacity for computing continues to be pushed
push for hardware
push for software
hardware vs software
building design
building information modelling
why are computers still dumb?
color spaces, gamuts, the human eye
input devices - keyboard, mouse, voice, motion
display devices - crts, lcds, olcds, projectors
device size and its effect on workflows
contant communication
digital addiction
virtual communicative workspaces - message boards, wikis, email, chats
applicability of architectural design to the digital realm
human beings existing in a 2d world
dehumanization
evolution
permanence of digital information and spatiality
ease of 3d design - sketchup, modelling, shaping, molding
mathematics and geometry of digital modelling - polygons, faces, curves, nurbs, vertices, vectors
visualizing information - radiohead's house of cards
edward tufte
resolution - printed, screen, rods and cones
video game generation - comfort and familiarity with 3d
native and intuitive interfaces
the layer metaphor
sketch, talk, model, render, revise, repeat
copyrights and intellectual property - clinging on to 20th c. reality
architects are designers of space - this can be applied to just about anything
pragmatic thinking in a digital world

Electronic Waste

2008-11-17T13:00:00.000-06:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

flu shots

2008-10-28T09:35:00.000-05:00

I know fall is here because I cannot go anywhere without an ad, billboard, or email reminding me to get my flu shot. I've been joking a lot with friends about absurd conspiracy theories behind the shots (that they allow the government to track everyone... heh), so I figured I'd throw a few minutes into some internet "research" this morning.

The American authority on this matter are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I also referenced a bit of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

About 10-20% of Americans get the flu virus each year.
The flu shot prevents influenza for 70-90% healthy adults under 65 years old, 30-70% of those over 65.

Okay, fine n dandy. What gets icky about these vaccinations is when the CDC touts that "the flu causes" 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations annually. These deaths are based on statistical models, not on real, recorded deaths. I'm an engineer and love numbers, but I also realize these numbers are recorded by people, and if you look for real numbers of recorded deaths directly attributable to flu, it's difficult to find stats of more than 1000 in a year.

What the CDC does is lump flu with pneumonia for its statistics, and sometimes the data is even more general as "respiratory illness." For instance, here's the 07-08 summary.

90% of deaths and 63% of hospitalizations due to flu / pneumonia occur for those over 65 years old (source).

What remains unclear from my brief research is the link between flu and pneumonia because the CDC simply states "flu can lead to pneumonia." This excerpt with CDC sources shows that of the 62,034 deaths from flu/pneumonia in 2001, only 0.4% were from the flu.

Think about that. How many of those 0.4% led to the other 99.6% of deaths - the link that the CDC suggests? Were those 99.6% bacterial or viral pneumonia? If anyone can find this data, please share.

Peter Doshi, while a Harvard graduate student, wrote a nice review on this topic, which was posted in the British Medical Journal.

My conclusion, before I get into conspiracy theory: consider a pneumonia and a flu vaccine.

I tend to believe in the evils of money - not that people singlehandedly have malicious intentions, but where machinations can be obscured in groups, data, and collective-thinking, it seems to be easy for things to go awry. Consider our present financial crisis...

The flu vaccine is given about 80 million times annually in the US. From my own rough sampling, these cost about $20 each. That's $1.6 billion. Each year. Contrast this with about $30 for a pneumonia vaccine, but consider that these last up to 10 years. That's potentially only $240 million per year. Not quite as lucrative... 15% as lucrative.

My final comment: Vaccines are good. I'm glad we have science that can provide these wonders. Just please be aware of how they are being used.

And if you want more controversy, mercury.

TV cards

2008-10-21T08:49:00.000-05:00

Thought these were pretty funny:

http://glark.org/truthful-tv-title-cards/

day 3

2008-10-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

I'm on my third day of being part of the iphone elite. Psh!

This iphone thing is probably the coolest gadget I have ever used:

I downloaded the Laundry app, which when I run it, not only does my laundry, but also separates the darks from the whites from the colors. Yesterday, I grabbed the Maid app, which has this funny character that reminds me of Rosie from the Jetsons, but she left my shower as clean as the day I bought it. My favorite app, tho, is the Wolfgang Puck app, which made me a fantastic steak and lobster dinner last night.

But I think I'm getting the most cred for the RPN Calculator app. It's definitely the best way to make your engineering cohorts go "Ooooooo."

And, Dad, yes, the thing can even make a phone call. I just wish I could have gotten it in lime green...

Randomness I miss

2008-10-08T23:52:00.000-05:00

Rainy days seem to make some memories return. I happened upon some old old rusty and dust-covered writing I had done from back in the day when I was much more hippie and much more hopelessly romantic. But time helps fade that away.

I miss summer evenings on a hammock. Laughing til I cry at late night television. Walking aroung campus soaked in warm rain. I kinda even miss feeling blissfully ignorant of what the real world's all about.

But back to reality. It's fun to think about what is and what could have been.

vote

2008-10-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

cute:

photos n MPs

2008-09-30T16:43:00.000-05:00

Digital cameras have always used megapixels as a primary statistic for marketing. It's been a good one. It's a simple number that represents how many million pixels can be recorded per photograph. But as MPs get higher and higher, their change in value decreases.

So I put together this chart to show how much height of a printed photograph (300 dpi) you'd get per megapixel for a 4:3 ratio image:

When cameras used to sell with lower MPs (2-5 MP), the difference was significant. Nowadays, the difference is more constant per increase in MP.

Here's another, showing a photograph's height per MP. Keep in mind that you can double these heights (150 dpi) and still have a very good photograph.

I wanted to put these charts out here 1) because I was playing with Google's spreadsheet charts, and 2) to show that the average camera nowadays (I'll go out on a limb and guess it's around 7 MP) is more than enough to print big photos. Additionally, I'd like to further discount MPs' marketing privileges by pointing out that as MPs increase in cameras, the lenses are more or less staying the same: small and compact. Just because you're throwing more MPs behind the lens doesn't mean the lens is letting in better light.

gd

2008-09-25T16:22:00.001-05:00

Dear Rockbox, take a graphic design lesson from Apple. Your new looks are fun, but you can't read shit.

I downloaded this a few weeks ago and was plenty skeptical: Cooliris. It's surprisingly simple and feeds me lots of images and videos with minimal clicking and intuitive scrolling. Oh, and it looks cool, which is always a nice bonus.

A new laptop came my way a few weeks ago, and it's been treating me well. I'll probably do a mini review of it when I get a chance and want to record my thoughts in that department.

Anyone have any news on 32gb iPhones?

internet speed

2008-08-26T23:18:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm missing something, but shouldn't these numbers be the other way around if I'm at home?

A Few Good Architects

2008-08-21T11:51:00.000-05:00

This came thru the email forwards...

Few Good Architects

One Act Play

Cast:

Architect: Tom Cruise

Engineer: Jack Nicholson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Engineer: You want answers?

Architect: I think I'm entitled to them.

Engineer: You want answers?!

Architect: I want the truth!

Engineer: You can't HANDLE the truth son; we live in a world that has beams, columns, and lintels. And those components have to be located in walls. Who's gonna design them? You? You, Mr. Architect? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

You weep for lost parking spaces and you curse the size of my truss girder. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know -- that those structural systems, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties; you want me on that design team. You need me on that design team. We use words like design, code, and analysis. We use these words as the backbone to a life spent providing owner comfort, safety, and efficiency. You use 'em as a punch-line at a party.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain my design to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very environment that I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said 'thank you' and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a Risa-3d and design a building system. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Architect: Did you oversize the columns on the east wall?

Engineer (quietly): I did the job you hired me to do.

Architect: Did you oversize columns on the east wall?!!

Engineer: You're damn right I did!

flash: bezier curve point

2008-08-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

A bit of actionscript to interpolate a point at location 0<=i<=1 along a bezier curve defined by an array of control points, cPoints, of Points (from the flash.geom package):

function getBezierPoint(cPoints:Array, i:Number):Point {
if (cPoints.length > 2) {
var subCPoints:Array = new Array();
for (var j:Number = 0; j < cPoints.length - 1; j++) {
subCPoints.push(Point.interpolate(cPoints[j], cPoints[j+1], 1-i));
}
return getBezierPoint(subCPoints, i);
} else {
return Point.interpolate(cPoints[0], cPoints[1], 1-i);
}
}

Flash probably has this sort of function built in, but oh well, it's done =)

Lolla's Over

2008-08-04T00:02:00.001-05:00

Before I crash for the night, I wanted to share one of my favorite moments of the weekend:

Lollapalooza 2008

2008-08-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

Lolla is happening. My legs haven't felt this kind of exhaustion in ages.

Here's a set of Lolla pics I'll update over the weekend:

Adam's Lolla 08, or as a feed.

My immediate reactions:
- Holy Fuck rocks
- The Enemy (UK) has some good potential (super young band)
- Gogol Bordello is as amazing live as recorded (come on! punk gypsy!)
- Bloc Party was a bit underwhelming (I saw them a while ago at the Congress, and that show was fantastic).
- Radiohead... well, it's Radiohead. With fireworks (I'll link this later).
- Oh, and CSS is as bizarre as expected.

check in

2008-07-26T08:51:00.000-05:00

Since I'm sitting on my ass in a coffeehouse, waiting for a conference call to commence, I thought I'd share a few random links:

gorgeous photos of fighting wildfires

shadow typography: awesome idea!

And George, frozen in carbonite... hm.

spore creature creator

2008-06-17T08:58:00.000-05:00

It's been years since I first read about Spore. I downloaded a few videos of the game in action. I saw Will Wright talk about the new game and how he saw it to be revolutionary. It was enough to excite the geek in me.

The game is to be released this fall (September 7th, to be exact), but today the demo version of the creature creator is available for free download. Clive Thompson for Wired has a nice little hats-off to the game. I'll have to wait until tonight to try it out. Work comes first... heh.

I'm fascinated by parametric modeling, music, texturing... anything really. And that's what this game employs (yes, even the music is at least somewhat parametrically generated).

For now, we just get to play with a very limited set of tools for the creatures.

canstruction

2008-06-05T12:48:00.001-05:00

canstruction
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I spent about 5 hours last night with coworkers and friends constructing a giant version of a Hungry Hungry Hippo made out of canned food. This is part of Canstruction, a national food charity by architects, engineers, and others in the building industry.

Links to pics over there -->

gang keynote

2008-06-04T13:32:00.000-05:00

So Jeanne Gang gave the keynote speech at UofI's latest architecture graduation. Of course, I'm no longer at the school, but I read the speech here.

I can't help but feel that students at their graduation, ready for their first jobs, don't need more people giving them misty-eyed interpretations of the field of architecture. Yet, that's what Ms. Gang does. However, I agree with her highlights of architecture education as a producer of multifaceted people.

My friend, an architect and graduate of the UofI added these comments:

[Architecture] is a practice (at least in America and to a lesser extent in Asia) that is dominated by the money driven developers... very few of us get to work on projects that are not. ...Architects will become saviors of our built environment once the greater population finally realizes just how important architecture is to our physiological well-being, and our built and ecological environments, and force the developers of this world to adjust to what the architects believe is right as opposed to what the dollar says is right... but in our culture of consumerism, common sense is way ahead of architecture at this point...

Architecture is truly under-appreciated in America. I hope someday that may turn around. Until then, I'll sit on the engineering side of the coin.

dreams of being a writer/producer

2008-05-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

So, I finally (about a year and half later) gathered a bunch of tracks of mine. Feel free to download: yeah you 2007.

flickr, java, ruby... [geek]

2008-05-13T23:02:00.001-05:00

Substrate
Originally uploaded by jared

So I was inspired (thanks, Ben) the other day by this snake. So I dug a bit deeper to find the original Processing java environment, and was immediately reminded of all the visualization intentions I had had a long time ago. Forward ahead a Sunday and two movies later (Hitman and Children of Men) and I had implemented a midi library to read signals from Ableton Live and my xboard, then display those visually thru Processing.

Today I managed to get a Ruby script to read my latest flickr post. This ruby wrapper for the flickr api is very simple to use, albeit far from complete. So now, combining the amazing powers of ruby and processing, I have a stupid li'l setup that gets live feeds from my flickr which get visualized and can be messed with in real time using midi signals from my controller and ableton live.

Next up: getting my wiimote hooked up to this mess. It's been a fun week.

cubs memories

2008-05-04T18:44:00.000-05:00

Thursday I said, "goodbye, work," slept in, and met a few friends at Lucky's to begin a day of baseball + beer. Considering the beer was either Miller Lite or PBR, that wasn't exactly the highlight of the day. The best part, though, was sitting three rows behind home plate - close enough to smell the grass. The Cubbies lost, unfortunately, but with enough pretzel/cheese/beer/nachos/beer/cheese in me, I didn't mind all that much.

Check out a few photos of the day, if you so please!

bsg n such

2008-04-22T20:56:00.000-05:00

So I never bothered to watch the 'recap' of BSG until tonight. It's actually pretty funny and worth watching if you're up to date with the show, or don't mind 100% spoilerage.

seismic-world

2008-04-21T23:01:00.001-05:00

seismic-world
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

Maybe I'm still on a kick from the earthquake last week, but I came across this at work, and thought it might be worth preserving here =) I've switched projects at work, and I'm now tackling a very irregular 550m tall tower in Dubai. I guess I wanted challenging projects out of school, and here I've been handed them. Ask and ye shall receive?

My good friend works for (marketing?) this film, The Secret. I'm not 100% sold on it yet, but it's great food for thought for a happier life, nevertheless. Appreciate more what I have, and focus on what makes me happy. Seems simple, but it's easy to lose focus and awareness.

Summer is fast approaching -- I need to find something... fitting to do. I'm not sure what that is yet.

Vegas Trip

2008-03-15T21:38:00.001-05:00

Vegas Trip 2008 061
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I returned from my Vegas trip on Tuesday. I returned with more money in my pocket than I started with, so that's a good sign! The weather was fantastic, the drinks were aplenty, the food was delicious, the casinos were opulent, and everyone had a good time. Couldn't have asked for much more.

architecture

2008-03-05T09:56:00.001-06:00

I think thin mints are the only food I can eat without realizing I'm eating them. Half a box gone? Don't ask me where it went, but I do have this chocolaty residue on my fingers...

Nick emailed me this pic this morning -> Hilarious!

And in other architecture news, this compilation of UAE projects is worth the eyecandy. I'm probably violating a few hundred copyrights by posting this, but oh well.

Ski Trip: Breckenridge

2008-02-28T17:21:00.001-06:00

Breckenridge
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I spent a few days last weekend in Colorado, mostly in Breckenridge, skiing the slopes and feeling some massive burn in the quads.

Feel free to click that image over there, and you can see a slideshow of all the pics I took. I'll try to add my comments and titles in the next few days, but knowing me that'll likely not happen. (Movies might end up on youtube... I haven't decided due to the, er, 'nature' of the flicks.)

I realized today that Flickr added web-editing of images via Picnik. This is pretty sweet... I can do all the red-eye fixing and cropping and auto-leveling without having to re-upload manually.

New camera!

2008-02-20T15:08:00.001-06:00

If I could have used the camera to have taken the video of itself, I would have. This gave me the task of figuring out uploading videos to youtube. Whoopee.

I've been thinking about and researching point-n-shoot cameras, and gave serious thought to a Sony Ericsson k850i, but the price on that bugger pushed me away. So I decided to wait for another day to get the uber phone/mp3/camera gadget, and instead I purchased a Canon SD1000.

It's little and has 95% of what I wanted from a pocket camera. (The other 5%: image stabilization, a bigger LCD, and better manual controls.)

Newegg shipped me the camera in 17.5 hours, and now I'm ready to take photos of friends, snowy mountains, ski lodges, and who knows what else!

you suck at photoshop

2008-02-15T13:03:00.000-06:00

I've been watching these, and I have to suggest these if you 1) have a twisted sense of humor, or 2) have a twisted sense of humor and use photoshop.

You Suck at Photoshop

the gamer in me

2008-02-12T16:08:00.000-06:00

It must be the week for gaming because it seems to be swallowing me whole. After checking and calling numerous electronics retailers, trying to locate a damned Wii to buy, it was my mother that suggested I check Sears. At first it seemed like a silly idea, but a mother knows best, and she also knows Sears is not thought of as an electronics place. Anyways, long story short, they had Wiis stashed in the back, and my Saturday night and Sunday disappeared, leaving my eyes aching from staring at the screen too long.

I've never been a huge fan of the Mario games, but Mario Galaxy is awesome so far. Last night I got sucked into the latest installment of the Metroid Prime series, which, again, is awesome. I think that these would be great games alone, but with the wii's new controls, they become something even more fun and enjoyable.

And then to top it off, Maxis and EA finally announced a release date for Spore: 7 September 2008.

central market update

2008-01-30T08:45:00.001-06:00

overview
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

The construction's coming along swiftly. I look at a shot of the site like this and wonder how the hell the construction teams keep everything in order.

In the upper right corner is the residential tower: foundation complete, concrete testing in progress (I hope the poured the right stuff!!!), and the bottom two parking levels pretty much finished.

We're racing to get the remaining construction documents for the tower out by Friday. I'm currently working on the penthouse levels, which are about the 85th story. I think it'll be a while before they get that high up!

pattern language

2008-01-29T16:37:00.001-06:00

A Pattern Language, Towns Buildings Construction is now available online. Woo woo!

finally, two screens

2008-01-14T18:03:00.001-06:00

finally, two screens
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I've been itching to get two screens at work for at least the past year. It finally happened today, as well as pumping me up to 4 gigs of ram.

I guess what might be more interesting is that this is my view at work, more or less. Note the assorted items of necessity: moleskine notebook (with grids), fancy new fountain pen, aluminum scale, phone, calculator, wallet, headphones. Heh.

Time for Monday workday to end. Ciao.

happy new year n all

2008-01-02T14:35:00.000-06:00

Happy 2008, everybody! It was Monday night that I was reflecting on the absurdity of the world using the change of a number as an excuse to get blitzed. Then I drank some more.

Today has been the mother Monday of all Wednesdays. It took about 8 hours and too many cups of coffee to wake up, 2 hours to figure out where I left work before the holidays, and a solid 2 minutes at the gym to remember how long it's been since I touched a weight.

I'm thankful this is a three-day week.

I'd also like to thank these folks for helping me set up this music search thingy. Enjoy!

NYE 2008

2007-12-19T11:26:00.001-06:00

happiness in jobs

2007-12-12T17:27:00.001-06:00

Every once in a while an article gets forwarded around the world of architects like wildfire, usually boasting how happy they are about being an architect (imagine that! An architect boasting.... no).

So, I give you two links:

1) Happiness on the Job from TIME

and

2) Dear Architects, I am Sick of Your Shit, by Annie Choi

one last before I depart

2007-11-27T13:30:00.000-06:00

My flight leaves in about 9 hours. Pray I remember my passport, otherwise London will turn me away... or I'll be trapped in Heathrow like Tom Hanks in that cheesy movie with what's-her-face from the cell phone commercials and Hi Fidelity.

I ran into this last night -- just for fun:

moda night

2007-11-26T20:07:00.001-06:00

moda night
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I should be packing for my trip tomorrow, but I wanted to clear out my inbox some, which meant downloading some photos Niko sent my way. So have a look at us, in full force, at Club Moda the other night. I have to say this was one of the best nights out, from nasty vodka to Lex squeezing her feet out the cab window to downing a steamed beef burrito at 3.30 in the morning. Oh, happy times =)

2007-11-20T22:46:00.000-06:00

I'm blogging this picture straight from Picasa. For some reason I dislike using the verb, 'blogging.' Anyways, this is Hemi, in all his glory, eating up more floorspace than I imagined for a 'puppy.' He is cuddly, fuzzy, friendly, and has a tail that has been known to shatter glasses. We love him.

computer surgery all done

2007-11-19T22:06:00.000-06:00

The ol' desktop is back in action. Actually, it's in better action than before the surgery. And for my future reference, the magic software to fix the hard drives was TestDisk. It's simple, straightforward, and rebuilt the drive's partition tables, which apparently was the problem. Happy Monday!

The big pour begins...

2007-11-17T11:16:00.001-06:00

The big pour begins...
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I guess by now the first big pour of our residential tower foundation mat has completed. I haven't heard confirmation, but I think this process was to take about 36 hours, and we estimate it would take over 900 concrete trucks to fill it up. Talk about coordination.

And, woo-woo, AutoCAD turned 25.

hard drive troubles again

2007-11-07T18:53:00.000-06:00

A while back... oh, I don't know, maybe a year ago, my mirrored drives disappeared from Windows, and it has happened again.

The logical raid drive shows up in the config utility as "Invalid Raid drive," but at least it registers both being there.

This is when I slap myself for not keeping good notes of how I fixed this last time.

I think that if I unplug them from the raid controller and straight into the mobo, they should show up in the operating system, which should let me get at the data. I remember from before that Windows couldn't read the drives at this point last time, and I had to use some other piece of software to read the data on the drives.... ugh, bad memory.

And may I comment, that I haven't had this much data backup / recovery problems until I started using two mirrored drives? Damn murphy's law.

Or perhaps I had a data angel on my shoulder who finally was thankful her job was done when I got the raid setup going...

band and music news

2007-11-06T22:39:00.000-06:00

I have a wish: I want an rss feed of upcoming music shows in cities of my choosing, of bands of my choosing. Anyone know of any good sites?

I'm sick of missing shows that I wanted to see, and I don't have the concentration to keep up with a slew of groups.

cameras, cubicles, etc.

2007-11-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

I've been wondering what day would finally bring wireless connections to cameras. I figured Sony or Canon would implement that natively in their cameras, but I guess we don't have to wait any longer.

This is a gadget that fits into an SD slot that'll upload images as you take tham to your computer or internet photo-sharing sites (flickr, etc.).

And, if you think you work in a bad cubicle, check this out.

dragon costume

2007-11-01T15:12:00.001-05:00

This found it's way into my inbox in the spirit of Halloween. I hope everyone had as much fun dressing in costume as this kid =)

southwest standup

2007-10-29T17:34:00.000-05:00

This kinda makes me want to fly Southwest.... in that put-my-life-in-someone-else's-hands sort of way...

guitar players

2007-10-25T17:35:00.000-05:00

Nate posted this: (gotta love it!)

I'm not so sure about the CIA

2007-10-24T17:44:00.001-05:00

Just click the image for the link. I have no comment a this moment.

blog annoyances + bacon

2007-10-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

I have a new peeve. Well, actually, this isn't so much of a new one. It's been around for a while, but I've noticed that often I want to vent here rather than give any sort of entertaining comments... oh well.

So, yeah, blogs. These silly things that let people spew their typed word vomit all over the internet, available for billions of people to digest. Makes me hungry.

Then I notice a few friends -- ones whose blogs I wouldn't mind reading. (Hm, that suggests I cannot, which kinda lets the cat out of the bag here. Shit.) They post their tasty word vomit on myspace... on a private profile. Wow, thanks, but sharing your literature in the awkward realm between free and open web logs and personal emails makes me feel... awkward.

I can live with friends leaving awkward word vomit all across the internet. We have nifty mops and buckets and other ways to clean up that sort of thing. What kicks me in the right nut is that these are the people who write complete nonsense in their blogs. Like nonsense in the way that's more nonsensical than the worthless lost impetus of my consciousness here. (Note to self: drink less beer before typing word vomit on internet.)

So that's my peeve. People, what's the point of a private blog if all you type about is the latest viral video?

(Don't get me wrong -- these videos are great. I just want you to share them and your thoughts.)

Oh, and speaking of great vids:

a night of vista

2007-10-17T09:18:00.001-05:00

I had a nagging urge yesterday to try out Vista. I arrived home, threw in some laundry, grabbed some food n bev, and fired up daemon tools. After a quick check by the Vista installer, it kindly and strongly suggested I uninstall daemon tools as well as nero due to potential complications. Okay, I wasn't there to fight the good fight, so I comply, and remove the two apps. No big deal. And also, to give myself a bit more of a warm, fuzzy, albeit scratchy, vista feeling, I download and run the Vista Upgrade Advisor (ya know, the software to "Make sure your computer is ready for the edition of Windows Vista you want.") This tells me everything is hunky dory, except for a few peripherals that will need updating, and a program or two that will be fussy (DVD player, etc.).

Fast-forward a bit: Vista got its installation going, restarts the computer, then a beautiful, all-too-familiar blue screen. Upon a few restarts, this blue screen appears consistently.

At about this moment, I had gotten thru a beer and was feeling a bit discouraged. Then, as if the gods of Microsoft heard my pain, there was a knock on the door. Yes, it was an angel of UPS... or was it Fedex... whatever, he was delivering my new bluetooth keyboard. This had to be a sign, right?

A while later I was in the middle of another installation -- this time from a clean boot. A minute later, Vista tells me "A CD/DVD drive device driver is required." This baffles me a bit, considering I'm installing from my DVD drive. A google search or two later, I direct my efforts towards feeding Vista controller drivers for my motherboard and raid card (no easy task). Skip ahead a beer more, and Vista's finally running on my machine.

I was pretty interested in using the new start menu search feature (the one that macs have had for years) to find my mouse settings (this is usually my first step because I cannot stand a slow mouse). It didn't work. Bummer.

Okay, next up: internet. Nope... need to find drivers for that, too.

Eventually I got the internet connected, tested out Media Center, and tried out a few sidebar gadgets (mostly worthless).

My two strongest positive impressions from an hour or so on Vista: the graphics are actually good -- like Microsoft took all the XP graphic design monkeys out back with a shotgun and shovel, then hired some fresh kids out of a real design school. Granted I say this all with respect to Microsoft's history of graphic "design." And secondly, the annoying notification popups are slightly less annoying.

So that's my little Vista installation story. Moral of the day: prepare all your drivers before installing because nothing useful works.

destressify

2007-10-16T12:43:00.000-05:00

I've found that recently computer glitches really, really stress me out. I remember to take a deep breath.

Koasynth is in its last week of work before our "final" deadline. In reality, I believe this will be pushed back another week, and I'm sure we'll have revisions to do after the holidays. Right now, I'm diving head-first into a pool of Flash animation. I think I should have worn floaties.

Homecoming is looming on the horizon. I smell beer, football, and bbq...

read my mind, Bill

2007-10-15T08:47:00.000-05:00

A few month's ago, Microsoft filed for a patent to pretty much read people's minds. Don't believe me? "A method for classifying brain states..." Okay okay, so it's not exactly reading your mind. The patent's actually for the method of filtering needless brain signals (like blinking eyes) from the useful ones (like getting excited over an ipod and not a zune).

In other worthlessness: A calf fights for its life between lions and crocodiles!!! No, seriously, it does... (The video's long and a bit slow at first, but worth the wait!)

Tron - 1983

2007-10-08T13:24:00.001-05:00

Tron - 1983
Originally uploaded by canativ1669

This guy has posted a bunch of atari game ads from the 80s. Granted I wasn't quite old enough to understand these games, but I did have two older brothers and scores of Atari games growing up. These ads triggered a few distant memories in my brain. Good fun!

texts: I want to be wanted

2007-10-05T16:49:00.000-05:00

This has happened to me a few times -- enough for me to make a comment.

Situation:
~~~
I have plans. I plan to meet friends at a said location at a said time.

I'm expressing to another friend said plans, and I suggest my other friend come and join the soiree.

My other friend tells me, "Well, text me when you get there."
~~~

Here's my problem: If there's a set time and location for an event and you want to be texted when it happens, you're imposing your supposed importance upon the event. You are not special in that the event must remind you to come to it. I don't care if you want to be wanted -- I don't want the responsibility to remember to let you know what I'm doing. That's what Twitter is for, and if y'all would use it, I'd be happy to send stupid reminders and updates of what's going on in my life because it's surely not exciting enough for you to make plans beforehand.

Sorry for the rant. Thank god the weekend's here.

sometimes i hate cnet

2007-10-05T11:38:00.000-05:00

So, I'm considering purchasing this keyboard. Part of my ritual electronics buying habits is a quick visit to cnet for their "reviews."

The editors there give it 6.7 out of 10. Hm. Why?
1) They don't like the curved keys. Okay, understandable.
2) "Doesn't grip your desk as well as it should."

Those are the big cons? Wow, what an insightful synopsis of the review.

Upon further reading, they don't like the keyboard due to it's funky keys and difficult installation. They seemed to like all the other features. I'll be installing media center on my machine sometime in the near future, so this keyboard looks like a good choice for me. Woo woo!

attack of Sue!

2007-10-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

And here Shana thought she would be safe sightseeing the museums of Chicago. We both had a moment of memory loss when we spent at least a solid 15 seconds trying to locate Sue in the Field. Seriously.

naps n such

2007-10-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

Life: consider more naps. The Germans do.

Design: a cool resource. (I still have yet to really explore the site, but it didn't take me long to send it to del.icio.us.

Work: I'm having trouble concentrating, but my current task is to update our tower model with the typical floor level openings.

Koasynth: we had an intense meeting last night to get the team all on the same page. We're actually producing work surprisingly well. I hope the momentum continues.

Music: Ali re-inspired me over the weekend. I need to do serious research on midi controllers. What good is a musician if he can't be mobile? I need to harness the power of software, a laptop, and a 25-key controller.

a test

2007-09-29T18:58:00.000-05:00

It's not often that I feel the urge to blab in a blog, but every once in a while I want to give in and type something here. So what's on my mind?

I think it's ridiculous that there are monks being shot in Myanmar. I wish shit like this would stop.

I've been forced to weed out some of my old albums off my ipod (I recently gave in to some video podcasts, and they tend to eat up room). Out went some oldies: OLP, Better than Ezra, etc... In came Garbage (long overdue listen), Kaiser Chiefs, and The Dears.

I stopped into a CB2 today, and was thoroughly entertained. It's like a little party for the eyes and imagination... ooo, bright green plates! Insanely large glass vases! Rugs that, after a year or two of viewing, would make me vomit just little bit in my mouth. Tomorrow I brave the realm of Ikea.

Tonight, I'm giving my liver a rest and embracing the cold feeling of being alone. I was hoping for a new movie from netflix, but instead got the 3rd disc of Sex and the City. (Yes, my sister and I are sadly addicted -- berate me all you want.)

So... I guess that leaves me the options of working on Koasynth stuff or revisiting my good ol' friend, Korg Triton.