minenet

DrupalCon SF 2010

2010-04-23T23:55:00.001-05:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Penguin Game J2ME edition

2010-04-11T00:37:00.001-05:00

A while back (2006ish) I wrote a small game for a class (Java mobile) and was curious if it would run on my phone today - what do you know?! Woohoo - it works!

Source: http://github.com/christianchristensen/PenguinGame

Click here to download:

penguin_game.jar (29 KB)

Posted via email from Chris

Images I like - a post for the memories

2010-04-06T17:09:00.001-05:00

Just some old images I had laying around I wanted to get out there...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Chris

Doom and gloom - crystal ball on Apple

2010-04-05T21:43:00.001-05:00

"...if Apple implemented a trial period it could really soften the blow (iPhone OS 4.0, perhaps?). The iPad could perfect the shareware model that almost has worked on the PC, and it wouldn't hurt to have trials on the iPhone either." Really?!?! Almost worked - I would argue total failure!

from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/editorial-ipad-prices-are-out-of-control-and-will-kill-us-all/

Posted via email from Chris

What apps really are - services

2010-04-04T14:42:00.001-05:00

This weekend I was hypothesizing how three apps I think are very cool operate, specifically: Google Voice search, Shazam, Square. What shocked me about all of them was how available they were across platforms - particularly mobile. Then I came to quickly realize the only investment in development for each platform was front-end work; the piece they all had in common was the backend. Now, some might be familiar with some patterns that make this possible like MVC; but what really surprises me is how unbelievably seamless these apps work in the face of having to support different platforms. This leads me to a more philosophical question about touting an "app for that..." - really what we are seeing is that behind many of the good apps there is a terrific service that is capable of being abstracted from that devices interface.

Caveat Emptor: Its probably very short sighted to assume that this is a one sided conclusion, but I think there are some great reasons to follow this pattern; there are many great reasons to have a fantastic UI, but when thinking about reaching the maximum audience it is comforting to know that following this pattern can help development remain agile in the face of new device releases (see: iPad).

Posted via email from Chris

Data - its really important!

2010-04-02T22:59:00.001-05:00

This is true: http://bret.appspot.com/entry/we-need-a-wikipedia-for-data

This is how it can be done:http://where.tommacwright.com/

(alt: http://github.com/tmcw/where20presentation)

This is a result: http://mapbox.com/

(more explicitly: http://mapbox.com/tileset/dc-nightvision)

amazmagorical!

Posted via email from Chris

Beautiful day at the Rock

2010-03-28T17:22:00.001-05:00

sent via mobile

Posted via email from Chris

How is this even possible?!?!

2010-03-25T09:03:00.001-05:00

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/03/caf_in_ps.html

I used to think blurring out jewelry in PS was amazing - now I can make whole pieces of the world appear and disappear!

Posted via email from Chris

Screen shot 2010-03-20 at 11.00.29 AM.png

2010-03-23T14:11:00.001-05:00

sent via mobile

Posted via email from Chris

Chrome OS running on EEE 900 (wifi, audio, internal HD)

2009-11-29T00:43:00.003-06:00

Got the Chrome OS running on my EEE 900 this weekend; here's the details:

Started with the VM image (http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/) - cool, but didn't run on the netbook...

So, got the Chrome OS image installed on a USB drive (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-google-chrome-os-and-run-on-a-real-computer/) - easy to use, instructions get this on a bootable USB drive. This works great on may laptops and netbooks.

One step further (get the USB image on internal HD of the netbook):

Boot the netbook with something like DSL (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/all-in-one-usb-dsl/). Also, make sure you have your Chrome OS USB key plugged in as well while booting...

Open up a terminal (on DSL boot).

Type (may need to alter the /var/* targets):

dd if=/var/sda of=/var/hdc

Give it ~20 mins...

And bam - boot your EEE 900 from the HD connect to your wireless network and have audio!! FTW!!

Results:

- Pretty fast...

- Very simple

- Terminal accessible from ctrl+alt+F2

- Looks nice

What we have to look forward to: 64-bits and beyond

2009-02-08T16:30:00.002-06:00

The emergence of the 64-bit architecture effectively increases the memory ceiling to 264 addresses, equivalent to approximately 17.2 billion gigabytes, 16.8 million terabytes, or 16 exabytes of RAM. To put this in perspective, in the days when 4 MB of main memory was commonplace, the maximum memory ceiling of 232 addresses was about 1,000 times larger than typical memory configurations. Today, when over 2 GB of main memory is common, the ceiling of 264 addresses is about ten trillion times larger, i.e., ten billion times more headroom than the 232 case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit

I can't wait to see what the future holds!

Impressive math program: Maxima

2008-12-30T17:38:00.003-06:00

Searching for an Open Source software (OSS) solution to the famous math program 'Mathematica'; I stumbled across this jewel: Maxima
It looks like a lot of the work is done through python and some of the fantastic scientific libraries that already exist.
Bravo!

A Small Story: about science and observation

2008-12-13T01:24:00.002-06:00

In 7th grade science class with a teacher known as Mr. Martin – we had a room full of all kinds of creatures, from tropical lizards, iguanas, tree frogs, to large constrictor Boas. Now although I might liken this to an immersion experience in the middle of the jungle I think one of the more meaningful lessons was described on the first day of class. He asked all the students to go around the room and find the most deadly creature out of all. After we all walk around, Mr. Martin performed a quick poll of what people thought. (update: Someone mentioned that maybe the most obvious and deadliest creature would be ourselves - humans) Several students guessed the large constrictor Boa as it would be able to squeeze you to death, several other students postulated that maybe it was a lizard that could squirt poison into your eyes. The moral of the story, however, had nothing to do with knowledge on the subject matter of animals; it was a test of observation skills. The 'most deadly' animal in the room was easily identified by the cage it was in, as it was the only cage with padlocks holding all of the doors tightly shut (keeping the animal in and student fingers out).

The scientific method, hypothesis, conclusions, observations, and the thought experiment.

(futher fun: YouTube: Bill Nye)

Albert Einstein

2008-10-21T09:15:00.001-05:00

"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love."

How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering - SMU

2008-10-19T11:08:00.002-05:00

http://lyle.smu.edu/

Awesome!

Podcast thoughts (episode 1)

2008-09-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

I think it is important to hear what people are thinking and discussing. I have always enjoyed listening to a good debate or conversation (re: NPR and other news radio), but I have always noticed that certain lacking of tech flair. Podcasting is probably the best way to get through this barrier of having to listen to something you don't want to hear - think of it like TiVo + YouTube + NPR (maybe...). Anyway here are a couple of clips from some shows I have been listening to:

(note: each clip is less than ~1 min)

What it takes for OSS to be successful!

FLOSS 38: 35:30 - 35:50

Windows Weekly 73: ~7 / ~21

Personal and Business Related email / WoW Bot Case with Illegal copy in RAM

TWIL 16: 29 / 57

SUN's OSS officer

FLOSS 39: ~:12 / ~:43

Adam Curry and the Hit Test (and a thought...)

DSC 786: ~22 / ~28

more from TED

2008-09-20T10:34:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of talks from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) that are pretty good:

X-Prize:

Peter Diamandis_Our_Next_Giant_Leap

"...poor teaching actually does more harm than good...magnetism is actually understood more by children before they have been to school than afterward, same for gravity, which is quite humbling particularly if you're a teacher."

- Jonathan Drori

Jonathan Drori_What_we_Think_we_Know

Watch this and think!

2008-09-01T20:22:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGg8A2zfWKg

I find it pretty fascinating how far we have come in that data itself is meaningful to other data with little outside intervention. However, it seems to me that there may actually be two trains of thought in this problem (much of which is highly developed and effective from the search technologies of the early 90's to today...). Although the holy grail of the internet may very well be the semantic web, the very nature of it seems to lend to information hiding.
The whole purpose of a 'search engine' is to crawl and discover the information that is deeply hidden from a human interaction level - this requires some explanation: Think about Yahoo.com (circa 2000) the whole purpose was to have a catalog of web interests that were both navigational and intuitive to assist the user (a system that seems very familiar to a library catalog card). This was effective but required understanding of the material that was being cataloged into this portal.
Search (a good modern search like google or the present Yahoo) effectively changes this perspective by assuming that a set of websites (the internet) cannot be cataloged into a portal but rather ranked where the users and designers of websites actually influence the popularity and contextual property of the result set.
A 'semantic web' seems to be a web of inferred result sets by the meaning. These results would be even more meaningful given that it would both answer a given question and give related contextual content. But, therein may be the rub - it seems by that very definition there is the opportunity for information hiding.
The meaning and the reality of what is being said; an example: A semantic search might be: "I am looking for a question." and the result set might be: "This is a statement?" (sp - it should not include the question mark...). Where a search result might not know what a question is or what it means it does differentiate between literals. Therefore there is almost an ease of confusion rather than towards clarity (importantly the riff-raff (spam) still seems to be able to work to control these result sets),
Now the reality of these technologies seems to be a compromise (which really is our current state of the art); where search and semantic technologies function in harmony. (I also realize this is a somewhat myopic view...it is more for the thought)

Submitted for approval by no one and crawled by no one, but maybe something.

Just for clarification

2008-09-01T04:33:00.002-05:00

Perhaps mostly motivated by my little understanding of how changes in gas prices, stock prices, futures, etc... I am a little baffled by how a change works:

Interesting how the change in gas prices stocks or whatever is a rate. But given this rate, we are not given the time frame which tells you how the change in meaningful. I guess there is a chance that implicit knowledge of how a rate mechanism is always assumed.

NPR: Fiesta vs. Walmart - the battle of the superstores?

2008-08-31T23:00:00.000-05:00

Economics: tortilla prices cause stores like Fiesta to sell local
American products, like apple pie; whereas, Walmart now sells
tortillas.
NPR article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6898817

Good quotes

2008-08-10T00:18:00.001-05:00

Charlie Wilson's War:

Charlie Wilson: You mean to tell me that the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is to have the Afghans keep walking into machine gun fire 'til the Russians run out of bullets?
Gust Avrakotos: That's Harold Holt's strategy, not U.S. strategy.
Charlie Wilson: What is U.S. strategy?
Gust Avrakotos: Most strictly speaking, we don't have one. But we're working on it.
Charlie Wilson: Who's 'we'?
Gust Avrakotos: Me and three other guys.

(many others)

Automated Robot Truck

2008-05-04T02:27:00.001-05:00

Test run...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bl44tWygkLo

Silent Auction System Project

2008-04-30T15:17:00.001-05:00

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfvt3x9n_56275b6cdf6

Automated Robot Truck

2008-04-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfvt3x9n_535tzg655fb

From the pages of Tau Beta Pi The Bent

2008-04-12T19:11:00.001-05:00

Realizing he was lost, a balloonist dropped down to ask directions.

"Excuse me, but I'm a little off course," he shouted. "I promised to meet a friend an hour ago. I don't know where I am."

A woman yelled back, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're at exactly 37 degrees, 24 minutes and 26.16 seconds North latitude and 122 degrees, 8 minutes and 42.3 seconds West longitude."

"Amazing," the balloonist replied. "You must be an Engineer!"

"I am," she replied. "How did you know?"

"Well, everything you told me is technically correct, but I can't use your information. I'm still lost, and you haven't been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."

The woman thought for a moment, and then replied, "You must be in Management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well, you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to your position due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. In fact, you're in exactly the same position you were before we met, but somehow it's now my fault."

What a great story! Picture here.