Adam L. Davis

2011 Garden Recap

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:40:05 -0500

It was a fairly good year for the garden, although I didn’t get to devote much time to it. We doubled the garden size from the previous year and had two whole different seasons of growth (spring/summer, and fall). We can do this since we’re in Florida. We grew (in descending order of success): green beans, black beans, basil, tomatoes, radishes, various types of lettuce, egg-plant, green peppers, and spinach.

We also started a few pots of strawberries but I’m not really counting them since we haven’t had any fruit yet.

We had an unusually warm December, so we still have lettuce in the garden. :-)

Mr. Fancy Pants, Jonathan Coulton

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:56:00 -0500

Mr. Fancy Pants, Jonathan Coulton

TED: Shawn Achor: The happy secret

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:34:16 -0500

TED: Shawn Achor: The happy secret:

Really good talk about the “Happiness Advantage” and how you can cultivate happiness. If you like the talk, consider buying his book, The Happiness Advantage

"Anyway, if I was still in those stuffy, hateful rooms where they plotted to ban technologies, I’d..."

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:23:56 -0500

““Anyway, if I was still in those stuffy, hateful rooms where they plotted to ban technologies, I’d print out a stack of this Matador Network infographics, which are a handy guide to the pig-ignorant campaigns that Hollywood has waged against new technologies since the industry’s founders ripped off Thomas Edison’s patents and fled to California.”—Cory Doctorow”

- TODAY in BoingBoing. (via areasofmyexpertise)

BlackBeltFactory is now KnowledgeBlackBelt

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:01:29 -0500

BlackBeltFactory is now KnowledgeBlackBelt:

This is a link to my profile on KnowledgeBlackBelt, it has exams on Java, and many other programming-related things.

Jon Coulton

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:04:03 -0500

Jon Coulton

Grail, made using divvr

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:40:51 -0400

Grail, made using divvr

WWII poster (source: treehugger) I plan on expanding my...

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:03:42 -0500

WWII poster (source: treehugger) I plan on expanding my vegetable garden this year. Last year I had some success with okra, green peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, as well as basil and rosemary. There’s nothing like growing your own food. I highly recommend it.

"the stone age didn’t end for a lack of stones"

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:40:00 -0500

“the stone age didn’t end for a lack of stones”

Lover’s Pointe

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:06:19 -0400

Lover’s Pointe

"We’ve already fallen behind in areas like alternative energy, better batteries, and nanotechnology...."

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:06:00 -0400

“We’ve already fallen behind in areas like alternative energy, better batteries, and nanotechnology. Instead of racing to catch up, we’re buying seeds and garden gnomes on Facebook. This won’t end well.”

- Newsweek: The Sad Truth About Facebook - Friends Without Benefits

Announcing the iMicrowave

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 21:52:49 -0400

What would a Microwave look like if it was built by Apple?

Much like how it revolutionized the music-player, Apple has just revolutionized the Microwave. The iMicrowave was announced in a press conference earlier today.

We got rid of all those buttons, and gave you a seamless and intuitive interface. You’re gonna love it.

-Steve Jobs

Much like the iPod and iPhone, the iMicrowave has replaced the buttons we’ve come to expect on a microwave with a touch interface.

The standard interface will consist of a virtual click wheel for setting the time:

Here’s a standard Microwave for comparison (note the VCR-like interface):

No word yet on whether it runs the iOS running on iPods, iPhones, and the iPad.

Bazinga!

SciDB: Relational daddy answers Google, Hadoop, NoSQL

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:26:33 -0400

SciDB: Relational daddy answers Google, Hadoop, NoSQL:

Michael Stonebraker’s name probably doesn’t jump very high in many minds outside computer science, yet it was Stonebraker’s quick thinking 40 years ago that paved the way for the industry these better-knowns call home.

MapReduce, Hadoop, MongoDB, Cassandra, etc. Stonebraker responds with VoltDB and now SciDB keeping ACID and improving speed.

“In the 1980s, the ‘answer’ was if all you wanted to do was business data processing, then it was relational databases. Try to stretch SQL to do everything, though, and that’s an unnatural act.”

Being Moderate sucks

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:23:55 -0400

No one pays attention. It’s not interesting. It’s much more interesting to compare people to Hitler (or threaten to burn holy books), than to have an actual nuanced, complex position on things. Nuanced is boring. Extremist is exciting. In this case maybe boring is the better option.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:01:08 -0400

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

- Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future

Apple TV

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:10:00 -0400

The new Apple TV announced today looks really great:

Built-in wifi, ethernet, power unit
All streaming, HD content
Rent TV shows for 99 cents, movies for around 5 bucks
YouTube, Netflix, other connections
Stream music and movies from your PC or Mac
Look at your photos on your computer
Rotten tomatoes reviews
Price: $99
Really small

[Update] Limitations/issues:

Limited to ABC and Fox shows only for now.
Doesn’t run iOS Apps
No hulu, face-time, or web-surfing?

Double dip?

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:38:57 -0400

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m not saying I have any special powers to predict the future. In fact, who knows? Maybe the economy will come roaring back tomorrow. But here are a few data points that say otherwise:

You don’t have to like Tony Robbins to watch this video. He makes a good argument that we might be facing another down-term before things get better.
Texas July home sales collapse.
George Soros slashed his exposure to US securities.

I’m just saying, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Be prepared for a setback in the economy.

Tech Predictions

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:02:00 -0400

Every one has their own ideas about what’s coming next, and I don’t claim to have any insider knowledge into the future, but I’d like to share my thoughts. Take them or leave them. I’m always interested in what’s coming in the future, especially technology.

All new technologies develop in S-shaped waves (exponential growth that slows to a plateau). In fact, these waves are so predictable, that once a technology has started growing exponentially, it’s fairly simple to extrapolate its growth into the future. Some waves move faster than others. Currently, technologies I believe to be on the upward slope are smart-phones, tablets, multi-core processors, 3D, electric cars, solar, and the smart-grid.

Smart-phones and Tablets
The iPad has helped define the Tablet category, although it’s been around for a while. Microsoft has had tablets out for a long time. This area has been covered fully by so many others. Suffice it to say: the iPad is big deal and apps for the iPad are only beginning. There will be eventually be an Android and Windows answer to it, just as in the smart-phone market. Just as the laptop has replaced the desktop for many people, the tablet may eventually replace the laptop. Another big trend will be the increase in multi-core processors, even in these small devices. Already, Android and iOS devices can do multi-tasking and even with the limited smart-phone processors of today, Android 2.1 comes standard with voice recognition. Windows Phone 7 is just getting started, but soon it will be another big contender in this space. Chrome OS, which is basically a thin OS layer for running the Chrome web browser, as well as HP/Palm’s Web-OS might also become players in the tablet market. However, I think eventually Android will take the majority of the market, much like Windows took the PC market from Apple.

Right now we expect these tiny devices to be a GPS, music player, movie-player, camera, video-recorder, gaming-system, phone, and be constantly connected to the web. In the future, we’ll expect this and so much more. I think the smart-phone/tablet will be a very important trend. Ignoring it would be madness.

3D
Here’s a 3D movie list. Clearly there rate of 3D movies is increasing, and the recent increase in 3D-movies is only the beginning. This is mainly due to the technology making 3D more visually appealing and easier to produce. Avatar helped to define this category. So, with all of these great 3D movies out there, people will eventually want to watch them in their home, just as the home theater went from blank and white to color to HD. So at some point soon, 3D TV will be ubiquitous. What’s next? Video games. The Nintendo 3DS has already begun this phase, putting 3D in a tiny hand-held device. Can smart-phones/tablets be next? Probably.

Electric Cars, Solar, etc.
Several car makers have already announced electric cars to be launched in the coming year: GM Volt, Nissan Leaf, Tesla’s Model S. Of all these, I think Tesla is the most interesting and will be the winner in this market. Innovation often comes from small companies outside of the mainstream. The big companies are too slow to change. However, the Nissan Leaf also looks interesting.

No matter what your opinion on climate change (if it’s true I think we’ll probably have to resort to geo-engineering), the world will have to start moving away from fossil fuels. If not for any other reason, for the simple reason that it’s getting more and more expensive. Solar power is one of the promising sources of renewable energy. The neat thing about solar is that unlike other alternative energy sources (geothermal, hydro-power, wind, nuclear), solar can scale both large and small. The optional solar panels on the new Prius is a good example of this. As solar technology improves, I think we’ll see more of them everywhere.

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The political chemistry of oil

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:38:16 -0400

As oil washes up against the coast of Florida, does anyone really think BP could ever undo all of the long term damage that is done? The cost in lost tourism alone is huge. It will take a long time before tourists feel it’s safe to return to those beaches. I see commercials from west-coast towns just trying to reassure everyone: “Don’t worry, there’s no oil here.” Of course, this is to say nothing of the fishing economy, and animals killed, many of them endangered species.

We need to get down and do the gritty work of reducing our dependence upon this fuel and these molecules.

Lisa Margonelli: The political chemistry of oil

I just watched this TED talk arguing the cost of gas at the pump does not reflect the true cost. She makes a good point that we keep getting distracted by new technologies, like solar and wind-power, while nothing really changes and the easiest gains could be had by a simple price-signal. We tax things that are bad for us in this country, cigarettes for example, so why not oil?

Taken on Alcatraz island Alcatraz view by Adam L. Davis is...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:42:00 -0400

Taken on Alcatraz island

Alcatraz view by Adam L. Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License