hacker class

Big Island Damage

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Well there wasn't enough wind yesterday but I went out anyway. Didn't
even get up. The kite ended up in the waves and suffered a big rip.

It seems that 9 times out of 10 I need a bigger kite. I guess it's
time to look into a 12 because this 10 isn't doing it for me.

Tesla Model S Infotainment Center

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Cool video on the design of the Model S. Can't wait for this.

For the UI geeks, skip to minute 28 or so to get to the juicy bits.

Towards the end of the talk in the Q&A they mention the possibility of a Tesla App store. Basically the idea is to keep it flexible and customizable. Sweet!

Salted Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:40:00 +0000

According to CNet there is now a NaCL (Native Client) version of Chrome. Since the early days of the web, computer scientists have tried to come up with ways to programmaticly extended the browser. It started with slow Java Applets and led to scary ActiveX implementations. Today most developers stick with Javascript or Flash.

This latest effort from Google might actually have a chance at success. It seems to strike a nice balance between performance and security. Of course a huge obstacle will be adoption. Including NaCL in Chrome is a significant step forward, but Chrome is has a very small percentage of the browser market. Perhaps if the Chrome experiment goes well, Google can get Firefox to include NaCL. I still don't see Microsoft supporting NaCL in IE, so compared to Javascript and Flash, it's going to be a long uphill battle for widespread adoption. I suppose NaCL browser plugins/extensions for Firefox and IE might be one way to gain further adoption. Maybe they could deliver it as an iPhone App as a way to finally get Google Voice on the iPhone. :-)

I'll be interested to see how it goes. I'll give it a try when the Mac version comes out.

Augemented Reality on iPhone 3GS

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Looks like another reason to upgrade! These AR apps are pretty cool.

New Hampshire Biking

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:38:00 +0000

Dr. Palmer and I went for a little mountain bike ride near his place. We ran across this odd summer estate. Seems to have been abandoned since the 80s.

Sashimi Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:56:00 +0000

At Cho Cho San NYC. Yum!

Fred Zeppelin @ Gold Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Last weekend we were camping at Gold Lake and a few campsites down there was this amazing band rocking out. The band is called Fred Zeppelin and they were really good. There is something magical about a hard rock band playing in the wilderness. Thanks to Fred Zeppelin for a great show.

Thanks to my cousin Mark for inviting me and posting the video!

Piston Powered Fusion

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:04:00 +0000

Sometimes I forget how much I don't know about science. Being an expert in one field sort of blinds us to the crazy and creative things going on in other fields. Case in point, the folks at General Fusion have come up with an idea for a new kind of fusion reactor. Read more about it in this Technology Review article.

I love this quote:

"One of the big risks to the project is nobody has compressed spheromaks to fusion-relevant conditions before," says Richardson.

I'm glad folks are still working on big idea startups. This is not a Y Combinator kind of idea. This is a $1 billion project. Cool!

Judas and Me

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:00:00 +0000

If you're going to be in NYC, this September or October check out the new play from Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar. It's part of the New York Musical Festival this Fall.

Here's the description:

It's tough keeping up with the Joneses when your neighbor's kid is the Messiah. Consumed by jealousy, Rheba Iscariot pushes her son Judas to be better than Jesus - and we all know how well that turns out. A new musical comedy by the Tony-nominated writing team of Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar, Judas & Me is a hilarious look at life with the ultimate biblical stage mom.

Should be a great show!

Hawley Lake Run

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Jameson Canyon?

Mark and I were doing a run last weekend for Wampler Kids. It's a great cause.

Clamato and Bud Light

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0000

I did not buy this but I'm tempted!

My First Cat5

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I'm putting a new camera at the front door and decided I needed to make my own ethernet cable. I got a crimper and a spool of cable from Radio Shack. I had to look up the order of the wires, and found this site and the video pretty useful. Thanks LAN Shack for the great tutorial.

I didn't know if the wires were supposed to be the same on each end or not. They should be in the same order on each end. The order is: orange stripe, orange, green stripe, blue, blue stripe, green, brown stripe, and brown.

The image above is the first image from the camera. It's not mounted yet and the wire is still strung across the doorway. I just wanted to do a quick test to see if my home made cable actually worked or not.

Armstrong and Truveo

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Just saw this in the NY Times. It seems the new AOL CEO likes Truveo but was convinced that it's not a core business. Strange.

Eventually, the assembled employees voted on their top five ideas. Separately, Mr. Armstrong wrote his top five on a blackboard, turning it so the audience could see it only after the vote. The only difference: Mr. Armstrong wanted to include AOL’s Truveo video search company in the top priorities. But he deferred to the group and assigned Truveo instead to a new unit called AOL Ventures, where he is putting noncore businesses, like the Bebo social network, that might eventually be sold.

I wonder if anyone from Truveo was in the room...

3 Phone Wires

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:28:00 +0000

We're doing some remodeling and I need to move a phone jack. Turns
out this old house has three wires running to the phone jack. What's
up with that? I've always seen pairs but never an extra wire.
Interesting.

As you can see, the third wire isn't being used.

Makeshift Camera Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Just in case it rains.

I added a camera that keeps an eye out on one of our doors. I didn't have a lot of time but wanted to make sure the camera didn't get destroyed if it rained. Luckily the camera came with everything wrapped up in little plastic bags. I used a couple of those bags to drape behind and in front of the camera. There is enough room for airflow so it shouldn't get too hot. The lens isn't covered so it doesn't obscure the image.

Hopefully this will hold until I have a chance to find a better solution or the wife finds it.

The camera caught a snapshot of me attacking it. :-)

SMS Camera Alerts

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:06:00 +0000

As we pulled into the garage early on Friday morning my iPhone chirped the arrival of an SMS. I thought this was odd since it was I don't usually get text messages at 1am.

Silly me, I forgot that I had setup the camera to send me text messages when it detected motion. We've been out of town for most of the summer so I wanted to know if there was any action inside my garage. I was pleasantly surprised when it worked so well. In the photo above, you can see me telling above telling my wife what just happened.

I'm working on a website that will let you do this kind of thing, and a whole lot more. If you're interested in trying it out, go to sensr.net and request alpha access. We're slowly opening the doors to a few alpha users.

Cool Augmented Reality with Pacube

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:03:00 +0000

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

I've been following Pachube for a while now. They put out this video recently showing how Pachube data could be combined with augmented reality.

Imagine folks walking down the street with those augmented reality glyphs printed on their clothing. If you had the right camera setup, you could check out the data feeds represented by their t-shirts. I see a computer art project in the making....

Rubicon Misadventure

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:39:00 +0000

On our way out on the last day we got stuck behind this rig (above). I didn't have any pictures of it so I didn't include it in my original Rubicon post. The guy pictured above was stuck on Cadillac Hill. He only had 4wd high with no breaks. This is an example of how not to do the Rubicon. His engine (below) was held in with the yellow strap. The engine eventually shifted and the fan started hitting the radiator. Our guys helped jury rig it so it worked a bit. Notice the jack and the newer orange straps holding it together!

The guy was nice enough but he just wasn't nearly prepared enough for the trip. After a couple of hours we were able to get him to a wide spot in the trail so other folks could get by. On the Rubicon you can never be in a hurry.

Rubicon Trail Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:22:00 +0000

I just got back from five days of 4x4 action on the Rubicon Trail. We had our mobile tribe of Jeeps. The drivers were Jefe, Mark, Brent, Danny, Chris and Tom. I rode along with my cousin Mark in his classic Jeep CJ-8, pictured above. We started at Loon Lake on Thursday and ended with Cadillac Hill on Monday. The first night we camped at Buck Island and the rest of the time we were based at Rubicon Falls.

I met a lot of great folks along the way. Among others, our group included a factory worker with a Star Wars fetish, a university employee with a knack for welding, cryogenics lab (sperm bank) owners, a lawyer, an internet guy, a retired fireman, a Jeep and bicycle mechanic, a structural engineer, and a classical musician.

Offroading seems to have it's own vocabulary. Here are a few terms I learned along the way:

rig: another term for your vehicle. "Nice rig, is that an '82 CJ?"
flop: when a rig turns on it's side. "Get the winch, Brent had a flop."
break: some kind of failure or breakdown. "Sherman had a break. Good thing Mark was nearby with his welder."
stocker: someone driving a unmodified (stock) jeep. "Those stockers don't know what they're in for."
lockers: device to lock your differential so the wheels spin together.
open diff: an unlocked differential. "He couldn't make it over the rock because of the open diff."
comfort shovel: shovel used when you need to do your business in the woods.
Jethro: a hick or hillbilly type of person. Usually broken down in front of a group of rigs trying to make their way along the trail. "That Jetrhro is using a strap to hold his engine in."

The scenery is amazing and the challenges of getting vehicles through the trail keeps it interesting. There is driving skill involved but there's also an element of camaraderie that goes along with it. You need to be prepared, but you can't bring everything with you, so it's important to have a group of folks. When someone has a break or a flop, the group pulls together to help them out.

All in all we had a great time. I'm thinking I might just need to start looking around for my own Jeep.

Video of Mark making his way down Million Dollar Hill.

Brent and his flop near Buck Island. Thankfully no one was hurt.

It seems orange was the official Beguelin color for the day.

Ibis on Flume

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:37:00 +0000

First ride of the season.

Update: I took this shot yesterday on my way up. The weather was moody and I was glad I wore my warm biking shirt. I started at the home and made it to the Flume trail in about 70 minutes which is a good reference. Perhaps I can improve on that time over the season.

On the way back, around 4:15 p.m. it started to spit rain. Not enough to pull out the jacket, but it was close. Overall it was a great ride. I love the new Ibis. I found myself aiming for rocks just to try to test out the ride. On the way back down Tunnel Road I caught air a few times. Nice!

GitHub: You Know, For Code

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:16:00 +0000

I've been working with git, the source code control system, for about a year now. There are things I love about git and things I hate about it. Using GitHub is one of the things I love about it. Git was designed to work for very large distributed projects and teams. Building a social coding site around it makes a lot of sense.

I'm sure I'll post more on Git later. But for now I would recommend you check out GitHub if you're looking to learn more about the new hotness in source code control. You can see my public projects here: http://github.com/adamb

Does My Brain Look Fat?

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:08:00 +0000

In this strange article they are trying to get at the size limit for human brains, assuming brains were cooled like computer chips. Human brains are about 1.5 kg while the study points out that the thermal limits for mammalian brains (cooled like computer chips) are about 5 kg. They then point out that sperm whales have brains in the 9 kg range. Great, another thing to envy about sperm whales.

I guess the real take away is that mammalian brains are not cooled like computer chips. That explains the lack of ungainly heat sinks sticking out of our skulls. Probably a good thing, although it could make for a more interesting hat industry.

1 Rule for Weight Loss

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:32:00 +0000

I just saw this annoying advertisement. I don't know what they're selling, but here's the rule that really works: eat less and exercise.

The trick is getting yourself to follow that rule. In a previous blog post I shared what works for me. Skip the colon flush and just find a way to keep your intake less than the number of calories that you burn and you'll loose weight.

Transfer Big Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:42:00 +0000

My brother the playwright is working on some new songs and wanted to send them to me. (Such a nice guy!) Of course they were too big to send in email. I found a site called Transfer Big Files and it worked like a charm. No registration required. No weird software to download. Just fill in a form with an email address and upload your files. They make money from advertisements.

Sweet and simple.

Rattle Snake Again

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Beguelin) — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:58:00 +0000

We saw this rattle snake today while mountain biking. This is the second time Tony and I have seen rattle snakes at Waterdog. At least we didn't run over it.

Click the image above for the full size version.