www.danlemire.com

I still have the only Tesla that pays for itself

2022-11-18T21:24:00.004-06:00

You might not have guessed from the headline, but I have a Tesla, and it's on my roof. These beauties were installed in November of 2018. There's a few more not included in the picture, but together they produce somewhere around 13,000 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity for use in my home.

In the four years since installation, they have produced almost 55 MWh (megawatt hours) of power. This amounts to around $7,000 worth of electricity savings since installation. In other words, after 4 years, I've been able to keep $7,000 dollars that I would have otherwise payed to my electric provider.

Granted, this is still small compared to the sum I paid out of pocket in 2018 to get the system (including Powerwalls) installed after rebates, incentives and tax credits. Assuming that the price of my electricity stay around the current $0.13/kWh, the entire system will be paid for in a little over 15 years. It's also likely that the price of electricity continues to rise, and in that case, the payback happens sooner, even if I have to pay more to the electric company for the electricity I still need to buy.

What's that? Oh, yeah, I couldn't install a system that provided 100% of my needs. I actually didn't want to do that at this point anyway. The panels continue to improve, and someday, it will be worth putting up panels on the north side of the house that only gets good sun for 3-4 hours in a day.

However, I can see what you're thinking already. 15 years! That's way too long, and it doesn't even get you off grid!? I suppose it's all a matter of perspective, but there are no cars that ever pay for themselves, and we buy cars because we need to go places.

The prices of this equipment, the tax incentives and the arrangements with utility providers continues to change, but as people begin to understand the opportunity cost, I think that adoption will continue to grow, and with growth, prices fall with scale, and the sooner people understand the value, even if they can't completely disconnect from the grid, the sooner they can see that value.

I would absolutely recommend to anyone asking that they should get a quote and consider this option for their home. Not all homes can benefit because of their geographic location and the situation with shading and roof complexity, but it's worth a look. I'm not here to convince, do your own homework. I sure did, and I have the spreadsheets to show for it too, because that how I roll.

I do get asked frequently about the consequences of a large hail storm. That's a fair question. Based on my research, the panels will likely outperform the roof shingles in a large hail situation. Large hail is bad news, no matter what you have overhead, but at least I don't have to worry about their fragility.

Perhaps someday, Tesla will succeed in creating a self-driving car, and the regulations will allow you to farm out that car so that you can generate income from only the car, but that day has yet to come.

So for now, my Tesla solar and Powerwall installation is the only Tesla that pays for itself.

There's plenty more that I can share regarding my setup and all the crazy spreadsheets I have to play with the value of this decision, let me hear from you if your are curious, I'm not afraid to share my notes if you'd find it valuable.

Oh, and before I forget, even though I've already been stiffed once by Tesla referrals, here's my referral code just in case you decide to work with Tesla on your own system.

AI Art exploration continued

2022-09-17T16:19:00.003-05:00

Text to Image AI art generation, is making it possible to create things that before could only be realized through someone else's creative expression or sharing.

The above picture is AI art, generated by an open source machine learning model. This text-to-image model was developed by StabilityAI with the goal of generating images from natural language prompts. The open sourced version of the model was estimated to have cost $600,000 to train using some of the latest available GPU processors (NVIDIA A100).

After stable diffusion generated this image, I used another tool called RealESRGAN, another open source tools that is used to make the image much larger. The stable diffusion model was trained on images that are typically 512x512 pixels in size, and so to get larger, but consistent image, you can upsize it. I first learned about this tool on a youtube channel that I have been subscribed to for several years. It's really amazing how you can go back in time and watch old videos that were made before you discovered a channel, and you find something really interesting.

If you look closely at the image above, you'll start to see places where things don't look right, and this is the real hard problem to be solved here. The AI get's a great deal right, and even the problems you see ere can be resolved with iterations. In fact, in the intervening few weeks since stable diffusion was released, there are have been an increasing number of tools (also open sourced) that are built to help with the workflow needed to be successful with creating new art that is not noticeably created by AI.

Oddly enough, the real controversy here is that people are already having a hard time discerning between human generated art, and AI generated art.

I'm sure in the next few weeks we will start to see additional capabilities in their nascent stages. I've already seen previews of AI generation for videos, and no doubt 3d objects is not far behind. I'm especially excited about the workflows that will enable the creation of highly detailed and interesting metaverse experiences without having to require hundreds of hours of development effort.

What experiments are you doing?

2022-08-27T00:42:00.002-05:00

New technology is amazing, and with ever better technology, comes also the opportunity to try things that were far too complicated for a person to do all on their own.

This weekend I've already been able to experiment with some incredible AI based tools that will allow you to translate text to speech, text to voice, text to image, text to video and so much more. My favorite so far this week has been the release of Stable Diffusion as an open-source text to image capability that you can run on your own computer! I found out about this from a great (and still small) youtube channel run by Matt that just shares what he is finding in the Text To ____ AI space.

I'm sure there will be more to come from what I am learning. Maybe I can hook AI things to the update of the website that I am planning. Who knows... the future is full of possibilities!

Hello World from Arduino

2019-05-14T19:35:00.003-05:00

So, in the spirit of posting things that are worth something, perhaps to someone, I’m starting out with the projects I’ve been working on, but haven’t really taken the time to talk about or highlight. It’s actually great that I can pick things up again by posting something that I’ve actually completed, so, here goes what I’ve been working on in the microelectronics world.

My first full and completed project is something that most people would use a simple string for. In fact, I have a string in my garage for parking my car, but it’s fun to make things and I wanted to learn… so I made a parking helper with an arduino UNO board (really it’s a clone, but everyone calls them that because arduino got it started).

The project uses an adaufruit charlieplex, an ultrasonic sensor and a classic infrared sensor (like you’ve seen in home alarm systems) to display the distance from the back wall in centimeters (yes, I’m an American, and I was too lazy to convert it to inches!).

I built the whole thing and posted it on my github if you are interested.

Hello World from Fusion 360

2019-05-14T19:34:00.002-05:00

fusion 360 3d design

Today’s image is brought to you by Autodesk’s Fusion 360. I’m a hobbiest, and they’ve done the most wonderful thing and allowed those of us wanting to learn 3d CAD to learn it without having to pay anything for the privilege!

I’ve been tinkering with Fusion360 since the end of last year when I began to use a new 3d printer. Over time, I’ve found something interesting to go learn about, and picked it. The great thing for me is that you can become 80% effective at something and leave the other 20% to the experts.

So far, my exploits include: pool cleaner parts, replacing broken plastics parts of things I’ve bought at the store, trays, boxes, cases, mounts, and the moment of greatest pride a brand new handle for my daily coffee mug (I got it all right on the first try!)

Technology, Humanity, and Me

2018-07-28T14:21:00.000-05:00

Each day I get up and consider all the projects I have in my life.... family, faith, work, home, hobbies, investing, maintenance, education, experimentation...

What to work on?! There is so much wonderful, exciting, amazing, things to explore and learn about. I recently had the chance to experience the Hamilton play, and one two details of the play stuck out to me... That Alexander Hamilton "read every treatise he could get his hands on" and he "[wrote] like [he] was running out of time". That was over 200 years ago. Today, we can write any time we want, with practically zero friction to the process of thinking to writing to editing to publishing. This blog is a prime example. I can write this post in a few minutes and publish it with the click of a single button and the whole world can practically read it.

This acceleration in time from idea to share to implement applies to every part of the human experience. This is the tragedy of our current technological existence. We have within our reach to do practically anything, in a way that no other existence has allowed.

It's wonderful that I find myself overwhelmed. I wonder that I was ever board as a kid. In fact, I wish I had some of that time back, so that I could use it to something more interesting. Alas, that is not possible, and even today I don't spend every waking moment on projects. We must take the time to stop. We have slow down to experience what goes on around us, and to take it all in. We as humans are beginning to truly appreciate the wonders of our own existence, and technology (for me at least) has only served to more clearly show the incredulity of our existence.

There is such a mix of realities... from small to large; simple to complex to ponder. If you can't understand it, there is likely a model of it, that someone has thought up to help aid in understanding it. That in itself, is a wonder. Models... are just that: not reality. But they are extremely useful in understanding complex things. We may not actually understand the thing we are studying, but models can help us understand some parts of the whole, and thus our understanding (while imperfect) is improved.

Beyond that though, it is incredible to realize what we DO understand. The mastery of the controlling the electron and capturing physics to launch into space. How have we allowed ourselves as a people to lose the excitement of these incredible achievements!? We must, because there are a million things that exceed or extend these two technologies alone.

The Information Technology Revolution

2016-10-20T20:18:00.000-05:00

The Information Technology industry was a clear choice for me as I entered college. However, if you'd asked me what I was going to do with my life when I started high school, I had a very different idea about my career.

When I entered high school, I was dead set on becoming an aircraft pilot. I was obsessed with all things aviation. I loved to stop and watch plains as they flew past. I enjoyed flight simulations on the computer, air shows, museum exhibits, the family vacation trip to Colorado included a stop at the Air Force Academy... and that was going to be my school.

Until it wasn't, because I couldn't.

Right about the time I was getting better at doing physical fitness (so that I could pass those difficult physical tests to even get started at the Academy) an Air Force recruiter called my house looking for me. I had filled out some form indicating my interest, and he was following up. We chatted for a little while about my plans to enter the service as an officer via the Academy. It was excited and I was already hard at work on my academics and physical preparations (despite some very painful experiences with shin splits, ouch!).

Anyway, one thing let to another and we were talking about my physical preparations and I happened to mention my having been born with asthma. I was relating how working hard and running every day was showing improvement and that I didn't even seem to have asthma problems anymore.

And the he said, "I'm sorry to hear than Daniel."

What do you mean, "I'm sorry?"

"You can't be in the United States Air Force if you have asthma," he said.

"But I don't anymore, I've grown out of it," I said.

"It doesn't matter, if you've ever had asthma you're disqaulified for serving with the USAF," he said.

Well that was a major disappointment. I didn't know what to do. I was completely lost for career direction. Everyone told me that no one really knows what they want to do in the middle of high school, but I DID know. I wanted to go to be a military man in the Air Force!

Well, it turns out that my aviation obsession ultimately let to my career in IT. It turns out, that trying to run Microsoft Flight Simulator was a fairly hefty job for the family computer. I spent lots of time on the computer, fixing the computer, and trying to make FS95 run better with higher graphics.

So here I am, a career IT guy, and I love it. It's probably all for the best too. Computers run EVERYTHING. I mean everything. It's pretty much impossible to buy a car, an appliance, a house, or even toys without some kind of computer it in. Some things are more computer than others, but chips run code. Computer chips are absolutely ubiquitous.

And so, now comes the interesting part. You see, I'm a type 'A' personality. Not perhaps in all aspect of my life, but it's fair to say that when it comes to my career, I'm all about it. Do it right, make it better, help people... these are the things I live by. We all fall short sometimes, but these are the goals. With great goals come challenges, and challenges lead to searching for new ways to improve, learn from our mistakes and do better.

Which leads me to the point. If you obsess about doing better, you work in IT, and you want to learn, I have a serious piece of information to share with you. And buy the physical book. (I know, I love my kindle too, but people will see you reading this book, you can put it on your shelf at work and it'll be more fun to read)

There is a book you MUST read. If you're not sure if you care or not, read this book first.

The Phoenix Project

Otherwise, just buy this book. Trust me. This is the first book in my career (that's not a reference manual) that is useful for IT work. Do it now. Just click on the book. You can thank me later.

The DevOps Handbook

Seriously, why did you just go past the links for the books? There's nothing else here to read, except to buy the book(s) and get started. You don't need to do anything else right now, buy the book and get started.

The Cloud Journey

2016-04-11T19:43:00.001-05:00

My head is in the clouds.

It's going to be a long ride, but I know it will be worth.

I'll win some battles and lose some battles, but no matter how long it takes, we are moving to the cloud.

Some understand what the future hold and others are content to let it pass them by. For me, it is a tremendous opportunity to unlock capability and enhancement.

It is an opportunity to optimize and revamp. It is an opportunity to improve and change culture and paradigm.

It's really like any other IT project. It takes patience, determination skill and effort.

I know it will be worth it.

PowerShell Invoke-Command with -computername object/hash/array

2015-05-26T13:28:00.002-05:00

Note to Self:

When using Invoke-Command -ComputerName $nodes.ComputerName, write the scriptblock such that the computername is echoed with the result.

Invoke-command -ComputerName $nodes.ComputerName -Credential $mycred -ScriptBlock {"$ENV:ComputerName, $(test-path D:\folder\file)"}

This will ensure you get the answer at the same time as the computername. All other attemps are problematic, and test-path doesn't automatically trigger the ComputerName field in the returned dataset.

Published on GitHub

2015-01-19T12:43:00.002-06:00

We'll despite my lack of activity on the blog, I've been busy.

Not so much IT busy, as personal busy. Since I last posted here, we've added another family member (bringing our little home occupancy to 4), dealt with complex and frustrating work situations and survived to tell the tales.

I've also discovered github.com and found it to be interesting and perhaps even useful. As more and more cloud services become available, I like to try them out. Sometimes it's worthwhile, but mostly it's yet another user account to keep track of in my password manager of choice.

Regardless, I've now completed another version update to my code snippets program written in AutoIT called DLTray. Since I built the first version in 2007, it's been updated and modified, but over that period of time, I have found it to be an indispensable program, mostly because it does EXACTLY what I built it to do!

I'm trying to get into publishing some of my more useful PowerShell snippets, but, it's hard to pick and choose what might be useful for someone else. The practical reality is so that so much of what I use daily is contrived from other work posted on the web, it feels somewhat redundant to post my own, but that's exactly what I intend to do.

So, as I digest other's work and figure out how to put it to use, I will be posted useful bits of powershell to the other project I have on GitHub. Funny enough, those postings can be used with DLTray, so, in a way, it's all related.

If you have a need to post repetitive bits of information anywhere (of any kind code, comments, directions, etc, I highly recommend checking out DLTray. I know it's not perfect, but I can say honestly that it has saved me far more time that I've spent on it, so it's been worth it for me to develop it and continue customizing it for my daily use.

Perhaps as time passes, I can turn this into a code snippet sharing blog that can be used with DLTray over the long run.

If you come across it and find it useful, let me know. You'll find it a GitHub.com/danlemire.

Enjoy!

Google Services

2013-08-03T22:38:00.001-05:00

Ok, I've had enough. It's just too much to bear. Google shutters google reader because google+ is supposedly where it's at. There is just one problem. With RSS, I get good information and none of the junk.

Case in point. I open google+ today, I'm ties into webdev, arduino, 3d printing and several other groups. What I get in my feed is junk like

"Hi all, I'm going to build my first HTML web page today can you help me?"

Seriously?! This is going to replace quality RSS feeds? No. No. No. Just no.

This is the problem with crowd anything. There is no substitute for quality information. I want to be connected to the people that know what they are doing. If I wanted to work with IT people that were doing it for the first time, I could go just about anywhere on the Internet.

I'm not saying I'm not interested in helping people. I'm just saying that when I sit down to catch up on what I am missing I don't want to see petitions for for help from someone else. I want to hear about what they did and how it works. If you want to learn go to school. Google the topic. Don't just ask for non-specific help.

And google, you're not doing me any favors. I need you to use Ray Kurzweil to whip up some pattern recognition mojo to filter out that junk. Don't make me have to weed thought it when I am trying to learn.

We're moving in the wrong direction here Google.

It's not too late to fix google+ but I don't see reader coming back and that is a great loss to me and those who trusted it.

I've found a substitute in Feedly but its no google reader.

And in a few more weeks ill go through it all over again with Igoogle. Oh well.

I guess I just have to remember that when it comes to IT, you get what you pay for and you can't complain when it's free.

Social Media Explained

2012-09-18T12:41:00.001-05:00

Sometimes very simple explanations are the best.

http://www.howtogeek.com/124758/social-media-explained-with-bacon/

Verizon Westell 9100EM scheduled reboot

2012-03-29T22:15:00.003-05:00

I recently moved into a new house. Fortunately for me that means I now have a fiber connection to the Internet. Unfortunately, it brings yet another telco provided piece of equipment that leaves alot to be desired.

Today's cheap equipment is the Westell 9100EM. This device is fine, until you want to secure your wireless and turn on WPA. Apparently, using the WPA makes the device rather unstable. In my case, everything seems to work for about a week, and then my wife's MacBook can't communicate with our Xerox printer. Since she is a freelance Graphic Designer, printing is kind of important.

This led me to looking for a way to reboot the router on a regular basis to keep everything happy. But alas, the router software does not provide a way to schedule reboots.

The scripter in me says "I can write a script for that", so I went looking for the easiest way to get it done. The solution came in the form of AutoIt Script. (autoitscript.com). Since I know I'm probably not the only guy out there with this problem, I'll share. This script is written for firmware version 1.03.00.08.

$oIE = ObjCreate("InternetExplorer.Application.1")

If @error Then
 MsgBox(0, "", "Error opening Internet Explorer: " & @error)
 LogThis("IE Object Open Failed")
 Exit
EndIf

$oIE.Visible = 1
$oIE.RegisterAsDropTarget = 1
$oIE.RegisterAsBrowser = 1

;steps to achieve reboot
;18 to advanced
;25 to Yes
;27 to reboot
Dim $routerAddress, $selectAdvanced, $selectReboot, $selectYes,$user,$pass
 
$user = "usernameGoesHere"
$pass = "passwordGoesHere"
$routerAddress = "http://192.168.1.1"
$selectAdvanced = "{TAB 18}{Enter}"
$selectYes = "{TAB 25}{Enter}"
$selectReboot = "{TAB 27}{Enter}"
$oIE.Navigate($routerAddress)
Sleep(5000)
Send($user & "{TAB}" & $pass & "{TAB}{ENTER}")
Sleep(5000)
Send($selectAdvanced)
Sleep(1000)
Send($selectYes)
Sleep(5000)
Send($selectReboot)
Sleep(5000)
Send($selectYes)
sleep(5000)

$oIE.Quit
$oIE = 0

The next step is to build the .exe and add it to task scheduler for whatever time frame you need. Enjoy!

Why are my google results X?

2011-06-22T09:37:00.001-05:00

Google customizing search isn't just a function of cookies anymore.

http://lifehacker.com/5814100/the-problem-with-your-google-search-results-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

Great technology obsolescence

2010-05-23T17:10:00.001-05:00

One of the greatest tragedies of new technology is the ever growing problem of legacy technology. Software, hardware, middleware, operating systems… you name it. Especially as it relates to computer technology.

Unfortunately, the continual push to better/newer technology is that the old technology slowly slips into oblivion. Take Apple computer for instance… OS X is a fantastic advancement beyond OS 9. But, what if I’m happy with OS 9? What about an iPod, can you still use that generation 1 iPod with your fancy new Apple MacBook Pro? NO CAN DO!

This week, the challenge is Windows Server 2003. It’s old hat now. The new technology is Server 2008 R2. W2K3 is so old now that it will enter extended support by Microsoft on July 17, 2010. That lack of support by Microsoft also means that any new hardware that comes out after that date will not likely be supported by any vendor.

But forget about support in a few months. There are problems with driver support even now. Broadcom, a network technology vendor for many companies in the server hardware business, is now only providing a packaged driver setup for their hardware. It seems, even their technology has outgrown Windows Server 2003.

Don’t get me wrong, the problem I referring to here can be dealt with. Though it’s not simple, easy or fun, the problem can be solved. That said, it serves my point well. You can keep it alive for a while longer, but the returns are ever diminishing because of vanishing vendor support. It gets progressively more difficult to do simple tasks.

I believe that this is one reason that businesses have so much angst over technology. Vendors have taught them well that if they commit to a given technology, that there is no guarantee how long that technology will be around to depend on.

I’ll give you another great example of technology rot: Television. Have you been to the electronics store lately? Did you see even one CRT television anywhere in the store? Not likely. Everything is flat. Everything is HD. If you’re at all like me, you probably have 10+ year old television that your still making work because, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s not your fault that the TV stations don’t broadcast in the format the TV came out of the box with. It’s not your fault that someone came along and decided that they were too good for a square size program.

Eventually, we all give into the new technology, not necessarily because it’s better, but sometimes mostly because the old version was made obsolete by something newer or fancier, but not necessarily better.

I see it from the vendor side too. I develop software. I know what it means to release a new version that fixes everything about the old version that you just hated or tweaks that one little thing that didn’t quite work right. As a provider of anything, you strive to make your product better every time you release it. As you improve your product, your' expertise moves to the new product and away from the old because that is where you now spend all your time.

So, what’s the answer to the problem? I do know that some companies are better at it than others (this takes the Windows vs Apple argument to a whole new level). My goal is to design everything I build to work with new features as much as possible while preserving what’s old. I don’t always succeed, but at least I’ve thought about it and worked hard to keep things working for everyone for as long as possible.

New Toys, New Challenges

2010-01-01T15:08:00.001-06:00

It never fails. Buy a new gadget and discover to your dismay that the practical implementation of the software that comes with said new toy, is not as good as the marketing people would have you believe.

In this case, we’re talking about the Logitech G940 H.O.T.A.S. joystick system. (HOTAS is Hands on Throttle and Stick, and in this case also includes rudder pedals).

So, I open up my new christmas present and discover that it works, but only partially. When trying to us the setup with a few older games, the rudder pedals didn’t work, instead, the Trim control for the rudder axis was being used instead. To make a potentially very long blog post short, here is the solution to that problem, at least in the case of Search and Rescue 4 and Vietnam MedEvac, and without having tested, bets are this will make Battlefield 1942 and several other games work as intended as well. The great irony is, that this can only be done by NOT using the provide Logitech device drivers for the G940, you have to use the generic HID game device drivers in order for this to work, because the Logitech drivers split the controllers into 3 separate devices, and that just makes this problem even worse.

After flipping through the Microsoft HID/joystick specs, and I found a way to reorder the inputs so that Vietnam MedEvac will work!

This is a registry hack, so, beware of the possible consequences. Never the less, windows allows you to override what control is assigned to a given input when used with DirectInput.

Steps for Windows 7 x64 (I haven't tried on XP, and I probably won't.

1.) Assign the generic HID/USB gameport device drivers to the G940. This makes it such that the G940 shows up as one device.

2.) open regedit.

3.) Search for G940

4.) you'll eventually come to the hive for HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-####-####\ System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VID_046D&PDI_C287\

5.) Add a new key -> Axes

6.) Add new keys 0 through 6 (the key name is only a number 0,1,2,3,4,5,6)

7.) Add a binary value "Attributes" for each of the keys 0 thru 6

8.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 30 00 the the attribute for 0

9.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 31 00 the the attribute for 1

10.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 32 00 the the attribute for 2

11.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 33 00 the the attribute for 3

12.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 34 00 the the attribute for 4

13.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 35 00 the the attribute for 5

14.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 36 00 the the attribute for 6

Now, this just keeps things as they are. So to swap the Z rotation axis, and the Z axis, we just need to swap the attribute assignment.

10.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 35 00 the the attribute for 2

10.) Assign the value 01 81 00 00 01 00 32 00 the the attribute for 5

See what we did? Unplug the G940, wait a few seconds and plug it back in.

Go look at the properites in Game devices control panel now and see that Axis Z and Z rotation are swapped.

Similarly you could use this method for any of the axes that you want to change out.

Unfortunately, this only works when you don't use the Logitech drivers. But this also tells me that Logitech could easily fix this problem if they wanted to, all I had to do was take 30 minutes and read the WHDC documentation from Microsoft to move the axis assignments around.

Keep in mind however, that making this change could cause another game program to be mixed up on which axis goes where, but as I said, I have a suspicion that this will also fix the rudder pedals problem that I have with Battlefield 1942 as well.

Family Photography

2009-05-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

Family photos are not on my list of favorite things to do, but, sometimes, everything comes together at once. Big smiles, bright blue sky, picture perfect background and a person who knows how to use a camera. They all came together to make a great family photo.

3D-based Captchas become reality | Crave - CNET

2009-03-28T10:58:00.000-05:00

3D-based Captchas become reality | Crave - CNET

I'm fascinated by the idea of the CAPTCHA. Not the least of which, is the fact the CAPTCHA is an acronym. Because of the continuing risk/reward systems that all humans operate under, this convention is most probably here to stay.

What's funny to me regarding this 3D addition, is that in order to work around the system one of two things will need to happen.

1.) Spammers hire a person to do the work (and in that case, the CAPTCHA actually does exactly what it is intended to do: ensure a human is using the system.

2.) Computers are programmed to better recognize three dimensional objects from virtually any angle.

Option 2 is what intrigues me. I have to believe that someone is already working on this problem. Allbeit for use in robotics applications. If the spammers and hackers of the world decide to spend their time on option 2, the system will need to evolve again. Only this time we will have added the concept of computers recognizing three dimensional objects in the process. A process that we will need to have at somepoint in the future.

This has got me thinking, what other kinds of difficult computer recognition problems are out there? The best I can come up with at the moment is idiomatic expressions. The other problems I can come up with are already being worked on, or they've been solved (voice recognition and facial expressions recognition).

As a society we need to find ways to put value to the problems that we may hackers work on more valuable. These people spend loads of time working on a problem, so, let's give them a problem that really needs to be solved.

There are no new ideas

2009-01-24T16:55:00.001-06:00

If you spend any time around me, you’ll hear me say this phrase somewhat regularly. As I have now been working in the IT industry for 10 full years, obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Business Computer Information Systems and a Master’s degree in Information Technology, it becomes more and more clear to me that there are no new ideas, only a new way to implement the same old ones.

For instance, take ERP system such as SAP and PeopleSoft. There is absolutely nothing new about putting your business information into a computer. In fact, the only new about the an ERP system is that is has more information available, in a shorter period of time, and in a way that people can understand. Hmm, that sounds a bit like a chart… more information available, short time, more people can understand…. exactly.

The same goes for the various kinds of computers systems that run today corporations and small business. 30 years ago we talked about virtualization on the mainframe, and now we talk about on mid-range or mini-computers. Still virtualization, still the same old making one computer look like or act like many computers at the same time.

I find that extraordinary. So, really, the big ideas are not new, only new ways to implement the same old ideas that have already been proven successful decades, centuries or millennia ago.

Master of Information Technologies

2009-01-10T23:08:00.001-06:00

After completing my Master of IT in May of 2008, I’ve now had some time to reflect back on both the experience and it’s implication for my daily work as an IT professional.

Probably the most startling revelation that I take away from the experience is that most IT people are IT because of the technical interest. That IT is any help at all to the BUSINESS, is only coincidental. As IT people, struggling with the bits and bytes, we sometimes loose sight of what all our efforts are for.

If IT people fail to see how IT can help the business, we’re all doomed to failure. We must, as individuals, departments, divisions and companies understand how IT is critical to the business (whatever business that may be) and strive to find how IT can serve and not be served.

Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History (VIDEO)

2008-06-24T08:51:00.001-05:00

Amazing look into the Lego secret vault.

read more | digg story

Building Websites - Screen Resolution

2007-06-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

Why does my site look like X when I view it on one computer, and like Y when I view it on another computer?

The answer is likely to be screen resolution.

Many times when I get the opportunity to sit down with a client and discuss their website, screen resolution is discussed more often than not. Screen resolution is so frequently discussed in meetings that it's time for me to do a write up, so that I can use it as a reference later. I figured that if I'm going to write it up, that I might as well put it on the blog so that perhaps someone else could benefit from it as well.

What is Screen Resolution?

Screen resolution is usually a user controlled setting that controls how may pixels can be represented on a screen at any given time. The most common misconception I see with screen resolution is that it has something to do with the physical size of the monitor. Let me be clear, monitor size has nothing to do with the screen resolution.

Why is Screen Resolution an issue?

Screen Resolution affects how much area a website will fill on a given screen. If you are using a low resolution (e.g. 800 x 600), you will only see about 800 pixels horizontally on your screen. Many websites are built to fit horizontally into an 800 x 600 resolution screen. If you are using a resolution higher than 800 x 600, and the site is built to horizontally fit into an 800 x 600 resolution screen, there will be extra space on either or both sides of the website. In some cases, a site has been constructed to fill the screen regardless of the screen resolution. This is the ultimate goal with any site design, however, not every design can be made to function this way.

For example, obchinc.com, is made to fill the screen regardless of resolution, in contrast, fredlemire.com, is built to fit in the browser window of an 800 x 600 pixel resolution display.

There are many ways to deal with the screen resolution issue. Many technology related sites has elected to build their sites to fill up the screen real estate on a much larger display. This is a problem if you are using a display with lower resolution. If your display is using a lower resolution than the one the site was intended for, you will see horizontal scroll bar appear on the screen, so that you will be able to see the whole site.

SeeDragon/Photosynth demo

2007-06-21T13:52:00.000-05:00

This is incredible. Amazing. The conglomeration of social interaction and exploration accessible to anyone. This is web 3.0, the semantic web in the making. Thanks to Tim Fehlmen (DailyCupofTech.com) for posting this one his blog for me to find!

How Online Criminals Make Themselves Tough to Find, Near Impossible to Nab - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

2007-06-05T13:52:00.000-05:00

How Online Criminals Make Themselves Tough to Find, Near Impossible to Nab - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

This is a really great article about online crime. Today, identity theft is a major problem, and law enforcement lacks the resources, tools, manpower and time to deal wit identity theft properly. This is just more indication that identity theft or data that is really a matter of time... not if, but when.

Optimus Maximus keyboard

2007-05-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

Optimus Maximus keyboard

Wildly Expensive. Amazingly Functional. The future of keyboard evolution. The Optimius Maximus keyboard has a very appropriate name. It's a work of art, but, just like great art, you pay a high price. This keyboard weighs in a about $1500. What's so different about it that makes it work $1500? Every key on this keyboard is a small OLED screen. You can change the keys display. Say you want to type in chinese. No problem. A new keyboard layout? sure.

Many people have seen and used keyboards on touch screens. You may have even seen the infrared keyboard projector for a palm or handheld device. But this is different. For me, it's all about tactile feedback. I want a button that depresses so that I can tell I have actually activated the key. Software keys just don't offer the kind of touch feedback I need.

Perhaps not now, but someday in the future, I can definitely see more and more new and innovative interface products. Because, the reality is, not everything can be done with voice commands, somethings are just meant for the keyboard.