I’m a geek. I grew up fascinated by animals, fossils, rainforests, and Star-Trek. Then my family got a 14.4 kb/s modem. I became a slave to the glowing screen, and I have been trying to master it ever since. Now, after a decade of experience, I’ve developed expertise in the organization, presentation and publication of ones and zeroes.
The Internet is certainly a worthy adversary, but lately I’ve been interested in some new areas.
Robots amaze me because they bring the precision and speed of software to the physical world. Even more incredible is the emerging technology available to engineers right now. Tools like on-demand 3D printing, inexpensive sensors, and open hardware empower tinkerers to build and refine functional prototypes at home. Very cool.
Renewable energy is crucial to our longevity, and the Sun has a lot to offer. Solar thermal collectors are a great choice for harvesting its awesome radiation. Massive arrays of low-cost mirrors could be robotically installed, monitored and serviced. The potential for scalability and automation is really intriguing.
The wheel-to-commuter ratio is seriously out of whack right now in Los Angeles. The joys of the automobile have been eclipsed by the consequences of over 1,000,000 cars on the road. Traffic jams, sedentary lifestyle, pollution, and fast food are just the tip of the dipstick. One car per commuter simply isn’t a sane or sustainable ideal; we need a cultural shift.
For humanity to persist indefinitely such that Jean-Luc Picard can become assimilated as Locutus of Borg, we’ll need a better way of getting stuff into orbit. The space elevator concept may seem far fetched, but with ongoing research in carbon nanotubes, laser power beaming, and (you guessed it) robotic systems, construction is conceivable.
Here’s some of the ongoign projects I’m working on. Nothing too fancy.
Building on the Halftone Calendar concept I developed in college, I launched a tool to design and print your own halftone calendars and posters. You can share your creation on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, download a preview PDF, or order a large print on-demand.
This PHP script I wrote takes JPG images and corrupts them by reorganizing some of their binary bits. The resulting image can be neato. It also works on video.
Before Flickr existed I wrote a PHP application to upload, sort, resize and display my digital photos. At the time it was actually pretty sweet, but now it’s obsolete. It still houses thousands of vacation, party, and squirrel photos that never made it over to my Flickr account.
The thoughts, opinions, and ideas expressed here are the result of an infinite number of cats walking on my keyboard for an infinite amount of time.
I haven’t owned a car since high school. When I moved to Los Angeles after college, I started riding a bike, walking, and taking the bus to work. Five years later, I’m sharing my commuting experience with anyone who might find it useful or interesting, since being carfree is awesome.
Here’s a little insight into my blood spatter experiment. You will need: 1 weapon; 1 victim.