I'm the messiah. Humpter Di Humpter Doo

Happy birthday Missy!

2009-03-04T21:54:26Z

Happy birthday viciousladybug!

social feed broadcasting /

2009-02-23T20:54:09Z

Anybody have a good suggestion for social feed broadcasting tools? I've got most of my feeds (LJ, Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress blog, etc.) aggregated into Netvibes, which is nice, but having a way to post to them at the same time (with the option to only post to a subset) would be awesome. Bonus points if it's open-source and you don't need to sign up for yet another account.

There's HelloTxt, but I was wondering if there are any other options people like out there.

I'm trying to ramp up my online (and offline) social interactions to pre-thesis levels. We'll see how this goes.

Fun is had when you adventure with friends

2009-02-19T04:47:08Z

The console war is officially over

Happy birthday drysil!

2009-02-18T02:34:57Z

Happy birthday drysil!

World of Goo

2009-02-01T01:14:08Z

I just heard a rumor that Brighter Minds, the indie publisher behind World of Goo, filed for bankruptcy. If you haven't played the game, check it out. It's available for the Wii on WiiWare and also for the PC.

The gameplay and concept is original and addicting, and the art is this great mix of Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton.

Vagina: It's not a clown car

2009-01-30T23:23:36Z

Vagina: It's not a clown car
Originally uploaded by Skyzyx

No, it isn't

monkeymodulator @ 2009-01-29T20:01:00

2009-01-30T01:03:59Z

Obama's stimulus plan passed the house, without a single Republican voting yes.

Beautiful.

It's mustard Richard. MUSTARD.

2009-01-28T05:59:51Z

More mustard than any man could consume in a month.

WSJ Trolling

2009-01-23T04:11:35Z

Chrysler trolls America in the WSJ, America takes the bait.

They did it for the lulz.

New project for the new year

2009-01-02T03:42:42Z

I won't bore anyone with a big long post about my year and crap. A quick summary:

thesis FAIL
job WIN

So yeah, no more thesis, but I'm probably heading to Seattle in June.

Now on to the interesting stuff. I've put it below in a cut because there are some screenshots.

The death of my thesis, which I'm coming to realize I really didn't care about, has opened up more time to work on projects that do interest me. One of those things is educational software. Does anyone remember LOGO? Turtle graphics? For a brief period in the late 70s and early 80s, thousands of schools throughout the country introduced children to a computer language called LOGO. Kids could program a little computer turtle (usually represented as a triangle) to move around on screen. The creators of Logo (primarily Seymour Papert) saw it as a revolutionary new educational philosophy. The idea was to get children actively involved in the learning process. Students learn by actually creating and interacting with their world.

LOGO has since died off, but it impacted a lot of people, including myself. For an entrepreneurship course this past semester, we wrote business plans. My business plan was for a software company that designs revolutionary educational mobile software. Software like LOGO and Robot Odyssey.

So, over the past week, I've been working on a LOGO implementation for cell phones. I have an initial version running now, which you can see below in an emulator:

It looks simple, but underneath that simplicity is a full programming language. To assist users who are on cell phones without keyboards, I used a menu system like the one used in the wonderful Calc project:

Hopefully, I'll have a version that's releasable this weekend. If anyone wants a copy beforehand, let me know. I've got versions for MIDP 2.0 devices (most cell phones out there now) working, and I'm adding a BlackBerry port now.

monkeymodulator @ 2008-11-05T01:53:00

2008-11-05T06:56:38Z

Biden can get a dog too

Obama's first act as President: Puppies for all!

Seriously, feels like Christmas. Is that wrong? I realize I'm subconsciously supporting the whole messiah meme. Still, feels good.

Update on mom

2008-10-30T21:09:04Z

So, my mom is off the respirator and awake from the coma. They had to put her under a respirator because of a nasty case of pneumonia. Apparently, she's yelling at grandma about something from before the incident, so I guess things are back to normal.

HDR and tilt-shifted photography

2008-07-22T00:49:49Z

A few months ago I discovered HDR photography and today I discovered Tilt-shift. The actual photos are real, they've just been enhanced with filters.

Fucking brilliant

2008-07-20T19:32:36Z

via the slog

Related to this is the Downfall (Der Untergang) remix meme

How Obama lost my vote

2008-07-17T07:31:42Z

The National Security Agency. Who here really knew about the NSA before this latest bruhaha over FISA? Let me tell you a bit about the NSA.

Over 30 years ago in 1975, before I was even born, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Frank Church, referring to the NSA's capabilities, said:

"That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide."

That was over 30 years ago. Before Apple was even a company. Most of our desktops now are faster than the fastest supercomputers they housed in their basement to break secret codes. The Cray-1 was only 80Mhz. Most new machines are over 1000MHz.

Cray-1 supercomputer

And we use information technology for so many more things nowadays. It's become an indispensable part of our lives. In many ways, it's become invisible. We carry around pocket telephones that can instantly connect us with people on the othe side of the world, and it's a completely natural act we don't even think about. We print out directions and shopping lists and letters without even realizing we're operating our own publishing house, running a miniature printing press.

We also don't realize each of these new technologies has legal and technical infrastructure built in to tag, track and identify us.

Almost every printer in the US prints a series of nearly invisible yellow dots that can be used to identify the serial number of the printer, along with the time and date the sheet was printed. Recently, an article in USA today quotes Lorelei Pagano of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group as saying the Secret Service is the only U.S. body that can decode the information. She lies.

Several months ago, I wrote on LJ about the dangers of cell phone tracking. Because of safety laws enacted under the guise of protecting people, every new cell phone can be remotely tracked, pinpointing the user's location. As I predicted, this is starting to be abused.

Now imagine that a single organization had access to all of this information at once. Your location, your speech, your publications, all your output, and because they have access to everyone else's output, almost all of your input too.

Which is why the Church Committee, chaired by Senator Church, led to the creation of of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The thing many Americans don't realize is this potential abuse wasn't just potential, even in 1975. Nixon was caught placing bugs in Democrat's offices. The FBI was not only spying on citizens, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., but was also actively harassing them.

The FISA act was put in place to prevent abuse by those in power. Not just Bush, but people like Nixon, Hoover, and any future power-hungry monsters.

And now Obama wants to take it apart. And the internet is pissed. Obama previously stated he was against the bill, and supported a filibuster., then he voted for it.

But the kicker is his campaign's stance on the issue:

"Come on, who really cares about that issue? Does anyone think the left is going to vote for McCain rather than Obama?"

The arrogance is unbelievable. No, I won't vote for McCain, but I'm surely not voting for you until you undo this damage. Without privacy, we can't organize to enact change. Change on the environment, women's rights, and other important issues.

I'll post more later, this is just a start.

Mt. Rainier

2008-07-17T05:40:48Z

This past weekend I went w/ a bunch of the other interns to Mt. Rainier.

A group of about 50 interns decided to plan a trip to Mt. Rainier for camping and hiking. It was a beautiful weekend, perfect for making s'mores and hiking through the park. I won't talk too much in this post, I'll let the photos do the talking.

Here's a picture of Rainier on the way:

You can actually see it from my apartment building, which is kind of cool. A freakin' mountain!

Here's a picture about 30 mins outside the park:

And a waterfall:

I've got more pictures up on my flickr account:

Mt. Rainier photo set

mistaken foolishness

2008-06-27T18:48:45Z

So, I picked up a refurbished xbox 360, even though I'd heard it was plagued with hardware issues. The infamous Red Ring of Death.

And of course it dies a week later. Sigh. I call up Microsoft XBox support, where I am greeted by some automated system. Once I eventually reach a human, Annie with the Indian accent introduces herself. We go through all the troubleshooting steps for the hundredth time, and finally she OKs a repair order. But then the kicker. She can't put in the repair order because their support system is down. Can I please call again later? Sigh. So today I finally get them to send out a box for shipment.

I completely understand why Microsoft rushed the hardware. They want to capture the software development market for games. Get people using DirectX/XNA, and lock them into a single platform, namely the Microsoft platform. Developing for multiple systems is a pain, and Microsoft's development software is usually brilliantly easy to use. And the more people who develop games for windows/xbox, the larger the market and the more incentive there is for future developers to release games for it.

But they're taking a major hit on their reputation with the hardware issues. The thing is, I don't know if it matters in the long run.

finding myself in the city

2008-06-09T06:44:14Z

Ahh, the city. I'd forgotten how much I miss it. Ok, not really, I knew all along how much I missed it. But I HAD forgotten certain aspects that you don't really notice until you're gone.

Take for example the spit on the sidewalks. Living in Ann Arbor, you don't see a lot of people spitting on the sidewalk, but it's almost impossible to avoid in the city. Every street thug or wannabe seems to have this part of their brain that compels them to shoot high-velocity phlegm balls, usually as people walk past. There's some hidden social pecking-order thing going on here, in this distribution of spit. Looking down at the concrete, you see blobs of yellow, brown and green scattered around. It creates a kind of urban mucous maze that must be navigated with skill and precision, lest you step on a gob.

Part of me thinks this would make a great art exhibit. Macro photographs of phlegm, enlarged and mounted in some trendy art gallery in pioneer square. Black suited intelligentsia standing around discussing how, like the city itself, each gob is filled with life, millions of organisms trying to make it. It's all bullshit of course, but if I can get some yuppies to give me money for pictures of spit, so be it.

I'm not finding it quite as easy to make friends here as in SF. Ed, an old friend from SF, has introduced me to his English grad student buddies, and they're cool and friendly. shawboy has introduced me to his buddies, and they're great. But I just haven't found my "tribe". I know that word's very hip, I'm invoking the Cory Doctorow by even mentioning it, but I think it describes something very real.

There's drama in Seattle right now. The word on the street is "condo". Every conversation you get into, somehow the rampant construction of condos comes up. Long time residents in Capitol Hill, Belltown, and downtown are getting kicked out of their places as more and more condos go up. Gentrification sums it up pretty well.

I don't identify myself as part of the invading bourgeoisie barbarians (very clean and neat barbarians, but no less uncouth). But as I was listening to NPR while driving a Toyota Prius Zipcar to pickup some electronic toys at Fry's with money earned from my internship, I realized I'm part of it.

Yet, I love what I do. I'm an engineer, a geek. And I'm getting payed to do something I'm passionate about, something I'd do even if they weren't paying me. What the fuck is wrong with that?

But at the same time, I want to change things. I want to start a revolution. I may be benefiting, but I don't think it's a healthy system.

So yeah, this is my issue. Walking through the city with my hoodie up, Frightened White Women cross the street at the sight of me. Yet the gutter punks ignore me, or even worse, ask me for change; possibly the ultimate social tagging of an outsider for them.

I started reading On the Lower Frequencies, a new book chronicling a punk's life in San Francisco during the dotcom period. The story starts out focused on 6th street, and he mentions many places familiar to me. Taqueria Cancun, the donut and chinese places, the single room occupancy (SRO) housing on the street. It's all strangely familiar, but I don't know if I was every really a part of it, or just along for the ride.

I'm going to start hacking mesh wireless hardware/software. It's a project that I've had in mind since before I went to SF. Projects using ad-hoc wireless networks have actually taken off in many cities, including Seattle, but many of them have kind of puttered out. Instead of looking for my people, I'm going to try to build a community. I may lose interest, I may fail, but at least it's something to do.

lolercockter!!

2008-05-20T07:00:01Z

I'm a huge fan of griefing, acts of electronic civil disobedience or "virtual terrorism" if you're a bit too involved in your character on Second Life.

Anyways, one of the favorite tactics of griefers is attack by dildo. Well, today the virtual and real have joined, click below to see a video of Garry Kasparov assailed by flying dong.

It is truly awesome.

In other news, I'm in Seattle. It's great. I'll try to post pictures and update soon.

flickrvision

2008-03-13T07:04:34Z

Very cool mashup of flickr and Google Maps:

flickrvision

Usually I feel like punching Web 2.0 in the balls (or whatever genitalia it has) whenever I hear the term mashup. But this is a cool app.

Please call your representative about the illegal wiretapping compromise

2007-08-03T20:20:26Z

President Bush is pushing heavily to weaken judicial oversight over it's spying programs. A judge just ruled one of these programs illegal last week, and now President Bush is pushing for congress to pass legislation to allow it to spy on Americans:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20110725/

It looks like the Democrats may do what Democrats normally do: curl up in a ball and mumble "don't hurt us", giving in to the President's demands before vacation starts. Please, contact your senators and representatives to let them know this is unacceptable:

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/

new obsession

2007-06-25T08:31:15Z

I've got a new obsession: backpacking/camping/hiking.

I know what you're thinking, "He does know there's no power in the wilderness, right?" But believe it or not, I actually want to take a break from the computer. I love programming and hacking on the computer, but a vacation is sorely needed. Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods got me pumped up too.

At this point, my summer job ends at the end of this month, and I just want to take a month off and explore the country. I'm trying to convince Andrea to drive out to California, camping along the way.

Before I seriously invest in some equipment, I'd like to make a weekend trip somewhere nearby. I'm looking at the Waterloo-Pinckney trail, which is nearby, but I've heard Manistee National Forest is awesome. Any other recommendations for Michigan camping?

Happy Video Sunday

2007-06-03T19:14:19Z

It's raining over here, so I figured I'd post some amusing videos and pictures.

Sushi Bar Video

CatCam (Guy attached a hacked camera to his cat).

Family Guy Star Wars. It's a crappy cam capture, but awesome nonetheless.

Because the world needs more posts about horseradish

2007-03-11T07:13:12Z

I'm a big fan of horseradish. But it's a pita finding good horseradish at most grocery stores and I'm not crazy enough to try grinding it at home.

The problem is, most horseradish you find is "prepared", meaning it's adulterated with eggs and other crap. But Meijer (I know, big-box grocery, blah blah blah) has this awesome fresh ground horseradish. Perfect for sandwiches. Heh, adulterated is a total GRE word. Stupid GRE.

Haven't been updating lately (like in the past half-year) because grad school is crazy busy. I scored a graduate student research assistantship, then I decided to take 13.5 credits. Fortunately one was only a half-semester course.

Working a lot with complex networks, reputation systems, and some other cool stuff. I'll probably post more details on some of the work I'm doing later. I'm thinking about taking the master's thesis option, because I'm sick that way.

You know, I don't even know whether the master's in master's thesis needs an apostrophe? That's probably not a good sign, but it appears to be a common mistake: without with.

The Hacker/BMG of Ectomorph/Perspects show

2007-01-20T22:27:45Z

Yes yes, I haven't posted in like... well, a really long time. Anyways, just wanted to say if anybody is looking for something to do tonight, The Hacker, BMG of Ectomorph, and Perspects are doing a show tonight in Detroit:

http://interdimensionaltransmissions.com/

We'll be there. Should be good.