Archive for November, 2007

My friend Thomas Hawk is an excellent photographer.  He uses state-of-the-art equipment and takes a few gigs worth of photos every day.

I point and shoot a lot with my Canon SD850IS.  Ain’t too much in the way of “photography as art” goin on with this camera. I think the above photo might just be the best picture I’ve ever taken, and I felt like sharing.

Just read this at CNN. In a single world: gah!

Not sure which is my favorite most terrible highlight… it could be:

While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

or else it’s this:

he problem could get worse. Most of the 2 million tons of old electronics discarded annually by Americans goes to U.S. landfills, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. But a growing number of states are banning such waste from landfills, which could drive more waste into the recycling stream and fuel exports, activists say.

You know, I’m not perfect at my recycling efforts, but I certainly seem to do a better job than this!  The wife and I are doing small amounts of composting too (in a very non-smelly way).  Just makes me feel good.  Then I read articles like this one and feel like I got punched in the gut…

When Family Guy opened the season with a Star Wars parody episode, I received calls, texts, and emails from friends asking if I saw it.  I did, although a bit late, by which it was built up as having Best. Episode. Ever. status.  Yup, it was funny, but I didn’t find it over the top or anything.  However, at the very end there was a clever riff about a Robot Chicken Star Wars episode, and a friend of mine sat me down to watch it.  Hysterical.  And, if you (like me) aren’t into Robot Chicken, that’s fine, it’s all about the SW.  Enjoy.

Somehow in the midst of continuing a senseless war against evil (despite ignoring the situation in Darfur – must be “not that evil” down there) while vetoing healthcare plans for children, the president has made a move that seems to be good for the American people.  And not just the uber-rich ones either!  Go USA!

and I can own my favorite hockey team.  I better come up with one heck of a good idea sooner or later, eh?

Had to contact a few “big companies” this past week, and I ended up using a site called gethuman.com.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great site that has the 800 numbers that get you (typically) straight to a live person, rather than dealing with the automated systems.  In a word: awesome.

A few weeks ago I was invited to play Weewar by Sal over at geek.com.  It only takes a few minutes a day to play, but it’s super-addictive if you are a fan of old-school strategy games like Ogre.  The team there seems pretty dedicated to making this huge, and I hope they pull it off.  It’s fun to have a game you can play in brief timeslots and not feel like you are always getting beat up on by 14-year-olds.

Not sure how it happened, but over the past week I’ve been a terrible emailer.  My usual policy is basically to do the instant respond, delete, or archive approach whenever I check email.  I’ve let it slip for about a week, and am woefully behind.  I wouldn’t exactly called it a Sisyphean task, but it ain’t pleasant.

As I had predicted (fairly foolishly since I really don’t know a thing about autonomous robotics), Carnegie Mellon’s truck was the big kahuna this weekend.  Well done Tartans!  That thing musta had a HEMI…

Anyone who went to Carnegie Mellon in the past 15-20 years is well-aware of the school’s proficiencies in robotics (despite the fact that they put “Athletics” as the fourth link on the home page – huh?).  Heck, my old roommate (and great friend) once even blew one up, and built another one that was really really really good at looking at trees. Ah, fun robotics.

The annual DARPA challenge for unmanned vehicles pits a bunch of teams against each other, with the race to get an autonomous vehicle from one place to another.  Despite years and years of research, there still tends to be a lot more breakdowns than completions.  This weekend, they’re at it again, and all I can say is Go Tartans Go!

It’s always been a little tricky rooting for a, er, well, piece of cloth as a mascot.   At least it’s not the Carnegie Mellon Bagpipers…