Category Archives: Thoughts

Soon, you won’t be able to believe your eyes

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Siggraph is an annual convention where companies and universities get together and impress each other as they each increase the state of the art of computer graphics.

This year seems no different. Two papers that seemed quite interesting were one on improving the attractiveness of faces in pictures and the other on replacing the face in a picture with another one but the one that really blew me away was the one on enhancing video using static images.

Not believing what you were seing had long been limited to the big screen or individually doctored photographs, but it will soon be hard to trust almost anything you don’t personally witness.

Project 68

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As most folks know I have quite a commute. Fifty-six miles door-to-door. It can be a bit of a drag at times, but it was the known down-side when we decided to move up here twelve years ago.

With the increasing price of gas, there is a growing trend for “hypermilers” which are folks that try to get the absolute maximum gas mileage out of their cars. To really make it work, you need to make physical modifications like adding airdams and spoilers. I read an article on it last week and heard that my car (a Honda Civic) is a popular model.

I’m not inclined to put any money into the effort, but I can certainly slow down. I decided, somewhat arbitrarily, to limit myself to 68 mph. It’s a fair amount lower than the 80 or so that I often go. Now, before you react, that speed on I-15 north of Escondido is quite common.

I’ll try to remember to post an update on how it’s going in a week or two.

Must… resist… urge…

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I am on vacation this week and I honestly have to resist the urge to check in on things at work. Granted, for the past weekend I was in the mountains near Yosemite so my Blackberry was of no use, but so far this is one of the longest periods I haven’t checked email at work. If you look at the screen of my Blackberry below you’ll see that I have 2,420 unread messages:

My blackberry screen

My blackberry screen

That is since Thursday night (I’ve been on vacation since Friday). I should note that most of the mail is automated and can be scanned through in just a few minutes, but the temptation to check on it is significant.

I do keep checking to see if I’ve been paged, but I will see if I can continue to resist. I’m just hanging at or around home this week so if something important comes up, I know I’ll be contacted. When I get back next Monday I’ll have quite a bit of mail to get through, but if I can make it, I’ll be better for it.

Radio is dead to me

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I listened to morning radio since high school. In fact, I listened to Jeff & Jer since they first started at B-100 in 1988 and followed them through their many station jumps.

As I got more into listening to podcasts, I would mostly have them on when I was at work. With work getting quite busy and stressful this past January, I realized that I was more productive when I turned them off as I felt I had this weird obligation to wait until a commercial break to do something not at my desk (I didn’t want to miss anything, you know). So, around February, I unceremoniously turned the radio off and haven’t turned it back on since.

Another reason radio is dead is my iPhone. Of course, I’ve had an iPod for years and have listened to my own music, podcasts, and Audible books. Having all of that content with me at all times on my phone is quite liberating. I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want.

With the release of the 2.0 software for iPhone and the support for 3rd party software, one of the applications I’ve been really enjoying is Pandora. The service (which is also available in a browser at their website) let’s you create a “radio station” based on a song or artist you identify. From then on songs are played that are similar as determined by the Music Genome Project. For each track that plays, you can give it a thumbs up if you think it fits and a thumbs down if you think it doesn’t. It is really cool to hit play, and listen to music you like and new music that you are likely to like all without commercial breaks, announcers or anything else that might get in the way.

One of the last benefits of radio for me is the opportunity to hear new music and to identify the songs that catch your ear. While Pandora identifies the songs you are listening to Shazam does one better for the music you hear on the radio, TV, movies, clubs, or elevator. It will take a 12 second sample of whatever is playing and using a really cool fingerprinting technology, identify the song, artist, and album. The results can be saved and it provides links to the iTunes music store for purchase and also YouTube links for similar content like music videos. You have to see it work to believe it.

For me, I don’t think radio is a big deal anymore. I know I don’t miss it.

A good time in life

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Things are really good right now:

  • The people at work are some of the sharpest I’ve ever had the honor to work with.
  • I still have more things to do than time to do it but that is improving daily.
  • My family is healthy (mostly) and we just love spending time together.
  • Becky and I are going to be able to spend some good time together this weekend.
  • I finally got my PS3 back at work and was able to get a new TV for it as well.
  • I really enjoyed my two most recent reads by John Eldridge: Wild at Heart and Walking with God.
  • My progression towards manager is slow but still progresses. In fact I’m being included in a trip next week to visit Insomniac (the studio that produced Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, as well as Resistance: Fall of Man.

I have no question that I am blessed. The real question is what the Lord has in store next and if I’m paying attention enough to not ignore it.

What were we thinking?

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Since I was quick to criticize Netflix for their plans to eliminate user profiles, it is only appropriate that I acknowledge and congratulate them on their recent decision to undo their plans.

Netflix is keeping profiles

I got a bit of a laugh when I saw the email as the tone when you read between the lines is quite funny. Something like “yeah, it was a dumb idea. The guy who o.k’d it is now working at 7-Eleven.” Either way, it was smart of them to listen to their customers.

A Google maps for booklovers?

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I ran across an interesting website the other day which was mentioned in a podcast I listen to. Zoomii.com uses a web interface similar to Google Maps but instead of panning streets, they let you browse stacks of books. Each book is represented in its relative size on a bookshelf and organized by category. Clicking on a book provides full information and provides an option to add it to your Amazon shopping cart or wishlist.

What intrigued me most about this site, other than an original interface which provides a really decent analog to walking through a bookstore, is the fact they are using Amazon’s affiliate program to make money and as a result there’s no advertising or overt efforts to “monetize the visit.” The price they present is the same as if you navigated to the same book using Amazon’s “up-sell at every turn” interface.

I’m always pleased when I see a truly unique idea. It seems the best ones are the ones that are completely obvious when you think about it.

What’s a little fire when you’re already hot?

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Becky and I are without kids this weekend and, of course, we decided to take the opportunity and go to CostCo. While purusing the normal selection of bulk items and picking up some of our standard selection of staples, Becky saw a very unexpected surprise.

We are fans of Daphnie’s Greek Cafe which is a Greek restaurant chain headquartered in San Diego (not far from my office, btw). One of the more enjoyable items they have is Fire Feta which is a really good feta cheese spread with all sorts of spicy additions. We get it every time we go there as it is quite tasty.

So, while checking out the deli section at the back of the warehouse, Becky found a 28oz container of Daphnie’s Fire Feta for $8.49. We promptly picked it up and swung by Henry’s to get some pita chips and we are good to beat the heat.