Yeah, the basic features on Wordpress.com allow my blog to look nicer than with Blogger. Also, I never felt too good about the URL I picked for use with Blogger. Treehouses can now be found at http://treehouses.wordpress.com/.

Labels: miscellaneous

I feel as though I've taken on too much responsibility this week. I bought renter's insurance, Alstom is shipping me off to Moscow, CCCP for the week of April 13, I made a claim using said renter's insurance, and bought a nice suit at Macy's.

The events concerning the insurance and the toilet reference in the title of this post boggle my mind. I signed for a policy Sunday evening, which I did not previously have, and this morning the toilet backed up, flooded the bathroom, and leaked into the unit downstairs. For serious. Having the foresight to get the policy is just as much an act of God as my crapper rejecting its breakfast. Consider also, that the affected neighbor downstairs enjoys listening to Christian rock in the early morning and late evening, praying out loud, and crying while he does so. He also talks very loudly on the phone for hours about how much he loves God and how his passion makes him a better person than folks like me, who aren't Jesus freaks. Act of God, indeed.

I am excited about going to Moscow. This adventure will include a lot of firsts for me:

• I've never visited a non-English speaking or non-Spanish speaking country.
• I've never flown for more than about four hours.
• I've never been so far from home.

To clarify that last statement, I've never traveled farther north than Toronto, farther south than Belize, farther east than Puerto Rico, or farther west than Las Vegas. That said, I can only imagine visiting Moscow for work related reasons because it really isn't relevant to me. I certainly respect and appreciate the city's history, but it's a history to which I don't belong. Furthermore, Moscow seems closer to nowhere than I'd travel to for the sake of traveling. I'm also nervous about the trip because it seems like the folks at Alstom's Russian branch are counting on my expertise on piping analysis. I'm told that I am supposed to answer their questions. I wonder if they have any idea what they are in for.

I hope to take plenty of photos with my new Holga in Moscow. In fact, I hope to take one of a Volga. I will consider the trip wasted if I do not achieve this goal.

Labels: adventure, god, holga, insurance, Lofts at the Mills, miscellaneous, moscow, religion, russia, toilet, volga

My hard drive crashed just before the New Year's party Kat and I threw. The timing for this was really poor because it meant that I was about to get drunk and enter 2008 fully aware of how stupid I was for not backing up the photos that I had taken and the music I had collected over the last 4 years.

So, I did some googling and came across the following solution: to boot from an Ubuntu Live CD, mount the bad hard drive, and copy the important files to an iPod. It appears to be working. Unfortunately, it seems like there are a few corrupted files here and there, but I've already recovered the vast majority of my photos and couldn't ask for more at this point.

Actually, I am hoping for Dell to speedily replace my bum hard drive, but that all depends on whether or not my computer came with at least a five year warranty.

Anyway, heed my cautionary tale. Back up your stuff. Hard drives suck.

Labels: crash, Dell, Hard Drive, iPod, linux, miscellaneous, recovery, Ubuntu

Here's a movie of my cousin Dave and I playing with my family's new dog, Diego, on Christmas. To be clear, he's been with us for about a month now; Diego didn't pop out of a box under the tree or anything. His original owners realized that they didn't have the time to keep a dog and they were probably pretty stunned by Diego's apparent bad luck. In his first year of life he's had two surgeries. One to remove a bunch of industrial paper towels that were blocking his intestines, and another to bolt his hip back together after an unfortunate meeting with a moving vehicle. So my dad decided to adopt him. As you can see in the video, this puppy is a lot of fun. He's mischievous too. Diego likes to eat things like shoe laces, gloves, socks, and imitation Uggs. I'm sure he'll come around in that regard. Hopefully Diego's luck has changed because he fits in really well with the Padillas.

Labels: Christmas, Dog, family, miscellaneous, pet

Once in a while, a really good idea comes along that I have trouble not thinking about. Such is currently the case with the pictured device, called the Bug, soon to be available from Bug Labs. What is it? The answer is that it is almost anything you want it to be, and it can do almost anything you want it to do. To be specific, the Bug is a hand-held computer base with which modules can be easily snapped on and off. The modules that will be available upon release of the product, which will be sometime in 2008, include a camera, GPS, motion sensor/accelerometer, and LCD touchscreen. The entire device is open source, from the hardware to the software. This means that the Bug can be configured to precisely the user's intention.

So, I could, for example, use the accelerometer module with a program that would take data points as my car coasts from, say, 60mph. From this data I could determine my vehicle's drag coefficient. Or I could connect the Bug to the headphone output of my radar detector. With the GPS module I could keep a record of the locations where radar signals are detected. Then, I could make the sound turn off whenever I am driving through an area where there are always false alarms.

Apple wouldn't build and sell such a device. Neither would Dell or Sony. That's precisely why the people at Bug Labs are so smart. A device that helps you determine how aerodynamic your car is will not sell. But, a device that can adapt to any specific function is a major shift from the realm of conventional consumer electronics, whereby the creators of the device attempt to tell you what you can and can't do. There are enough geeks that can appreciate this design philosophy to constitute a large demographic. I can't get over how Bug Labs achieves this versatility by having the Bug consist of simple building blocks, which dictate the functions of the device as a whole depending on selection and arrangement. The Bug is awesome for many of the same reasons that LEGOs are awesome.

The Bug could serve the purpose of an iPhone, should the user so desire. However, I do not imagine the two competing with each other. They are different products. The iPhone is a closed platform that does exactly what Apple designed it to do. Many consumers desire and are satisfied with Apple's innovation. The Bug is an open platform that allows the user to innovate. It will conform to the user. The community of users will find more uses for the Bug than a team of engineers could hope to incorporate into a closed platform device. Many consumers will find the utility of the Bug very attractive. I sure do.

Anyway, enough of me trying to sell this thing. The folks at Bug Labs do it better. Here's a link with videos.

Labels: Bug Labs, geek, iPhone, miscellaneous, toys

QED


The above comic was taken from xkcd.com.

Labels: AIDS, comics, HIV, miscellaneous, politics, science, String Theory, War on Drugs, War on Terrorism, xkcd

Finally, a video tour of my new apartment. You'll forgive the poor audio. My recorded voice always sounds bad and it didn't help that my Roomba was running in the background. Currently, the video is being hosted by YouTube and blip.tv. I did this because I wanted to compare the services. Eventually I will take down the one that I am least happy with.

Kat and I are really happy with the new place! Everything from the exposed brick to the paint job really suits our tastes. The apartment isn't brand new... we've been here since June, so we've had time to pick out furniture and set things up the way we like. So far, everyone who has visited has been really impressed. The place has also proved to be really good for parties. There's plenty of room for guests and shenanigans. As a bonus, we haven't received any noise complaints yet, meaning that we either have really tolerant neighbors or the place is well insulated.

Anyway, enjoy the tour!

Labels: apartment, Connecticut, Lofts at the Mills, Manchester, miscellaneous, other