Rik's Ramblings

Listening to Tony Bennett in the Rain

2012-02-13T10:21:00.001-08:00

After Tony Bennett's performance on the Grammys last night, I popped this on today while in the gym.

http://Sagar.org/cgi-bin/rd/amazon/B00004Z3SC

There's something very calming about listening to Tony with the rain pouring down around me.

Happy Day - surprisingly so for a Monday.

Roll over little donkey...

2012-02-09T09:37:00.001-08:00

Democrats announced Wednesday night that they would support the Republican-sponsored version of the bill in order to move it through the legislative process, but expressed hope that the final version would be closer to the Senate bill.

STOCK Act passes in House - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

When Obama uses the word "HOPE" in his campaign, I don't think he intended it to be used in a sentence like that.

We democrats HOPE republicans will change their mind and do it our way if we cave in now and agree to do it their way...

I think I'll vote republican this year. Just so I can be on the winning team!

Protesters March Toward Apple Stores ...

2012-02-09T09:17:00.001-08:00

How will Apple maintain their affordable low prices if they have to start paying their manufacturers more than a penny per device.

- Protesters March Toward Apple Stores On The Heels Of A Foxconn Hack - TechCrunch

Geeks talk to Eliza Dushku

2012-02-07T09:35:00.001-08:00

Wow, this is cringe worthy! Have these guys never seen a woman before.

http://cnettv.cnet.com/eliza-dushku-drops-404/9742-1_53-50118171.html

The heavy ginger guy looks particularly uncomfortable.

Wow, did you know that some ants have pets!

2012-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Well, OK, they don't keep them as pets, they keep Livestock, 7 minutes in:

... they carry their partners to new parts of the plant where the sap is sweeter, just as humans herd their domestic animals to new pastures ... moving with their domesticated mealibugs from plant to plant ... they even corral their flocks under large leaves when they sense the approach of a storm...

- Documentaries Online

Those tree ants are cool too.

Zippered face

2012-01-24T23:44:00.001-08:00

Nice!

Pointless consumer product fuels pointless consumerism

2012-01-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

I always thought tablets were pointless. Never saw the appeal of these underpowered, overpriced, input-mechanism-challenged laptop alternatives. Give me something with a keyboard would ya!

But now this!

Modern tablets have only been on the market for less than two years, but they have quickly become potent shopping tools that generate an outsized effect on online commerce.

- via Digg/GigaOm

This really makes me hate them even more! But it actually confirms my belief. Think about it ...

You're sat on the couch with your $500 toy, you should be happy right? Well, apparently you're not, but why? Well, you're unsatisfied and depressed, but why? You're unsatisfied and depressed because you are holding a pointless toy in your hands, which you wasted $500 on and doesn't really allow you to do anything fulfilling. And what do modern Americans do when they're depressed? go shopping!

So to summaries:
tablets and shit and make you depressed.

Bre Pettis (aka Make/Makerbot) on TWiT: Don't get much geek-orgasmtastic than that!

2012-01-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

Triangulation 36 | TWiT.TV

Bre talking about the newer, bigger, more colorer maker bot. Talking to my old buddy Leo on TWiT.

Make and TWiT in the same video stream - it don't get much geekier than that eh!

Dinner Night, Chevy's, Jan 18

2012-01-11T15:08:00.000-08:00

Take the family out to dinner next Wednesday and support the Dartmouth Middle School Band program. Invite some friends and neighbors too!

Download this flier and hand it into your waitstaff when you pay for your meal.

When
Next Wednesday
January 18, 2012
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Where
Chevy’s Almaden Plaza
5305 Almaden Expwy,
San Jose,
95118

View Larger Map

See you there!

Troubles with typedef on the Arduino

2012-01-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

Why doesn't this work on the Arduino!?

typedef struct {
   int a;
   int b;
} TTallywag;


void DillyDally(TTallywag *tw){
// stuff...
}

In short, I don't actually know! But I know how to get around it!

To make it work, you have to change how you use your new data type - infact, your function parameters can't use types that you've typedef'ed, but you can use the type if you do so thusly:

typedef struct _tallywag {
   int a;
   int b;
} TTallywag;


void DillyDally(struct _tallywag *tw){
   // stuff...
}

According to the following page that I found, you should be able to use the TTallywag if you define it in a header file and including that into you sketch.

Beware the Preprocessor

Note to self: Google 'Using headers in Arduino sketches'

I suppose technically defining types in header files is the right thing to do, but when you're dealing with a sketch that's only short, it seems such an overkill.

Now, the following does works fine. You can use the types inside functions no problemo. Which is partly why I spent so much time tearing out my hair last night!

typedef struct _tallywag{
   int a;
   int b;
} TTallywag;


void *ShillyShally(int alpha, int beta){
   static TTallywag tw;

   // stuff...


   tw.a = alpha;
   tw.b = beta;

   return &tw;
}

Must be some namespacing, or name mangling going on.

So it's not a huge problem, but if you're planning to share code modules between two devices, say one half in Linux written using GCC and the other half Arduino: Define your functions the latter way! That will work on both sides.

Video Game Shield

2012-01-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Amazing stuff! We've been playing with a video game shield over the Christmas break.

At first, I assumed the board contained some kind of TV controller chip to generate the analog TV signal. The reality the whole TV signal is created with two Arduino output pins, a couple of resistors and some rather fancy interrupt service routines!

I'm very impressed!

Most of electronics on the shield is actually only needed to interface with the Wii Nunchucks.

Schematic:

Click for full-size

Original at http://www.wayneandlayne.com/

Happy New Year Arduino Sketch for LOL Sheild

2011-12-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

Download Sketch/LOL Template

Christmas Tree Safety - public information video

2011-12-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

No fucking way!

They managed to find someone called Tannenbaum to talk to us about Christmas Tree safety! Awesome work CPSC!

Yeah, ok, she spells it slightly different and technically 'tannenbaum' means Fir Tree not Christmas tree. But I'm still calling this a hoax. Staged at the very least!

My big fat gypsy wedding

2011-12-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

Well, if I had my life over again, I think I'd be better off quitting school at 12 and evading taxes for the rest of my life.

Just watching this show "my big fat gypsy wedding" on TV. Based on the number of limos and diamond encrusted 17 year old brides on the show, there's good profit to be made from a life of selling pegs and laying tarmac.

Http://sagar.org/cgi-bin/rd/google/my+big+fat+gypsy+wedding

Democrats Roll Over ... Again

2011-12-14T23:32:00.001-08:00

It must be Wednesday!

Democrats Drop Millionaire Tax

Wi-Fi said to nuke sperm

2011-11-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

Argentinian scientists describe how they got semen samples from 29 healthy men, placed a few drops under a laptop connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and then hit download.

Reuters

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a sequence of events which, whilst surfing the internet, would result in my sperm getting on the computer. But apparently, if it does happen, your sperm don't like it!

Hitch a ride ...

2011-11-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

See: NASA Asteroid and Comet Watch

This would have been a great opportunity to hitch a ride on an asteroid. The darn thing was only a "couple of miles" away when it went by. And we've known it was coming for a while too.

Someone should have launched a probe that would get trapped in it's orbit and follow the blighter into deep space. Let's see where it's going.

// temp kludge until bug XYZ gets resolved

2011-11-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

I love code comments like this:

// temp kludge until TI bug gets resolved:
.
.
.

Comments like that guarantee that no one will ever dare to change the line that follows the comment.

Free Money From Apple

2011-11-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

I love class action law suits! Especially ones you can join via the interweb.

Use the link below to get some money out of Apple. Most of it will go to some troll lawyer of course, but you'll get a dribble for yourself.

Just click the link below and pretent you bought whatever it was from Apple.

www.JohnsoniTunesSettlement.com

If you purchased an Apple iTunes gift card, you could get benefits under a class action settlement.

A proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit could affect you if you purchased an Apple iTunes gift card and the card or packaging to which it was attached contained language that “songs are 99¢” or other language indicating that songs are priced at 99¢ (referred to as a “99¢ iTunes gift card” in the rest of this Notice).

The settlement will provide you a $3.25 iTunes Store credit if you purchased or received a 99¢ iTunes gift card and used it to purchase one or more $1.29 songs from the iTunes Store on or before May 10, 2010.

Feel free to lie. After all, you're only lying to a weasely, money grabbing, bastard lawyer. No one will get hurt!

Legal Disclaimer: I did not falsify any claims in connection with the above mentioned class action lawsuit.  Please don't lie to lawyers, they probably did make it illegal.  Lawyers are professionals, they lie all the time, and are trained to do so and as so don't get hurt when they lie, but they will probably guarantee you do if you lie to them.

S&P 500 set for best month since 1974

2011-10-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

S&P 500 set for best month since 1974

The S&P financials index surged 6.2 per cent, led by big commercial banks Citigroup , up 9.7 per cent to $34.17, JPMorgan Chase , up 8.3 per cent to $37.02, and Bank of America , up 9.6 per cent to $7.22. Investment bank Morgan Stanley jumped 17 per cent to $19.41.

WTF! Should anyone be impressed? How about we look at the results for the last three months not one. How spectacular must they look ... oh, it seems over the last three months the S&P is practically flat, in fact, it's down a bit. How can this be, when we just had a Spectacular Month.

Does anyone believe the shit they write any more? Do they believe it? Things must be going great this month. No! Just everybody panicked two month ago and sold everything. Now they've bought it all back, and we're right back where we were two months ago, 'cept some brokers got lots of sales commissions.

Oh, and the Greeks. They got a sweet deal! They get to write off half their debt. Wish I could get that deal from BofA.

I'm getting nowhere in life ... I'm just going round in circles ...

2011-10-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

... isn't it great!

Moved offices again. I'm now in pretty much the same 'cube' I was in 10 years ago. That was somewhere between 2 and 6 companies ago - depending how you delineate the "companies".

Full-size

Can't complain about the view though: mountains, blue skies, Moffet Field. Yeah, it's not quite ocean views.

Weekend Bike/Hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve

2011-10-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Went for a bike ride at the Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve today, but unfortunately, it turned into a hike.

The ranger didn't take kindly to me riding the trails without a helmet, and threatened me with a $160 fine if I didn't take my bike back to the car!

I think he did us a favor really. Ben would have had a hard time on some of the steep climbs. The climbs (when we were hiking them) weren't that long, but they were steep, and all uneven, unpaved hiking trails.

Great views both out to the ocean and also over to the central valley. I swear you can see all the way over to Pacheco pass. Couldn't see the ocean, due to low lying cloud/fog, but the fog bank was impressive all the same.

Here's an estimated Google Earth view out East to Pacheco pass.

Horse-shoe lake is interesting. It's only a small lake, but when standing on the damn and looking south into the valley, I got the impression that it's pretty deep. The terrain map gives the same impression, it could be surprising amount of water in it. Don't know if it's a reservoir or what.

Got the original bike ride idea from this site, which seems a pretty good source for future ride ideas: http://bayarearides.com/

Here's the route over in Google maps.

View Bike/Hike Skyline Ridge OSP in a larger map

After the hike we headed back down Page Mill Road towards Palo Alto, then took a Left along Arastradero Road to the Alpine Inn. Not been to this place in years! In addition to getting a great burger, Ben also learned how this place was the venue of the worlds first ever Internet EMail (allegedly). A plaque on the wall tells of how researchers from SRI sent a message from a table outside the bar, via a wireless network to their lab in Palo Alto, where the message was relayed over ARPAnet to Boston. Hence, the birth of the Internet.

This would make an awesome pet!

2011-10-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

Jumping, bee eating spider. That's even cooler than a talking dog. I could have hours of fun playing with one of these.

Unless your a bee keeper, then they are probably a bit annoying.

Better get myself down to PetCo and see what they can do for me.

Peg Game (solitaire)

2011-09-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about this game a couple days back. Wondered if I would remember how to do it...

http://javascript.internet.com/games/peg.html

Apparently I do!