A Million Useless Thoughts

Thought 52: Coaster-less Beer Glass

2011-06-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me last night while drinking beer that the coast was both irritating and waste of resources. Irritating that almost no glass actually lives on the coaster, preventing them from performing their original task of preventing damage to the table. And a waste that they get thrown away every night and in some cases every drink.

So I dreamed up this:

The glass has ridges to direct the condensation down to a reservoir at the bottom of the glass. The reservoir size will be base on the humidity and temperature difference of the beverage and the surrounding air. The reservoir can be drained by a couple of rubber plugs along the sides. The vary bottom of the glass is covered in a bit of rubber to prevent damaging the table from the hard glass.

The interesting part is that the water will make the glass more stable as it is drunk by increasing the base weight.

Cheers for your thoughts!

Thought 51: The Cloud

2011-05-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

I have a vision of a tablet and a desktop working together as monitor and workhorse. A tablet as just an extension of a PC. The PC acts as a rendering engine, compiler, digital library, the tablet as a screen an input device. When the tablet returns to be near to the PC it become a second monitor for that PC.

Ok, I am in the market for a new PC at the moment and have dabbled a bit with early tablets (think in 2003). And for the most part the tablet part of that old laptop worked pretty well and the technology has merely been catapulted by capacitance and battery bad-assary. But the tablet still lack the true power of a desktop to compile complex code or render 3D graphics. Why can't we have both? A tablet that can dock to a PC and have the PC just use the screen. Then run off with just the tablet part and go read, take notes, etc. It seams useful. I think 'they' are starting to catch up with my ideas, given the Asus Transformer and the phone-laptop hybrid thing. So, here's my next push: Phone slots into tablet to provide GPS and internet everywhere, sync's email. The Tablet slot into a PC to provide the features of the phone + a screen with touch input. And the PC provides the power for games and true work power for those of us that need it.

So here's how I'm doing to do it.
Step one a PC desktop multi-core processor, running Linux with VNC and Synergy. The tablet runs a version of Linux (Possibly Android) with Synergy and an X-Server. The tablet runs a virtual desktop and X applications from the main server box, with VNC as a backup for interacting with the desktop. When the Tablet is 'docked' synergy kicks in with the keyboard in mouse input coming from the server. The best part is that synchronization can occur easily when the tablet is docked in the USB port to recharge. The phone should not matter, but should allow tethering to the tablet. Then you just take whatever resources you need with you. Of course this is just the first part of the plan, the second is to utilize RPC based apps that can load balance computing power across all three of the devices using each to boost the performance of the system as a whole. Why waste the tablet and phone processor that could be used as (slow) extensions of the desktop? This could be done via and RPC or agent-chalkboard processing scheme (i.e. post a program and resource requirements, who ever can handle the job runs it).

I think I'll just have to give this a try and see where we get to. Now, to find the right combination of tablet/pc that'll let me pull this off before google or apple become aware of this idea and release some thing far more awesome than I could create in a month or two of tinkering.

Thought 50: The Doing

2011-05-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

When there is too much to do.
The distractions fade.
Things get done.

Thought 49: Clone of Your Own

2011-05-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

Skit: "A guide on how to clone oneself"

[name] Here. Have you ever found yourself needing a second set of hands [examples of hard tasks], but the help just doesn't quite understand you. Well have I got the perfect solution, a clone. With a clone, for better or worse, at least you'll exactly what kind of help you've got.

But, [name], I do not have a expensive bio-science lab with cloning tanks. Well then have I got the cheap home-grown-clone-kit for you, and I already know that it works, but more on that later.

If you're like me, you come home filthy at the end the day and need a bath, which is where incidentally I do most of my best thinking. One day it struck me, one of those running down the street naked ideas, that I was wasting all of those skin cells and bits of hair at the bottom of the tub. If only there were some way I could utilize those cells to make a clone of myself. What I needed was an organic filter to capture all of that lovely biological material and help it grow. That right when the idea of using bread came to mind, not the ordinary kind of bread, that kind of bread that's been sitting on the counter for week and has become rock solid, either that or hard as rock kind made by Pierre down the street. (Hold up a piece of bread). The bread will be spongy enough to let the water flow through, while collecting all of the hair and skin, plus it'll provide nutrients for your newly growing clone.

Now, what you do is place the bread at the drain of the tub, careful to make sure its large enough not to go down the drain, or clog it up, first time I did this, backed up the whole septic system, what a mess that was. Any-who, once the bread's in place, you wait.

After about a week you'll start see signs of your clone start to form. (hold up a piece of moldy bread, covered in hair).

In about a month or in it starts to take a more organic form. (pull some green borax and glue from a bowl.) Now at this point you might want to start bathing with a mask to help keep back the smell. To be honest, I was not sure which was worse, the clone's or mine.

In a couple more months, it'll start bubbling, taking shape, and taking up the whole tub. Oh! And if you feel something bite you, it just means that clone needed a little bit of blood, and it's time to get a second tub! (dry ice mix, or air pump, in cornstarch-water mix to make the whole mess bubble, but still be a liquid, add some solidish objects, like plastic bones to make it start looking real, mix red and green food coloring.)

And finally after 8 months, if your wife, or the paranormal investigators do not put a swift end to your alter self, you'll have improved on the normal human process by one month, and have my friend here. (reveal monster and shake hands with monster).

A chip of old block, if you ask me. (fade, with monster eating our orator).

Thought 48: Holographic Home Games

2011-03-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Image if you will an arena filled with wild fans, all cheering for their local team and buying concessions. However, this is an away game, the fans are cheering for simulcast broadcast of their team projected onto the court using 3d projectors, creating a holographic experience. At the same time the team can hear their fans cheering via microphones, speakers, and a reverse broadcast. Now, I am not going to say that this would be as good as being there, but for some it's about being with the crowd, drinking beer with fellow fans, and knowing that the team can hear you scream.

Beyond the doubling of fans and increase in the excitement of (almost) being there, there is the revenue aspect, being able to double the number of seats at an event, or more depending on the level of the game, say a World Series, Superbowl, or World Cup. Concessions would easily double, as well as the parking fees. All of which could go to pay for this crazy idea. Now, I realize this sounds like a pipe dream or science fiction, but this is a blog about ideas, and possible ways to make new things happen. So, how do we make this work?

First we'll start with the easiest and most obvious: The audio system. The audio system would consist of two sets of microphone and speakers. A set of microphones would be wired to record at Stadium A and broadcast at Stadium B. Careful timing and subtraction would be used to remove feedback from the local microphones picking up the remote cheering. I would suspect that all that is needed is to place the microphones where the current sound systems exist. Or possibly properly place with the stadium to maximize the surround sound experience.

Second problem with the system is the video and projection of the teams playing from afar. Well, turns out this has kind of been solved in multiple ways. One of the more simplitic ways of using multiple camera systems and multiple projectors onto a dome in the middle of the playing area. This would take a bit of modifications to systems like: HemiStar or iDome and I am sure there are many others. There is also Musion which uses a special screen to create the holograms. Or perhaps a combination of the two would to well. There are many other methods. But they appear to be rather aimed a bit low, military, games, one shot stage setups, demos, etc. The real money would be sports, once it got past the gimmicky factor the potential is high to place them everywhere.

Well, the last problem is that of synchronization and bandwidth. If we consider the amount of data transmission and synchronization required to make this look right. Well let's do some math. An HD stream (like you'd find from netflix) is going to require about 2Mb/s. And we are going to need a few streams. Assume a football field of 100 yards + 2 end zones, about 140 yards worth needing to be watched. If we can use one camera/projector combo per 20 yards we'd need about 14-21 projectors per side (14-21 for creating various angles) plus another 6-9 for per end. or 40 - 60 projectors and cameras to completely cover everything, and I feel that this number might be a bit low. So what does this work out to in terms of bandwidth? About 80-120Mb/s. Actually that does not seem that difficult considering current fiber technologies can get 150 Mb/s and that's Version FiOS, nothing like real Gb/s fiber networks. So, the bandwidth is there to pull this off, so long as someone's willing to make it happen. Synchronizing the sound and visual for a true 'you are there' experience might be difficult given speed of light delay limitations, but we could get close.

Alright, why has this not happened yet? Technically this is completely possible, the 3D screen and projection is there, the audio recording and playback is there, and there is more than enough bandwidth for the video channels. Now, it would be costly to build, but if implemented for a large enough game, one commercial break could pay for the first installation and could easily spread from that. So, I plead to you rich sports owners, why not virtually double your income, and make this a reality?

Maybe this has not been done, because it's just another Useless Thought.

Thought 47: Fireworks Producing Notes

2010-07-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it is almost the Forth of July and it is time to break out the old fireworks. For some this means going to a fireworks show with a local orchestra to play while the explosives go off in time with the music, or at least relatively close to it. Well, here's the new idea: Create sound wave chambers for the fireworks such that they produce their own notes. Then time the launches and explosives to create music in the sky. The sound would be produce similar to how a pipe organ works, only using the explosive forces of the firework to produce the expanding air. The rocket tube could serve as the resonating chamber for the explosive and produce and in air note. Now string together a bunch of these and you can play perfectly synchronized music/light show, all with crazy explosives and physics.

Anyway the test plan is to get some PVC pipes of varying length and throw fire crackers into them. I know it's a small test, but I am not exactly a pyrothechnitian, but I pretend I am once a year.

Thought 46: Website

2010-05-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

I need to start real website for posting project updates, howtos, and software programs. So, I'm posting myself a todo list:

1.) Create a theme and pages.
Thinking Steampunkish at the moment, as a major part of the sight will be for COG and well C.O.G. is a steampunk robot. Plus all of the other steam punk projects. But do not want to tie it too much to steam punk as there will be other things there.
2.) Get domain, not posting here what I am thinking, if you know me, you already know.
3.) Get a bank/paypal account setup.
Need somewhere where the hosting bills can be paid and donations made. I do not plan to charge for any software, but plan to post software + source, so a little donate for hosting seems like a plan taken by many others. As well as I plan to reciprocate the donation to other "donation here" sites.

Anything I'm forgetting, other than some details.

Thought 45: Phone II

2010-05-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

Time to get started on some these phone app ideas. At least now that I have a phone for which I can actually write applications.

App 1: Phone as Blue Tooth Mouse.
I find myself needing a remote/mouse for the computer hooked up the to TV. And well the phone has a mouse like touch screen so why not just use that. Currently either connect via bluetooth or wifi and send mouse position changes to the PC as well as button presses.

App 2: Phone as a Remote.
Do not have the normal setup of TV with cable. Instead have been using a combination of Hulu, Netflix, and Mp4s as TV through the computer or Wii. I figure it would be useful to add things like pause, stop, play, rewind, etc. into App 1 and create a nice little combo app that allow digital flow from the portable phone to the PC.

App 3: X10 from phone.
I have an old X10 serial controller for the same computer. X10 has never been all the great of a technology, especially with compact florescent bulbs (it shortens there life dramatically). But with dim-able CFB getting cheaper and LED bulb on there way it might be time to look into light control from the phone via the main computer. Then I would not have to worry about the radio remotes work properly, just my own software.

I think I need to get a website going when I start making these apps appear. That way I can post them for others to use.

Thought 44: Phone Home

2010-01-30T11:54:00.001-08:00

This is actually two thoughts in one, but they are both phone related.

Thought 44.1: The backside keyboard.
We created the typewriters since 1829 and they've use all of our fingers in an effort to create efficiency. We have even created varieties of key layouts such as qwerty and Dvorak to improve the typing speed. Then we took a huge step backwards and created the cell phone with only the 12 buttons for typing, reducing not only the number of keys by the number of fingers usable on those keys. Then we made the thought that if we just replicate the full qwerty things would be better. And to some extend they are, but we still are reduced to just 2 fingers, or rather thumbs to type with. Then it struck me, the full key set could go on the back of the phone. Well at first it seems rather stupid how do you see the keys to type on them, but does/should a touch typist ever look at the typewriter or keyboard? No. The buttons on the back could be a full qwerty keyboard split and rotated 90 degrees to fit in the hand. So, as the device is being held the keys could be typed on from the back of the phone, well, almost like a normal keyboard. It would improve the speed of text/email communication, and not take up any more space. Anyway I am just a bit surprised that no one has tried this yet. Or if they have I'd like to know why it was pulled, was it just too unfamiliar to people that it caused them dislike it, or was it really just impractical?

Anyway I should sketch this up and post it here about what I mean, anyway onto thought 44.2

Thought 44.2: Please Turn Off Your Phone.
Ok, We've all been to the theater or hospital where they tell you to turn off your phone or at least set it to silent. It's that that *where* part that got my brain going. Anymore these days phones are starting to come enabled with GPS systems that can track your location. How simple would it be to do something like create an app that was aware of being in/near a theater, hospital, etc. and automatically turning the phone to silent? This actually seems pretty straight forward to do, considering they are already planning advertising based on location, information overlay based on location and camera direction. But turning the phone to silent and revert state when going to into a theater actually seems like something that would benefit people on two fronts:

Front 1: Removing annoying announcements. We know why they say "Please turn off..." but with automatically doing this it removes the time spent nagging people and lets them get back to enjoying the show. It also mean no more looking just to make sure you have the phone in silent. It also would remove the chance that some left it on despite the nagging, ruining things anyway.

Front 2: No more forgetting to turn the ringer back on. How many times have you called a friend or had a friend call you only to get no answer because the phone was in silent mode, because they went out last night and got the nag, but forgot to put it back to normal.

Anyway I am not advocating that this be mandatory by any means, but it just seems like there "should be an app for that".

Anyway there are my improvements to the phone industry, maybe I'll get around to writing the app or building my own phone.

Thought 43: Recycled Thoughts

2010-01-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

First Recycling is a good thing, but I have been wondering about whether we have been going about the whole process entirely the wrong way.

Gripe #1: End users do all of the work.
Currently the burden on recycling is on those who want to do something good. That is we sort the containers, wash some, and in some locations (like where I live) must drive to the recycling center. Not that I'm opposed to any of things, but it just leads us to

Gripe #2: Some Recycling Plants MAKE money.
Sure you can if you'd like get deposits back, or cash for raw metals, or even save money for bringing your own bag to the grocery store. Again this is your work, you save, good. It's when you have done this work and the recycle plant gets to keep the profits of your labor. Granted you are helping to "save the planet", but even the places that give you money for recyclables (mostly metal) still make money from you bringing it down to them.

Gripe #3: We are smarter than this.
I think we are all very smart well intentioned people. As such, why do we do we waste so much time, energy, and gas on this? Oh, right, to "save the planet". Really? Why not just spend the time and energy on a garbage sorting machine and remove the need to for people to talk about what needs to be done for recycling or putting up special bins everywhere. Bins which I believe are designed specifically to get people to yell at you, "Hey, that's recyclable, place that over there". Actually, let me correct this, we have already done this. Further power could be generated.

I can fully understand why we needed to start out with manual labor for sorting trash into recyclable and non-recyclable. But really, we've been doing that for DECADES, it's time to move on, embrace technology, and truly reduce and reuse waste on a community wide scale, with absolutely ZERO need for those too lazy, angry, or interested to need to be persuaded that they need to place their used soda bottle in the right bin.

Thought 42: Cog To Do

2009-11-27T08:51:00.001-08:00

A bit whelmed at the moment of the project I have taken on in getting COG to work better. While I have no doubt that the tasks can be completed, they need to be listed out and taken down one at a time. At the moment it feel a bit like treading water.

The List:
AI: Cog needs some interactive capabilities.
AIML: A language for bots that can 'chat'. It's fairly simple in terms of it is mostly just a challenge response type bot, but it is a good starting point for make things work. There are other things out there and certainly a few that seem better, but this is free, just poorly documented. And quite possibly the biggest/longest task that may never be finished.

Pidgin AIML Plugin: This is give COG an online presence while the batteries are being charged. It will simply be AIML running through pidgin as a plug-in. It is a good place to start for recording logs and trying to get some adaptation/feedback from people.

Text-2-Speech: This can be done through a number of libraries. The current front runner is Microsofts Speech API. It's built into all versions past XP. So not so terrible to get up and running. There are already plenty of voices, etc. It just also limits the platform and there are other TTS systems.

Voice Recognition: All of them are terrible in this regard. Current front runners are CMU's Sphinx because of it's flexibility, but the second here is again Microsoft's SAPI. Both will require some crazy training to get to working properly.

So pulling all of these together gains the ability for COG to carry on a conversation with people.

Body: The goal is get the robot up to about 4-5 feet in height, fortunately including the monitor as a 'face'. This requires some changes
4x4: First the 2 wheels + casters is great for indoor control, and I wish the tracks had worked, but 4x4 will make COG much more stable, and able to drive off road. It would be nice to add suspension to make a smoother ride, I just do not have the skills for that (yet).

Wiring: Determined a completely new wiring scheme for COG currently everything is a bit ad hoc. I have designed a 12V/5V/USB bus for getting power and communication to all levels of the robot. The current plan is use PCI-Express 6 pin Y cables as the main section of the bus, then creating a few 6-pin to USB connectors using the 5V rail and USB parts. The this should also push past some of the USB limitations. USB from the PC only has a certain limited amount of power. They can usually only support a couple of devices on a bus before they run out of power, but USB can support 128 devices per connection. The power is a problem, not the number of devices. So we need to test out the 5V USB system and make sure it works.

Arms: Need to the arms attached and working. Currently the 1/4" boards used for the sides are just not going to support that weight. Time to switch to 1" pine and build a sturdier outer box.

Layers: Eventually the goal is to have the system attach together with layers that can be swapped in and out to change the capabilities/function of COG. To this end I think the layers need to be changed to using a quick-trunk like connection system in addition to having the 6-pin molex exposed. Currently this is 4 long screws and big whole in the middle. Which works great, but can be a pain to work with to getting access to various levels.

Style: Have to maintain the 'steam punk' style of cog. A the wife suggested, make each of the layers look like a trunk then the final version of COG looks like a big stack of trunks. Which would be cool.

Actuators: Need keep interaction with COG

Drive: Currently have two motors and controller, will need to pick up two more of each to get to 4x4 mode.

Arms: Need to re-wire the current ARM to get the 3V DC motors under control. These we also need sensors. Either that or this just needs to be rebuilt with servo motors:

Pan-Tilt: Need pan tilt control for the cameras. Possibly better cameras altogether web cams are in expensive, but you get what you pay for.

Sensors: To view the world.
IO Board: First have to get the IO board working. That is making progress as I have found many of the bugs of the original boards. It needs a boot loader, so that it can be tinkered with at home, but that should not be much of a problem.

Sonar: Need to test out the sonar modules and determine where we are going to place them. Possibly on a servo mount for now, though I'd like to make a full ring of sonar.

IR: We will place these next to the sonar, they are cheaper so not worried about getting more of them.

Cameras: Currently have 2 logitech communication STX cameras. They are working for taking stereo pictures. Need to write code to interpret the data.

Shaft encoders: Need to acquire these and attach to the wheels.

GPS: Currently have a working GPS. Need to get google maps working for aerial placement of COG as he moves around.

Software Integration: Getting it all together.

3D view: Create a 3D model of COG and place it in maps as COG builds up his environment.

World Integration: Would like to tie COG to light controls, both DMX and X10. I will require communication with another host computer, so more software required for that.

Thought Control: Take EEG brain signals and control the motion of COG. Should be a fun project. Need to get the EEG working.

That's just for starters. I'll get it done, it just may take some time ;).

Thought 41: AIML

2009-11-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

Working COG now that he has a face book presence. But there is a need to make him more interactive if I want it to go well. Any I found this rather humorous with A.L.I.C.E. and Kirk chatting at each other. I am planning on using AIML to with a Pidgin Plug-in to get some sort of interactive presence. Given what I've seen so far. I'll need to put in some work on learning all of this crazy stuff. But I'm having fun with it, and if COG starts out as a very odd on-stage ALICE than so be it. I know I'll have to keep at it to make it all work.

Also if you have a picture of yourself try this out for fun. I think I have research to do on all of the stuff they did here. But I can see how it works.

Anyway just keeping this blog moving forward.

Thought 40: Embracing Eccentricity

2009-11-22T15:01:00.001-08:00

After letting go of the feeling of disconnection, realized I should embrace the madness in public, instead of only letting people in slowly. So, instead of walking the dogs on roller skates at 4 in the morning where there is no one, I walked them at 4 in the afternoon. As expected people where just staring at the fact that someone is walking their dogs on skate, but who cares, the dogs and I are having fun. I think I'll do that some more.

Also Cog is progressing a bit, and I tested his motors capabilities and sure enough cog can pull me on the roller blades. Considering there's a future plan to make cog a 4x4 instead of 2 + caster, he could evolve into a electric vehicle of sorts. We'll just keep pushing this, until they come with the pitch forks and torches!

Thought 39: Not So Crazy

2009-11-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm not as disconnected as previously thought:

Guy Marries Virtual Girl Friend.

Or date a robot.

Either that or we are all coming apart at the seams!

Thought 38: Feeling Disconnected

2009-11-21T06:19:00.001-08:00

Feeling a little like the world is just a little different at the moment. And maybe I've always been this way, but just starting to see it myself. I feel slightly disconnected with the world. Not sure whether it the endless posts on facebook, twitter, etc. or remembering that work is a business sometimes, not just R&D, or even sometimes at home.

The phrase "thinking outside the box" feels more like there might be a box somewhere, but I'm so outside of it I do not really know where it is.

Examples: A friend asked "If you could live ANYWHERE, where would you live?" My first thought was Jupiter or Venus, because the atmosphere would be very cool to watch. That and in my limited travels, pretty much any place is just like any other, people generally have the same goals and actions. Maybe it's that I've only been to more modern places. But it's really just people are people, cities are cities, and maybe that's it I just cannot live in a city. Everyone else responded with locations on Earth, and all cities.

Other example: A friend noted that perhaps the rants got out of control a bit and maybe needed some device to let them know that he's gone off the handle. Others posted that they could use secret messages, or tell it to his face, or just help clam him down. I went and thought "Could we build such a device?" That is with proper feedback from a bio-sensor/EEG combination and either an injection or electrical stimulus allow him to re-regulate.

I decided NOT to respond to either. When I got finished reading the response I created, I just noticed how much this did not fit with what was being asked or expected. And I got a little scared that maybe I'm just a little more disconnected than I previously thought.

Of course on a slightly more funny side of things: Never call the robot your building 'our baby' in front of your wife. However, I'm currently not sure anymore if I really meant that or not. What I mean, is that there is a STRONG parental feeling toward the robot and simply creating a new life, even if it is not human.

Is it right to have these feelings? or am I slowly turning into a psychopath that sees only global problems and solutions, no longer able to connect with an individual? Do other scientists go through this? It seems that there is some level of disconnect in order to make progress.

Anyway just checking in the world.

Thought 37: The ARM of COG

2009-11-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

Finally decided that the robots current name is Cog. I was debating this because of all of the other Cogs out there, but finally decided that because of the steam punk influence in design that it would be a fitting name.

Progress so far on Cog:

Constructed that ARM kit:

It runs on 5 3V DC motors. Which is fine, I have something to play with for figuring out the mechanic. In the mean time, I am attempting to wire to an older version of a IO control board we make at work to control the motors. May need to add some relays to make it work, and will be using 5V instead of 3V, but the motors should be fine.

Wii Mote:
Utilized GlovePIE and PPJoy to create joystick control for the left and right motors. The current software works perfectly, but needs to be scripted a bit and need to update the hardware to make some of the debugging a little easier. There is a needed box re-design coming anyway. It is fun to drive around and I need to post a video of it, but I want to post both a video OF it and video FROM it, because that would be cool.

Sensors:
Working on sensors, currently have 2 sonar, 2 IR, and 2 web cams. Current thinking the web cams are a bit dated, but they were cheap and a good place to start. Again working on the old IO controller, it was designed for PoE (48V) and Ethernet, but had a serial port. Basically just rewriting the code use the serial port as command port instead of the Ethernet, and modifying the power to use 12V from the battery. That and it was a prototype and has a few board errors. They have been corrected, but still makes a bit wary of it being fully functional. Of course that's better than it collecting dust.

Oh, and never call a robot 'our baby' to your wife, it just might freak her out a bit.

That's the update for now, more pictures, updates, and video to follow.

Thought 36: Armed and Dangerous.

2009-11-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

The two active brain cells are giggling now. No time to blog, time to build!

Thought 35: Educational Toys

2009-11-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

Starting thinking about how to learn new things and found that nothing really beat kids toys for getting started on how to learn. However, it took a bit to overcome the stigma of they're kids toys. Kids toys have many things going for them over more adult how-to videos and projects. First they tend to be safer, nothing like learning on how things go together then plastic bits that break on your skin rather than sharp metal bit covered in red blood. Second they much more colorful than brown or gray. No idea who thought the world should be gray, but bright color are much easy to find when looking for new bits. And finally they are far more hands on-discovery than a how-to video. When books and video there's still the fine tuning that needs to be learned by doing. The toys have this built in to some degree.

Why was I thinking about this? Well, I only somewhat understand the mechanics behind a multi-motor robotic arm, so I decided to order the cheapest I could find. It was from a site specialized in educational toys. Suddenly, nostalgia kicked in and I found myself a child, thinking about all the fun things I could do the experiments, toys, and kits. Reality of adulthood struck back and reminded me that I do many of things already, just in a slightly different package. Maybe it is the packaging and bright colors and all of the excitement that makes them seem better than 'hobbyist' kits. Nah, I just want to stay a child!

Keep reading, the arm should be here soon, and I'll have to dissect it and re-wire it to work with the robot already in progress.

Thought 34: Health Care and Baseball

2009-10-23T19:01:00.001-07:00

What do health care and baseball have to do with each other?

Statistics.

So, with all of this talk about health care reform, I starting think about how insurance companies rely on *tons* of statistics. Statistics based on past performances, over health numbers, the cost of procedures, etc. And for a long time they used those numbers to analyze the risks of losing a patient, wasting money on tests, or even law suits. For the most part, it has become a large number crunching machine. Unfortunately instead of trying to balance human life, it seems as though Greed has altered the machine to instead balance the money going to those running the machine. The removal of the human element is why we talk about the reforms today. But enough about the problems, how about a solution?

Well, I started thinking about something else that requires a great deal of statistics and human *gut* instinct: Baseball. A game that makes as much use or more of statistics to determine outcomes that the health care systems. For the most part pitches, pinch hitters, line up changes, etc. are chosen by statistic to improve the outcome, but upon occasion the manager will decide based on the current situation to take a risk with the operation of the baseball statistics machine. An that's what I think health insurance needs a real human to intervene, and activate the *gut* reaction, overriding the machine. Putting back that human element, the element of survival against the odds.

In either case, I'd love to see doctors and insurance reps scream atop a mound of dirt and kick dirt on each others shoes to determine what happens next.

Anyway it's just a thought.

Thought 33: Not Knowing That You Cannot.

2009-10-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things get done because someone does not know that it cannot be done. How is that we can limit ourselves by the perspective of something being impossible? Why do we as a race mock those we seek to try to the impossible? It appears that the first time is always the hardest, the no one has done it, what make you think you'll succeed. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective on the impossible, much like the famous math student who solves an unsolved equation because he thought it was part of a homework assignment. The sonic "barrier" also considered impossible. Just wondering how far we will go if we stop thinking about the thing we "cannot" do, and instead consider what we can!

Thought 32: Nature is Balance

2009-10-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

Or is it just humanity can reuse resources to alter their environment? Ok, time for an explanation. First, about a year and half ago, I created a compost heap to recycle plant life back to dirt/compost. Second, dug a hole for a concrete slab about couple months ago. Today, I took the loose gravel that made up a make shift parking space on the lawn. It was starting to get weedy and ugly, and we never use it anyway. So, I took the rock used them to finish the bottom of the slab hole for water drainage. Took the dirt from the hole to fill in where the rocks were. Covered new grass seed with the compost to help fertilize it. And now plan to use the rest of the rocks to fill in around the air conditioner. Somehow through just movement of things found in the yard, the yard was improved. Just an odd happy feeling about maintaining balance of the objects in the yard. That and I'm sore from moving it all. Guess we can never escape physics!

Thought 31: Guitar Hero: Jam

2009-10-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

So, noticed that they are running out of idea's with the old guitar hero, just more songs, themes, instruments, and now DJ Hero? Really I thought they could be more creative with this, so here we go plug in the amp and crank it to 11, because here's what I think would be cool for expanding this niche of games: The JAM. The idea hit while listening to the Grateful Dead and how no two concerts are really ever the same, which with any good band is the case. At some point in the middle of a well known song a great band will start to "JAM" that is they keep the music similar to the song, but alter, play with, and basically have fun with the music they're playing. This to me is why I'd go to a concert, any band that plays the same song as on the radio is well boring. And to some extent I think that's what is happening to the press the button with the beat genre. So, now it needs the infusion of randomness, just mashing the same buttons gets boring, so let introduce "The JAM". And here out it works:

Current A.I. technology has evolved to the point that given a few set of parameters it can generate music that sounds like something else, so why not apply this to something like a folk song, jazz, or even rock and roll. Take a song apply an algorithm to produce music and buttons to press in the middle of the song. Basically create a section in the song is always different, but very close to what is being playing. I.e. tempo, beat, notes, harmonies stay the same, but the music is altered. This would remove the ability to simply memorize an expert song, you'd have to adapt every time and that would be cool. Now you can toss in 8 minute phish songs that are missing the middle 4 minutes because the computer will generate them on the fly and you'd have to keep up.

The on the fly music alone makes this interesting, but I think we can push this even farther. Next we modify the guitar to have 15 - 20 buttons were in each set of 5 represents an octave, and can be used during normal button mashing time. Now when you hit the star power in the middle of "The JAM" it allows you to create music using the combination of the buttons and octaves, but keeps the notes sounding like part of the song the jam came from. Granted this would make it a bit more like a synth-keyboard-guitar thing, but still it's adding even more game replay ability. Now one more step beyond this is to take it a full song writing like application, where you start with the drummer setting up a beat, introduce the bass, and finally the guitar, each with the new note assignment. Now full songs/challenges could be create, and even possibly modified by the computer generated music. This "music" could then be shared/challenged online to create even more complex game play, like a song versus song mode or something.

And now for the new mode that becomes possible with the generated music: Endurance Mode. In this mode a song style would be chosen, and possible starting song(s). The song would start out normal then hit the jam mode, and simply keep getting more and more complex. Endurance mode ends when the player fails or if during "story" mode when a time limit has been reached, like 15 minutes or an hour or longer. Basically the songs over when your fingers can no longer move!

Anyway, thinking that Guitar Hero: JAM! would be possible given current tech, and would breathe new life in a genre that's starting to fade into mediocrity.

Thought 30: Tipometer

2009-10-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

You know sometimes "it is just hard to get good service these days". Well have I got the product for you: The Tip-O-Meter. It works just like a clock, but in reverse. It counts down from the moment you step into a restaurant. The Tip-O-Meter tracks just how well your server is doing, indicating just what level of tip they should expect as they are serving you. You can raise the value if they do some nice or speed up the count down if they are being particularly slow. In short it's the best indicator about how you feel you are being served.

I really should build one of these. I really do not see how it can backfire, unless it somehow hits 0, in which case make a hasty escape through the fire exit. You could use this as a wacky psychology experiment, you know walk into an expensive restaurant and start it out REALLY low or REALLY high and gauge just how well people treat you versus not having it. Or better still start really high it have it accelerate the count down and watch the server panic trying to keep it high. Ok, maybe *I* should not be allowed to have this, but I think there might be a market for it.

Remember to tip your waiter/waitress on the way out. It's the only way they get paid.

Thought 29: Human Wash

2009-10-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Just thinking about showers. There are those 'full body' shower that have a bunch of head to spray your entire body with water. Well I was thinking why not add in a way to put liquid body soap into the lower section of those shower heads, then just hit the soap button and it lathers you with soap then sprays you clean, quick, simple, probably would save time in the shower. Basically just steal all of the parts from a car wash and make a 'human wash'. We'll just add a 'dry' cycle to this through use of heat vents from the top and bottom, possibly just steal the technology in the Dyson Hand Dryers. If you've never used one find one and try it, really the first air hand dryer that works. Not sure if it could not be used for whole body drying, but I think it's worth a try. Any just thought a human wash would be fun, which reminds me I need to think about redoing the downstairs shower.

Thought 28: Rise Above

2009-09-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the world makes you feel helpless. You think you can change the world and the harder you push the more it pushes back. Sometimes it moves a little, sometimes the little bits add up and you find you CAN move mountains. You just have to keep your attitude high as that IS the thing you can change. No matter bad things look just keep the attitude up and things will begin to get better, slowly, but surely.

Heads up, stay positive, we're all in this together!

Thought 27: The One Pack

2009-09-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

As always life is preserves some sick twisted sense of balance. About two weeks ago an old knee injury showed and caused me to have to zombie walk up and down stairs. Spoke with cousin Emily, a P.T., and she recommended some exercises to help out with the knee. This somehow has started cascading into a full workout for the whole body. Well that leads back to the "the one pack" as being a play on "the six pack", representing my current state of not quite being in top form. We are going to continue to push this exercising and add 5 to the 1 pack.

Thought 26: Zen of Thought

2009-09-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

Thought 25: Life Feeds on Life Feeds on ....

2009-09-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

Just an odd thought on life itself, and how basically all life tries to create more life. Because of this life changes and adapts how it creates life. Starting first from cooperation of amino acids to create cells, cells dividing sharing dna, then sex for a new form of reproduction. All levels simply trying to survive and produce more life. Well, what I can foresee is a rather radical next jump the forms of life. What if, as great as humanity is, we were never meant to mingle among the stars. That instead we are to create that next form of life that will populate the stars. Imagine if you will large ships with automated controls and vast stores of genetic seeds. The ships are designed to run using nuclear fusion, feed on hydrogen and stars using the fused material to repair any damage they have sustained while they wander the stars. "Living" for millions of years, like days to them, traveling to find more planets to populate with life forms that will convert the raw materials of the planet into more seed ships. Living on this vast almost inconceivable time scale, as chance random encounters with other ships like themselves, exchanging information about the universe and about how to better repair or spread life. Living even beyond when the universe possibly expands so far that all the stars burn out and leave behind nothing more than gasses from which they feed and continue. Guess I'll never live long enough, but it might make a good Sci-Fi short.

Thought 24: Never Give Up

2009-09-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

A while back I was attempting, with my friend Jason, to make a working robot, with tracks. One day I got ambitious and got one whole side finished, mounted, and ready to go. Then powered it on to a glorious first run of about 20 seconds before the rivets busted the wood used for the tracks and the whole shredded to stop. Disappointed I moved on to other projects for a bit.

I came back to an older idea of just using wheels and a caster, a simpler idea but proven and sound. Now, I have completed the first step and just maybe the whole thing is starting to take shape again. Now we can being again to get something up and running, the first of the robot army.

Thought 23: Lights, something, something.

2009-09-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

My wife does Improv, and was playing a location that did not have stage lights. Mostly they have disco lights and a good sounds system. Basically just a club. So I was tasked with creating a portable light system that we could go in and setup quickly. Oh yeah, it had to be cheap and done in under 24 hours. To the hardware store!

First thing I think of is work lights, well because had a pair, but they did not provide quite the right light. Fortunately, Jen come up the correct type of mountable flood lighting and a couple of lamps with adjustable light positions. Excellent, things are going well, now all that we need is a light board. With the current setup everything was AC, not the 12VDC used by most lighting systems. Good thing they make light dimmers, with a quick calculation determine that with one AC outlet we can use up to 3 dimmers with 600 max watt loads each before blowing a typical circuit ( 120 V x 15 A = 1800 Watts ). We grab 3 outlets to go with the dimmers, allowing a quickly reconfiguration portable dimmer board. Anyway half the day already blown at the hardware store getting the pieces need we head back to the shop and I proceed to put together the board, while Jen gets prepare for the show. With a few hours remaining to test the whole things is tested and ready to go. Anyway here's what it looks like all done:

Thought 22 - Battery Wall Wart: The finished mess.

2009-05-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

To finish up thought 21, I made a battery ended wall wort. At least the simple version just as a proof of concept. And it works.

So here's how you build one:

Materials:
1 Nail, 2 1/2"
1/2" tubing, the kind for water pumps.
1 wall wort, in this case a variable voltage one (thanks Seth).
1 AA battery, for model.

Tools:
Soldering Iron
Wire Cutters
Wire Stripper
Needle Nose Pliers
Hot Glue Gun
Metal Cutting Tool. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel.

Step 1: Cut the end off of the wall wart

Step 2: Strip the ends and mark which it the positive side and which is the negative. Strip with about 1 1/2 inches of exposed wire.

Step 3: Cut the nail in half. Optional: grind down to a smooth even surface.

Step 4: Wrap the positive wire around the pointy end of the nail and solder into place. Soldering to nail my take a while, high heat and pinch with the needle nose pliers.

Step 5: Wrap the negative wire to the head of the of the nail and solder into place.

Step 6: Cut 2 tubes the length of the AA

Step 7: Thread the wire with nail through the tubes

Step 8: Hot Glue in place. This is a little tricky as the nail needs to stay centered in the glue until it dries, and the glue may try to run away a bit.

Step 9: Put the new "AA Batteries" into victim, er device, plug into the wall, turn on the power.

Step 10: Blog about building one these things.

Thought 21 - Battery Pack Wall Wart

2009-05-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

Recently got a couple pieces of non-mobile electrics, and they take batteries? why? Couldn't they put a wall wart to go with it. (For those who do not know: wall wort = ugly black two prong ac adapter, it looks like a wart on your wall). I mean really mass produces wall warts are pretty cheap and would only effect the price by a dollar or two. But consuming batteries for something stationary is just wasteful.

Ok rant over. Time for a solution.

Here's what we came up with today for a plausible and quick solution.
First find a power supply close to the battery power needed 2 batteries = ~3 vdc, 3-4 batteries = ~5 vdc.
Then cut the end off of it keeping track of the plus and minus.
Next build a fake battery:
For a quick and dirty solution a PVC tube the same radius as the battery.
Cut into appropriate number of 'batteries'.
Epoxy nails in place for the plus and minus terminals.
Solder the ends of the wall wart to the nails.
Finally fill in the whole thing with epoxy.

Really you'd only need two 'batteries' for any solution just put time so that + and minus match up at per insertion diagram.

Possible problem #1: There are 2^(n-1) possible solution for placement of the 'batteries'. (n = number of batteries required) Each terminal has a + and a -, fortunately there's no circuit until the proper + and - are found.

Possible problem #2: Center tapped power. Basically the electric device has multiple voltage ranges and is using the whole set for one voltage say 5 v and only two to product 3.3 v logic. In this case the simple fake batteries will not work. The proper solution would be to create a wall wart with multiple isolated 1.5v ends. Unfortunately the amount of circuitry will not really fit into a AA.
This would look something like: transform from 120 to say 4 2-3 VAC rectify, filter, and linear regulate back down to 1.5 vdc. Then provide 'batteries' that can tether plug into the new wall wart. Though this might be a bit on the large size.

Anyway need to make a simple one, then we'll work a circuit for solution #2.

Thought 20 - Organacide

2009-05-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Turns out vinegar and citric acid to a most amazing job at killing broad leaf weeds.
Mixed about 28 oz of 5% vinegar with 4 oz of lemon juice. Spray the plants in the morning, after the sun has started shining on them. During the day the acid + sunlight browns the leaves to a crisp.

Note it take the round up about a week to kill off the same type of plants and requires the dogs to stay indoors for about 2 hours until it fuses to plants and becomes rain hard.

Cost break down:
Round Up = $25 for a gallon

Vinager = $3 for a gallon
Bottle of lemon juice $3 for 8 oz. (can get 5 lbs of citric acid for $12 but it'd require quite a bit more vinegar.)
Reuseable Spray bottle: $4

So:
$25 vs. $10.
Toxic chemical vs safe to drink.
1 week results vs end of day.

Just makes me wonder if I am missing something here? Is there something that the Round Up does better? does it not kill grasses? Add missing elements to ground? Not really sure, but so far the vinegar and lemon juice look to be a formidable combination.

Sorry, I have not truly started the organic vs toxic death chemicals in terms of the rest of the lawn. Though I did put down turf builder, weed prevention in the front yard, so it may just turn into the chemical section.

I really should find the camera so I can take pictures and mark progress.

Thought 19 - Industructable Cat Box

2009-05-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Back to the teflon cat box thing.

First closest thing I to an off the shelf solution would be a 15x17x3 lasagna baking pan for $15 + S+H. Not quite sure it would be big enough.

Turns out they make a polyurethane with Teflon particles embedded. While this is not quite the right process for applying Teflon it is pretty close.

Teflon is applied in the following steps:
1.) Rough up the surface (sand blasting metal).
2.) Apply an epoxy primer, let dry to a "sticky" level.
3.) Apply Teflon particles.
4.) Bake the Teflon on at about 500 degrees, so it gets close to its melting point.
5.) Let sit for 7-10 days to cure.

A bit of an involved processes, but not too difficult. The Telfon polyurethane seems something to try, anyway.

So far it seems like if I manage to make one, I'd be making a few more for friends. At least I think the concept has been well received.

Thought 18 - Cat Boxes

2009-05-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Point one today (from the wife):
Does it seem odd that we wrap up cat and dog, poo and pee into plastic bag to be effectively preserved for millions of years. Just think of what future archeologist will think.

I guess this does stem from the fact that cats and dogs, and well just about every other animal on the planet as been peeing and pooping, when ever and where ever they please. Granted we'd have a bit of a smell problem if everyone went where ever, but we developed sanitation for a reason! Further most animals poo is beneficial to plants as fertilizer. Well, not really dog and cat poo, but why not just flush this stuff? or compost it in a 'hot' compost pile.

Well it turns out we're not that bad, they do make flushable/compostable kitty litter. Oddly they charge more for them despite using things like ground corn cobs, pine pellet, wheat staff, i.e. other industry waste products, so why more expensive? or better if you have a yard why not grow corn, wheat, and a pine tree and have both food on your table and biodegrable cat litter for the compost pile? Just wondering if we are forgetting simple things the more complex the world tries to get?

Point Two:

Anyway the whole pee/poo thing came from cleaning the cat box, and was thinking again using plastic to line the boxes and then just throwing that away. Again why? I find that the plastic is there to prevent the pee of sticking to the sides of litter box. We do not use the plastic cat box liners (mostly seen as an expensive 'colored' trash bag). However the pee clumps stick to the side making it necessary to scrape the sides and bottom to get all of clumps. Wait, why am I scraping this? Did not modern science provide as teflon? Why does there not exist a cat box with a teflon coating and eliminate the need for anyone anywhere to use the plastic cat box bags. Emptying the cat box would be a breeze, everything would just slide right out. And it's not like your going to put it in the oven... are you!?

Oh well, time to clean the cat box.

Thought 17 - For Science

2009-05-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Alright time to start an experiment:

Which works better sugar or round-up?

The setup:
Rope off 3 patches of yard (on the side of the house) approximately 5x5 squares.
Section 1 is the control I will apply nothing to this patch.
Section 2 is the sugar group will apply sugar and other organic treatments to this patch of soil. Like spraying weeds with vinegar and lemon juice.
Section 3 is the chemical group, use weed and feed + spray the weeds that survive with round-up.

The goal find out what works better, and if the organic sugar and vinegar solutions are viable. Also to provide a documented case as to what works best.

Procedure.
I will take a photo of the experiment once a day at roughly the same time of day.
Analyze for "green-ness" and weed to grass ratio.

Finally place online.

Thought 16 - Kid Power

2009-01-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

In response "Thought 14 - Perpetual Cat" sugarbumkin said, "The same theory could be applied to balloons tied to kindergarteners at recess. I like it."

Well this got me thinking...
Clothes with that are laced with MEMS generators. A MEMS generator is a solid state electronic circuit that generates low level of current though passive motion of the environment. Things like temperature change, acceleration, and even Brownian motion are converted to power using a MEMS generator.

So, now we have attached them to small free moving bipeds of pure energy. How do we get the energy back. I figure that we isolate the playground into a large battery configuration where the children are running around on a conductive plate that makes contact with the heels of their shoes. They will run around with a super capacitor in addition to the MEMS, when their feet touch the ground the super-cap is discharged into the conductive plate underneath them.

I do not think that the children would notice that much. Perhaps we could place this entire technology in a line of shoes and build new sidewalks that take advantage of joggers as well.

Thought 15 - The Curse of Genius

2009-01-24T17:46:00.001-08:00

Currently have a few friends going through some rough times, and they are all smart talented people. So, I'd figure I'd put up one of my observations of the world.

The curse of genius as I see it, is that the world is flawed, imperfect, and broken, that it need to refined, perfected, and fixed. The genius will pursue to endlessly this goal, it is this view that the world could be may better that makes a genius look so incredibly smart and talented to those around them. However, the pursuit has in itself a dangerous flaw, that not everything can be refined, perfected, or fixed. It is upon internal realization of this flaw comes an inevitable choice: Continue the pursuit, the rules be damned, things will be changed! or find a quieter more stable path fixing minor things. I find that the first usually comes with a very high price tag. One, sadly, I decided was too high. The stable path does not mean that interests cannot be followed or world fixed, just that flaws in the world get fixed more slowly, interests are pursued at a walk rather than a run.

I have learned, in my short time in this world, that everything balances out in the end. Everything will be alright, no matter the course of action taken. Sometimes the hardest decisions in life are those that lead to doing less. Of course sometimes we are allowed to change our decisions...

Evidence to the curse of the genius are found all throughout literature and life, starting with the ever famous Daedalus, Galileo, John Forbes Nash. Though arguably successful, for each the price of genius came with a cost.

Recommend reading/watching:
Ovid's Metamorphoses
Tucker
A Beautiful Mind
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

"Fast Cheap & Out of Control" is more inspirational about what we can do, if we continue our pursuits, without regard, whatever it is that we do.

Thought 14 - Perpetual Cat

2009-01-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

While I believe in Newton's 2nd law. Here is my perpetual motion machine. Similar, but not quite the same as the buttered toast and cat.

Strap 6 cats to a balloon. Drop the 6 cat. Each cat will attempt to move itself into position as to land on its feet, thus moving the other 5 cats around the balloon. This will build up a massive static charge which we can then hardness for power.

Thought 13 - Lolcats FPS

2009-01-16T07:16:00.001-08:00

Ok, this is a stupid thought. But oh well.

Imagine altering a first person shooter to be a redone in all lolcats fashion. That is cats running around saying lol cats things like "I'm N UR base, kill'n' UR Dudez." And getting power ups in the form of cheese burgers.

I think it needs more maybe a "om nom nom nom" gun of some sort that eats the cats or whatever.

Maybe just make this an Meme FPS just so we can kill all of the meme's in a glorious fashion. I guess that this would require a Rick Ashley sound track.

Oh god the horror... Ending thought now before my brain explodes.

Thought 12 - The Half Glass

2009-01-10T05:15:00.000-08:00

Finally cracked this one after many years of trying to break these types of things, because well, they just logically bug me.

The glass, half full or half empty?

The problem lacks enough information, so we need to add that information in. What information you ask as this is supposed to be a question to determine if you are an optimist or pessimist? Simple is someone pouring liquid into the glass or is someone drinking from the glass? If someone is pouring the glass then they are filling it, therefore it would be half full. If however the glass is being drunk from, the person is emptying the glass, making it, therefore, half empty.

Thought 11 - The Clean Up Crew

2009-01-01T11:00:00.001-08:00

Had an odd thought about a comic series/graphic novel. Just random/useless thought:

A comic set the DC universe, though any would work.
The idea: Janitors sick of cleaning up all of the messes decide to stop the fighting between the Heroes and Villains, by defeating them all.

Background: The original stone cutters were the working class, in a secret, yet open society of janitors and maintainence men, they meet to discuss their plans to stop the Justice League.

The joke: The comic is a normal plot line with various janitors, window washers, etc, all lurking the background of cells, just "doing their job". However as the plot grows it turns out they have been spying on and setting up the Justice League and the Legion of Doom, slow getting them to fight and defeat each other. All the while gathering blue prints from Lex Corp, Wayne Enterprises, Star Labs, and other high tech or government facilities.

The inspiration:
G.I. Joe's "The Viper": A window wiper unknowingly reveals plans of Cobra moves, but his german accent always has him calling himself "the viper" instead of the "the wiper".
Terry Pratchett's Lu Tze: A sweeper in the Valley of History. Who gains access to all important documents and places by merely sweeping his way in and having keys to every room so he can empty the trash when he gets there. Alter the future many times just by making minor changes.

Possible Opening Scenes:

1.) A dark room with people discussing the messes that super heroes and villains cause. With a discussion on power corrupting, even those with good intentions. Eventually the discussion concludes with "plans are already in place to clean up this mess once and for all".

2.) "In the end we should have seen it coming, but we were all far to arrogant and self righteous. We ignored the little things, and eventually they just added up. Who would have ever figured that which all the combined resources, influence, and powers that we had at our disposal that we would go out, not in a blaze of glory against omnipotent god, but in a whimper of defeat to ordinary men." - Clark Kent, formerly Superman.

With an interesting scene involving Bruce Wayne and Alfred. Alfred who had always secretly been working for THEM:
The cave computer shows a powering down screen, Bruce is putting the cape and cowl away. The lights are being turned off.
Bruce: "I guess Batman is just not needed anymore, Alfred. But tell me how did they..."
Alfred: "Little clues here and there. Pieced together from the shredded blueprints and the stains on your shoes. They... we have had a great deal of access to ... many things."

An a scene with "The Question", who in all of his conspiracy theories, simply missed this one. And give the stone cutter background being that the name had changed as it was taken by the aristocracy, but the movement never went away.

The majority of the first part is all about false information, both the super heroes and villains are tricked into fighting each other assuming that someone else had called the marching orders. Things like text messages from lex, saying something about a new technology to steal from place, with a scene of a taxi driver handing Lex his phone. Or an email from Bruce, with a scene to a janitor cleaning off his computer screen, and taking the trash out. Those sorts of things.

The next part is of everyone starting to accuse everyone else with both side wasting massive amounts of resources trying to figure out who the master mind behind all of the confusion is. With scenes of many heroes being sent to the hospital and the villains being sent to jail.

And the then end game where all is revealed as the janitors start besting the remaining heroes and villains with information about their weaknesses and stolen technology. Each defeated super is offered the choice of giving up all of their powers. Include *very* minor characters being ridiculed by the janitors about why they were even created, we are talking only the REALLY bad ones with one or two comics to their name.

End with discussion by a powerful being, like Darkseid commenting on how Earth is off limits and fearing the indomitable spirit of man kind, and that any form of subjugation would only lead to their own defeat. End with him having his back to a creature pushing a mop with that odd foreshadowing look on its face.

Thought 10 - Flu Season

2008-12-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

It is flu season.

Time to go out and hunt the flu before the flu gets you!

Thought 9 - Mathematics of Religion

2008-12-17T06:01:00.000-08:00

Religion is a touchy subject, but I'd finally put to rest the answer to my religious views. First my parents are Catholic, my Brother is Taoist, and my wife is Jewish. This has made me not all that concerned about people's religion just that everyone is nice to each other. I.e. the golden rule: "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you". Well, I finally came to the best way to express my viewpoint on religion, through mathematics.

Suppose that all religions can be broken down into a set of individual beliefs or truths, i.e. Catholicism would be the set { 10 commandments, 1 god, Jesus rose on the third day, ... }, Wicca the set { Multiple gods, ... }, ...

Then as most things that require faith we can conclude that the things that are true are the things are in the intersection of all sets.

This leaves us with roughly two relatively simple facts:

1.) Things were created.
2.) We should be nice to each other.

With the following while not included in everything, are included in most and therefore have a high probability of being true.

1.) Creation was performed by something that existed before itself, in a paradox. which makes this a bit odd, but still very much a common theme.
2.) There is Karma, or retribution for not being nice to others. Be this Karma, Hell, plagues, pushing boulders up hills forever, etc. Most religions have some sort of balancing force to keep us from just being cruel.

Anyway, people have being discussing religion and existence for a long time, this is just my thoughts on it.

Thought 8 - Time for another Thought

2008-12-10T18:11:00.001-08:00

It has been some time since the last post.

End Thought.

Thought 7 - Recycle Powered Recycling Truck

2008-08-31T06:49:00.000-07:00

I recently saw an argument that went recycling/trash trucks use too much fuel to really be a "green" technology. So, why not create a trash/recycling truck that runs on trash/recyclable materials? This eliminates the need to for people to worry about land fills while reducing the costs of the city to run trash vehicles. However, I do realize that burning the trash would require very thorough filtering, as who knows what people throw out. Perhaps adding a pseudo filtering to the trash system would help. Have the citizens separate out things that are combustible, like cardboard and food waste, versus thing that are not so combustible or too toxic, like aluminum cans and old clean containers.

Perhaps, I am not the first to think of this, but it makes me wonder what technological or financial barrier exists to prevent garbage powered garbage trucks from existing.

Thought 6 - The Art of Bipedal Locomotion

2008-08-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

It seems people are confused when you say things like "I'll just walk", or "It's not that far", or "I can just ride my bike there". This appears to be rather universal, where using ones own bipedal locomotion is a lost art left to the those who relive History like Ren-Fare artisans. I live 7-10 miles from work and frequently ride the bicycle, coworker have come to accept this, though we still need a shower. The real problem I have is those that think that I have performed some sort of monumental feat. Like people having been driving everywhere since the dawn of time. It really does not take much to plan out where you live to be within walking/riding distance and to be close enough local stores to be able to walk and procure anything you need. And many of us have been riding since an early age as it has been a tradition to "learn to ride a bike". It just seems as we get older we lose that drive to ride and just drive.

Now for the funny story:
Recently at a wedding, the transport bus broke down. The bus was at least 40 minutes from having a replacement/repair truck show up. So, my father, my brother, and myself decide to see how far it was back to the hotel, 2.8 miles. Bah! we say and start walking, leaving behind a crowd of drunken wedding guests, that were growing ever more impatient. Anyway we manage to make it back, and discover that everyone else had called taxis to get back, and only beat us there by a few minutes. They all of course thought we were crazy, first for walking, and second for walking at night in New Jersey. Now, you might be thinking, what about the homeless or the gangs? Well oddly, having grown up in a college town in the midwest, I was exposed to many homeless as we have some of the best facilities for aiding the homeless. Second there were more gang "tags" in my town than on the walk. In fact we saw 0 homeless and 1 gang tag. Further we saw no one else for 3 miles, in one of the more crowded areas. Makes you think that things are not as bad as people believe them to be, maybe if they got out and walked around their neighborhood they discover this. Hey, it's just a thought.

Thought 5 - The Ferengi of New Jersey

2008-08-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a wedding in Jersey, and have determined that New Jersey has a lot going for it, and a lot of peculiarities to it as well.

First the good:
Mandatory recycling. Recycling is curb side and everything goes, this is a great benefit, as there are no third parties involved or hippies to worry about, everyone just recycles. Recycling also requires little effort on the user, plastic, glass, and metals all go in the same container, then paper products in another.

Now the strange:
Everyone drives everywhere, but there are lots of trees. Like a giant suburbia, where the trees have not yet been killed off by the logging industry. Now, having ridden my bike for most of my life, and having walked the dogs in the morning, I have become more aware of my sense of smell. And oddly New Jersey smells like conflict, the conflict between the cars trying to pollute the world and the trees absorbing that pollution and releasing oxygen. Quite and odd balance when the brain is in a toss up between choking on smog and relaxing from the fresh air. I know it does not make sense, but then that is why it is strange.

And finally the Ferengi of New Jersey:
You pay for everything. All gas stations are full service, there are mostly toll road to get anywhere, and all parking costs money. Now, I understand the limited resources and the need to keep things in repair, but at a point it starts to feel more like extortion than a service. Take for instance, that is costs to go the beach, both to park anywhere within a mile and to get onto the beach. That said the beaches are clean and were almost empty. Next all gas stations are full service, and being from the Midwest where all gas stations are self-serv it is a little odd. Though I guess people need work, and they have been concerned about people running off with gas, which these days is impossible with the credit card pumps. It also troubles my about how you'd get gas late at night as well, seems like a loss of revenue. The charging for everything, does lead to one VERY noticeable thing a MASSIVE class divide. There are actually free beaches, and highways. However, they are terribly maintained and most of the store nearby have bars in the windows. It seems that capitalism in government works, it forces the poor to have terrible roads and beach, but then forces them to work as full service gas attendants. It just strikes me as a bad way to go, and that the better way would be to tax everyone to keep the beaches clean and the roads fixed, so that the poor could also enjoy simple things like going to beach without having to worry about broken glass, or drive down the road without worrying about pot holes, that will damage their cars, putting them further behind. End this here, as it makes for it's own thought to be explored in more detail later.

Thought 4 - The Practical Motorcycle

2008-08-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

Is a motorcycle a fuel efficient mode of transportation or merely a weekend warriors way to escape the bounds of reality on an endless ride? Since having procured a motorcycle recently it occurred to me an odd an peculiar observation, that many people consider a motorcycle in the realm of the classic bikers from "Easy Rider" or that bikers go on long rides just to ride their steel horses. However, this ideal is in conflict with concept of a fuel efficient mode of transportation. Instead of a motorcycle a scooter or moped appear in the minds of people wanting an efficient mode of transportation.

Ok, I think I need to take a micro break out to add some history about myself. I have been riding my bicycle to places as a way to get errands done since I was 6, been riding said bicycle as a method of transport since Jr. High. And after a car accident left me without a vehicle, went for 3 years with little need for car, riding the bicycle in 100 degree blistering heat, and freezing ice rain. Only truly needing a vehicle when going to the airport or when the bike was beyond my level repairing. This did lead to some rather interesting behaviors from friends, who just did not understand that I had learned to adapt to no longer needing a car.

Anyway want does bike riding have to do with bike riding? Well it's roughly the same principle of confusion. Why get a scooter or small motorcycle, if you cannot enjoy the ride? And why get an overpowered beast that is driven for the sake of showing how loud it can be. Both extremes certainly have the reasoning, but in the case of the distances and usefulness of a scooter, I might as well ride my bicycle. And if I wanted an overpowered loud beast just to get the wind in my hair, I would get a convertible sports car. Because of these cases I find myself in the bizarre middle ground of the practical motorcycle. A motorcycle that save gas while making long trips and commutes to work, but strong enough to provide the enjoyment of the power that a steel horse can bring.

In any case I think that going riding for seems a bit like a betrayal of one of the reasons to get a motorcycle, fuel efficiency. However, I cannot deny the desire to find an excuse to ride great distances. I guess that is just the duality of man.

Thought 3 - Fractured Fairy Tales, A Modern Approach

2008-08-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have been reading "The Brothers Grimm" lately. Whilst reading it, I noticed that many tales are compilations of other tales or borrow things from another tale. This can of course be attributed to oral tradition of passing a story down from generation to generation, remembering parts, forgetting others, adding in new parts, mistranslation, etc. It is almost as if the stories themselves are/were living beings that evolved into elaborate tales, pollinating from tales that survived the last generation. Either being adventurous enough, or full of the right lesson to be learned. Eventually the tales are written down and preserved like a specimen in a museum. Yet, they have continued to evolve even within a modern society where the oral tradition is no longer a method of propagation for the stories. Instead of a retelling of a story, it is called an adaptation, retelling, revisioning, or even an edit. Take for example "Snow White" as the common motifs of princess, witch, good and evil, all show. Yet, a story which takes less than 5 minutes to read, has been translated into a modern movie of 83 minutes. Even more, people will recast the players, make a more modern version. But why? The story is written, yet not immune the the effects of transmission. Could knowledge itself be a living being that grows and breeds through us? Even today as a new formats are created in movies, television, and even comics, each modern format can been seen to cross-pollinate into another form, a good TV show dies and becomes a comic, a comic grows in length to the graphic novel, then graphic novel turned into a movie, a good movie is adapted into a television series. And in each case no conversion maintains perfect consistency with original. One merely has to look a the various incarnations of Batman, Superman, and Spider man to see the evolution of the characters, the stories are similar and the players the same, yet everything is different with time, despite that we as humans no longer need to rely on the inaccuracies of oral transmission.

Just a curious observation.

Thought 2 - Rat Gambling

2008-07-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

Warning: Do NOT read this if you are offended by animal experiments.

What started out as an conversation about probability and statistics, lead to gambling, then to whether you can study gambling addiction in a controlled lab. This conversation then got a bit out of hand. What follows is how this might be accomplished, and a history of the conversation.

First you train a rat to press a lever that dispenses food or a treat or some other reward. Once this is established, you then introduce a penalty for "losing" on a gamble. This could take the form of a mild shock. Randomly either give the animal a reward or punishment with about a 50/50 ratio. Then slowly change the percentage over to increasingly more punishments than rewards until the rat no longer presses the button, it has learned that gambling is not a good idea.

Well that seemed like a decent start, but then we discovered that we were missing the element of a jackpot. This lead to either wiring up the rat's pleasure center of the brain, or dispensing a dopamine releasing drug, like say cocaine. Then add the "jackpot", into the reward with a very small probability, but make it show up early so that the rat is always sort of "chasing the dragon". Then find out how the "jackpot" alters the rat's cutoff point.

Anyway, it's just a thought.

Thought 1 - Future Bike Helmet

2008-07-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

Now that I have a motorcycle, I realize the potential future possibilities of the helmet. Wherein the helmet can become more than just mere protection, but a useful interface and aid to the rider. The concept stems from three currently available, but edgy technologies: transparent displays, blue tooth, and EEG recording.

Technology 1: Transparent Displays
Transparent displays are just now being put into high end cars and modern aircraft to create a dashboard on the windshield allows the driver or pilot to view the instruments, like speedometer, radar, engine problems, etc. This is typically done with a projected display onto a special film on the window. It can also be performed by simply building the LCD into the screen. The built in is not done because it is more costly in terms of construction of the display and a crack or chip in the display becomes an LCD ink blot. The projector could potentially be built into the visor of a motor cycle helmet, especial now that mini projectors are starting to emerge and are planned for future generation mobile phones. This would help the rider in much the same way it helps a driver or pilot, by allowing the eyes to stay on the road.

Technology 2: Blue Tooth
This already exists in the form of an N-Com system that allows a motorcyclist to communicate to passenger or cell phone. This is a good start in terms of making the helmet more useful, now it just needs to tie into the motorcycle itself for the rest of the information.

Technology 3: EEG Recording
EEG is a measure of brain waves. We already see this dropping into the consumer market with the OCZ NIA game controller. It uses a combination of eye muscle movements and EEG readings to allow a user control aspects of a video game. This could be adapted to allow control over the interface for the display screen, or through blue tooth answer or make an emergency call on a cell phone. We could then accelerate this to the next level of complete control over the vehicle, which would be cool, and not unheard of as the military has tried to do this for aircraft. However, that may be a little too far down the road. Instead we could use the EEG information to determine the state of the driver, and warn them if that are getting too tired, distracted, etc. Further the EEG electrodes could easily disappear into the helmet without looking like an awkward head band.

Combining the ideas would create a helmet that help the rider keep their eyes on the road while only having to think about what needs to displayed on the visor, as well as creating an alert system as to the tiredness of the rider. Or just "think" to make an emergency phone call, like seeing an accident on the side of the road. This should be feasible to build in 5-10 years given the current trend of technology, and the real limiting factor is the transparent display, which could be done without the projector today, but just may not work as well.

Anyway, it's just a thought.

Thought 0 - A Blog

2008-07-27T07:07:00.000-07:00

In order to blog about thoughts, one must have both thoughts and a blog, there the first thought must be the thought to blog, and thus follows the creation of a blog with thoughts. Now, the thought is completed and the first blog is posted.