serolynne and I submitted a collection of photos to the Burning Man Screen Saver Project a few months ago, and we just got the DVD of the final results.

There is some amazing photography here, and I am thrilled that several of our photos were picked for inclusion. So far, we've seen seven of ours pop up, out of the 1485 photos featured.

You can download the 2007 edition of the screen saver here.

Here are the seven photos of ours that we've seen show up - let us know if you see any more:

This one is a bit bigger than the Oliver, but it does have a few nice perks. The marble floors and hideaway plasma TV are just the start.

Be sure to watch until the end, and check out what is stored in the basement.

Now that would be handy! :-)

Cherie and I were amazingly compatible living together in my 16' clamshell Tab for seven months last summer, but we have on occasion craved a bit more space. Now that we are ramping up to hit the road again soon, it is time to consider - should we upgrade to a larger house??


Our clamshell Tab, looking gorgeous in the setting sun alongside Lake Meredith in the Texas Panhandle.

Last summer we stopped in to see the Casita factory, and we were extremely impressed by the design. The 17' Casita is not all that much bigger or heavier than a Tab, but it has a very compelling floor plan and it seems to be very well built.

Ever since, we've been contemplating an upgrade to a Casita. It would be a slightly larger and heavier trailer, but it would give us a LOT more indoor plumbing, and (perhaps more importantly) the ability to keep the bed set up separate from the table. The clamshell Tab is an absolutely brilliant design, but sometimes it is a bit awkward for two people who have offset sleep schedules...


The Casita is only a foot longer than the Tab, but is has vastly more interior space, including a bathroom and a shower...

One of the biggest things holding me back in getting a Casita has been fearing starting from scratch needing to do the customization and solar work to upgrade a Casita to fit our needs.

But a few weeks ago I started researching the relatively new Oliver Travel Trailer, and I just got the brochure in the mail a few days ago.

The Oliver has a very similar floor plan to the Casita, though it seems to be even more ingeniously designed. They have clearly put a lot of thought into building the ultimate small camper.

The most impressive thing though is that Oliver seems to be incredibly flexible in working with customers to customize and tweak their standard design, including doing the solar work for us. They will even mount cell phone signal boosters, as many power outlets as we want, and much much more.

I think I am starting to imagine an Oliver in our future...

Check out some awesome interior photos here.
And some exterior shots here.

To buy a new house or not, that is the question....

When this primary season began, I never would have imagined that my vote in the South Dakota primary (June 3rd) would actually have a chance of mattering...



My South Dakota absentee ballot arrived this week, and is being sent off tomorrow.

Go Obama!

Saturday night serolynne and I had a bunch of friends over for party, and then on Sunday we went out to see Iron Man with a bunch of the out-of-town stragglers who stayed over.

It rocked.

Great characters, fun special effects, and an ass-kicking super hero. Iron Man takes the typical summer blockbuster formula, and executes it nearly perfectly.

I was a bit disappointed with the climatic final battle (ice?!!?), and I wish there had been more background and depth given to the villain. And there were a few scenes that were just not particularly believable, even allowing for the Iron Man universe physics. The suit is supposed to be indestructible, not the man...

But minor quibbles aside, this movie was a visual feast perfect for seeing on the big screen. Much fun!

Rating: 4+ stars

Monday night I received an out-of-the-blue inquiry via email asking if I might be interested in offering my mobile expertise on a currently hush-hush silicon valley project.

Tuesday morning serolynne and I met a local FL prospect who offered us some immediate (and likely ongoing) database and web development contract work.

Tuesday afternoon the silicon valley CEO spent an hour with me on the phone, deciding that he liked what I had to offer and that he told me he wanted to discuss things further with his team.

This afternoon, he emailed me asking to fly us out to meet with his team in San Jose next week to explore potential ways he might be able to make use of us.

Both prospects know that Cherie and I intend to continue our technomadic wandering and other projects, and we'll be mostly only available remotely. Neither have any hesitation with this.

In other news, my investment portfolio has been shooting up like a rocket lately, and I've made back nearly all the losses from earlier in 2008.

Two months ago, things were looking rather lean. Now, suddenly the world seems to be overflowing with opportunity and abundance. When it rains...

*grin*

Anyway - tickets have just been booked. We'll be in the SF Bay Area next week, Thursday May 1st thru Tuesday May 6th.

We'll be visiting the Maker Faire on Saturday, for sure. There are other social convergences lining up as well.

Let me know what other things are going on - I'd love to see as many of the SF area folks as I can when we pass through town. I've missed you all!

I've had a wake up call this past weekend...

The things I post here sometimes have vastly greater impact than I could have ever reasonably imagined. Seeds planted flower months or even years later. My voice makes a difference.

So I want to raise my voice again to say that without hesitation, I support Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States.

I could go on and on documenting my reasons, and I have posted many of them over the past several months.

But when it comes down to it, for me it is about trust. After extensive research and reading and digging into all of the candidates, Obama has won me over. But more than that - he has lit up and inspired me like no other politician has in my lifetime.

Hillary's desperate scorched earth tactics to try and keep her campaign alive have overall been hurting her own parties chances against McCain. How can I trust a candidate who behaves this way?

It is time for the country to put an end to this divisive primary battle. I hope that the Democratic voters of Pennsylvania are up to the challenge.

This weekend Fritz is moving into a rented room up in Titusville. The money he will be saving on commute costs and vehicle wear (not to mention hours of his life gained) certainly justify this switch. He'll still be our housemate on weekends, until the house sells that is. But this arrangement should work out great for everyone involved.

With Fritz gone during the week, it no longer makes sense for us all to be splitting the costs for premium cable TV / and high speed Internet. So rather than dropping back to basic service, serolynne and I are contemplating cutting the cable entirely.

I just switched our half of the house network to use our Sprint Novatel Merlin EX720 and CradlePoint CTR-350 Router as our upstream connection, instead of the cable modem.

And we really can't notice any performance difference whatsoever.

Music and videos stream just fine, and the net feels just as fast as it ever has on BrightHouse Cable.

Since last year, it looks as if Sprint has upgraded the local wireless to a full EVDO revA signal. And that rocks.

According to the DSL Reports Speed Test, this is the performance we are currently getting via wireless:

Download Speed: 1199 Kb/s
Upload Speed: 240 Kb/s
Latency: 94ms

The cable modem tests out much faster (6033 Kb/s, 464 Kb/s, 62ms) - but in day to day use, it hardly seems noticeable. We'll be keeping our eye out for any hiccups - but very likely by this time next week we will be cutting off cable entirely.

This setup works amazing well. And the best part? We can take it with us (almost) anywhere!! *grin*

I cut away from Photoshop World for a while yesterday afternoon to head over to the Orlando Millennia Apple Store for a Genius appointment, to try and persuade Apple to replace my fried iPhone.

No problem.

The tech spent ten minutes trying to get my iPhone to wake up, he used a little scope to peek up the headphone jack to make sure the moisture sensor was still white (it turns pink if the iPhone gets wet, voiding the warranty), and then he declared my old iPhone officially dead. He then did a little bit of paperwork and handed over a shiny refurb unit.

Yay!

I also decided to switch my service over to AT&T from T-Mobile while I was in the process of reactivating the iPhone today, avoiding the need to hack and unlock the new one.

(Hacking the iPhone has gotten trivially easy BTW - look here for details...)

Why AT&T now, after holding out for so long on T-Mobile??

I initially stuck with T-Mobile because I initially viewed the iPhone as an experiment - I didn't expect that it would fully win me over. It actually literally WAS an experiment at first, since a client was paying us to do some UI evaluation and research.

But the iPhone UI won me over. My biggest complaint was the lack of third party application support, but the new iPhone SDK has brought more developer enthusiasm to the iPhone than exists on any other mobile platform. Even on various PalmOS developer mailing lists, the main topic of conversation lately has been the iPhone. I expect that as soon as the iPhone 2.0 OS ships this June, there will be a plethora of amazing software released.

My other major complaint was the lack of 3G speed. That will almost certainly be solved by June with a major iPhone hardware refresh, and based upon how AT&T and Apple handled the 16GB iPhone model - upgrading will NOT require a contract extension.

AT&T will give me vastly better coverage than T-Mobile, and slightly faster mobile data speeds. My monthly bill will drop a trivial amount, and the one downside is that my monthly minutes will be cut from 1000 to 450. But seeing as I actually only use 300 or so minutes a month, that really isn't a loss.

AT&T has won me over. Now hurry out with 3G!!!

My iPhone has died.

*grrr*

Over the weekend the battery had gotten dangerously low (10% warning) - and the iPhone was on the verge of shutting down while we needed it to try and navigate towards Wrestlemania. Greg and Betty realized that they had an iPod car-charger onboard, so I borrowed it and plugged in.

A moment after I did so, the iPhone reset and rebooted twice - and then gave me a kernel panic and the screen filled with text. It was actually pretty cool to watch, though disturbing.

I picked up the iPhone, and the back of the case was shockingly hot to touch. Yikes!

I unplugged, and forced the iPhone to reboot by holding down the front and top buttons for ten seconds, and when it returned to life I put it into "Airplane Mode", guessing that the wireless radio combined with the charge current for the critically low battery had overwhelmed the charging circuit. Once in Airplane mode, the iPhone seemed to charge fine for the remaining 15 minutes of our drive.

Once inside the Citrus Bowl, I was able to use my iPhone to snap and email pictures, and place a few phone calls. The battery was still in the red, but the phone was working fine. After emailing a final picture off to my folks, I stuck the phone into my pocket.

About an hour later, I felt a brief vibration. I think that was my iPhone's dying gasp.

Later in the night, the iPhone was dead to the world. Nothing I could do would make it reset or wake up - the screen was hopelessly black. Once home, I plugged into both my laptop and the wall charger - but neither would bring the iPhone back to life. Even leaving it plugged in overnight did nothing.

Googling around, I've found reports of the iPhone charge circuitry sometimes failing and frying. I think that is what happened to me.

In theory, I should be able to take advantage of the 1yr Apple warranty - but since I have never activated on AT&T this may be tough. I will have to convince a Genius at an Apple store to swap my dead phone for a live one. But one catch - every Apple store in the state of FL is sold out of iPhones. There is a mysterious nationwide shortage going on right now. Even the Apple online store is out of stock..

The next generation 3G iPhone is due sometime between now and June. I was planning to buy that as soon as it is released. Now I am faced with the dilemma - do I limp along with my backup broken down Treo until then? Should I sell my dead iPhone on Ebay for parts (potentially worth up to $300)? Should I wait until the Orlando Apple store gets more equivalent iPhones in stock and try and sweet talk a warranty swap? Or...

I could even dissect my iPhone, order a new logic board for $200, and with some careful work, likely resurrect it.

I've gotten so used to having my email, web access, photo albums, and music with me all the time. It feels miserable to be without. Fortunately, I still have a Treo to fall back upon. But it does feel positively stone-age to use it.

*grrrr*

Sixteen days ago we watched Endeavor launch into space.

And just moments ago, we heard her return home.

Though there was nothing to see, a large sonic boom shook the house like a hammer. I was out in the driveway - the garage doors rattled as if it was an earthquake.

I made it back inside just in time to watch the touchdown from the onboard and runway cameras on NASA TV.

I always love the the look of runway lights at night.

There is something SO amazingly cool about descending from orbit to land on a runway. It is going to be a sad day when the shuttle retires in a few years.

Obama's recent endorsement by Governor Bill Richardson (a former Clinton cabinet member) is pretty big news, and deservedly so. Hopefully Richardson will trigger a domino effect of other prominent Democrats breaking for Obama, making it increasingly clear that Hillary's prospects heading into the convention are bleak.

But I am just as intrigued by the Obama endorsement I just read from Douglas Kmiec, the former Assistant Attorney General to Reagan and Bush v1.

Kmiec, now a Constitutional Law Professor, is a staunch Republican. But he had this to say as to why he would break with his own party towards Obama:

Today I endorse Barack Obama for president of the United States. I believe him to be a person of integrity, intelligence and genuine good will. I take him at his word that he wants to move the nation beyond its religious and racial divides and to return United States to that company of nations committed to human rights. ...

As a Republican, I strongly wish ... [long list of core Republican issues]

In various ways, Senator Barack Obama and I may disagree on aspects of these important fundamentals, but I am convinced based upon his public pronouncements and his personal writing that on each of these questions he is not closed to understanding opposing points of view, and as best as it is humanly possible, he will respect and accommodate them.

No doubt some of my friends will see this as a matter of party or intellectual treachery. I regret that and I respect their disagreement. But they will readily agree that as Republicans, we are first Americans. As Americans, we must voice our concerns for the well-being of our nation without partisanship when decisions that have been made endanger the body politic.

His full endorsement is well reasoned, and worth reading.

I have immense respect for people (of either party) who are willing to look beyond blind loyalty or personal gain, and who are willing to take a stand for what really matters to them.

Thank you Governor Richardson and Professor Kmiec for sticking your necks out. It is needed, and appreciated.

I've been growing increasingly disgusted with Hillary Clinton's campaign over the past few weeks.

Mathematically, it is essentially impossible for her to regain the lead before the convention. The only way she will be able to beat Obama is if she can convince enough super delegates to ignore Obama's lead and vote for her instead, an act that will tear the Democratic party apart.

But in her desperation, Hillary seems to be more than willing to sacrifice her own party to slightly increase her chance for victory. Based on her recent attacks on Obama, it even seems now that she would rather see McCain win in November, leaving the door open for her to run again in four years.

Her "victory at all costs" strategy is ruthless, and despicable. It is little wonder that so many Obama supporters would rather vote for McCain than Hillary, if Hillary does manage to grab the nomination.

I posted a few weeks ago about Hillary resorting to "the politics of fear", starting with this fear mongering "It’s 3 am and your children are safe and asleep..." ad:

The little girl in the stock footage Hillary used to create that ad is all grown up now, and she has this to say:

"That little girl was me," Casey Knowles says. "And I'm here to tell you that I'm not scared. I reject the politics of fear that Senator Clinton uses to scare up votes."

Casey has actually been volunteering for the Obama campaign for months now, and she was even a precinct captain in WA caucus.

What irony!

It is 3:30AM. I've been up late handling some HD backup chores, and reading political blogs.

Just as I am wrapping up for the night, I hear Alma's cat flap door open in the dining room. Somebody forgot to lock her out.

I start debating with myself whether to catch her and put her out, or let her in to sleep with us (and face the consequences) when I hear a loud "meow", and a thump.

She has just dropped a live mole (!!!) in the entry to the room!

Quickly before the mole can scurry away into the bedroom where serolynne is sleeping, I grab the only container within reach - a beautiful small antique ceramic vase the the Purge Genie had been listing on eBay earlier in the night. I plop it over the mole, and try to shush Alma away so that she doesn't topple it.

As I look around to find a more appropriate container, the vase starts crawling across the floor. Egads!

Somehow I manage to find a tupperware filled with electronics, screws, and wires from the closet, which I then proceed to dump all over the guest bed. Hurrying back, I manage to stop the runaway vase (and pursuing cat) just before it reaches the hallway.

Lifting the vase, I quickly re-capture the mole in the tupperware.

It's now 3:45AM. I have a tupperware container full of scurrying, waddling mole. It has giant flipper feet, a cute snout, and seemingly no eyes.



First a snake, now a mole... What next?!?

We've been in Iraq five years now, longer than both the Civil War and World War II.

In our history, only the Vietnam War lasted longer.

There is a lot of legitimate debate over how and when we should best end this. And even more debate over whether or not this fight should ever have begun.

When you are fighting something as amorphous as terrorism, how do you even know when the war is over?

I am glad however that there is NOT much debate over whether or not we should honor and respect our troops. They have a tough job to do, and for the most part they do it admirably.

My dear friend Ian Rhett wrote a song a few years ago, dedicated to his sister who is serving in the Marines. The song, and the video to go with it, are powerfully moving.

To mark the fifth anniversary of this conflict, I'd like to encourage everyone to listen to this song and watch the video here.

No matter what your stance on the war, you will be moved. And if you are moved, please share this.

Ian's description of the song:

"Semper Fi" is the Marine Corps motto, and means "Always Faithful".
"(I Know Why You're) Semper Fi" is a song inspired by my sister, an active duty Marine. I'm a musician committed to generating kindness and inspiring peace and I'm also profoundly grateful for the commitment to serve demonstrated by my sister and her military community.

The goal of the video is to create a middle ground in a deeply divided national dialogue about the war - to respectfully acknowledge the sacrifice and dedication of the men and women fighting on our behalf, and to ask aloud, "When does the time for peace finally arrive?"

Supporting the troops doesn't mean giving the government a blank check of public support. In my opinion, supporting the troops means not only acknowledging their commitment, but also taking responsibility for speaking out to their civilian leadership on their behalf by exercising the rights for which they and their predecessors fought. Their job is to follow orders, and they do it better than anyone else on the planet. Our job as citizens is to hold our government accountable. To be silent, in my opinion, is to dishonor both freedom and the sacrifices made in its pursuit.

I have nearly 1.5TB of storage plugged into my laptop at the moment.

This turns me on. *grin*

• 320GB internal drive.


• 500GB USB backup drive.


• 500GB Firewire backup drive.


• 160GB USB drive (bus powered!)


• 8GB iPhone.

Sadly, my other 160GB external USB drive is loaned out, or this would be even more exciting.

I love being a geek. :-)

Watching this video blows me away. This robot "dog" can walk on all terrain, can recover if kicked (watch 38 seconds in), and it can even scramble to stay upright while slipping on ice. Its movements are more "alive" than any other robot I've seen.

This is a glimpse of the future of robotic technology.

Someday (relatively soon) even kids toys will be this advanced.

Based upon the current pace of robotic evolution, we are just a few years away from cars that can self-drive in traffic, and robots that can run and walk as well as any human or animal.

And after that equivalence is reached, what then? The imagination boggles.

The singularity is near, indeed!

Alma is the most amazing, lovable, and low maintenance cat I have ever lived with. She isn't needy, she feeds her pet snake, she doesn't demand food at particular times, and she doesn't even need a litter box. And best of all - she causes me NO allergic twinges whatsoever.

She is quite possibly the perfect cat. Cuddly, lovable, personable, low-maintenance, and all-around wonderful.

Except in the early mornings, when we let her sleep with us...

This video might as well have been made about Alma in the mornings:

Alma wants us up in the morning. Not to feed her - her dish is usually still full from the day before. But she wants to be walked to her dish, and then for someone to watch her eat. Uh, ok?!!?

Early mornings around here usually involve stumbling out bed zombie-like to watch Alma eat. Either that, or snatching her and tossing her out.

You can only ignore the purring and the squeaking for so long...

After a late night staying up watching NASA TV with my Mom, Dad, and Cherie - we headed down to Canova Beach just before the 2:28 AM launch last night.

Unfortunately, due to a low overcast, the STS-123 launch was only visible for a scant few (but spectacular) seconds. It sure didn't compare to the majestic night launch we witnessed in December 2006 while at sea aboard the Disney Magic.

Still, an amazing experience. serolynne has posted some video over in her journal too.

I am watching the video stream of today's iPhone SDK announcement, and I have been completely blown away.

If you are at all interested in gaming, check out Apple's tech demo Touch Fighter 41 minutes into the video, Spore from Electronic Arts 45 minutes in, and best of all - Sega's Super Monkey Ball at the one hour mark.

These developers were given just two weeks with the SDK, and they had to work on site at Apple. And in just two weeks, this is what they were able to crank out.

I am blown away at what was possible in such a short time with a beta SDK. This is amazingly cool stuff. And it bodes very well for the future of iPhone gaming. Using the 3-axis accelerometer for interaction is going to revolutionize mobile gaming in the same way that the Wii revolutionized the living room console experience.

MultiTouch has some pretty revolutionary implications too. Check out the Touch FX photo manipulation demo 39 minutes into the video for a taste of what is possible.

Good job Apple!