Unleash Nerd Fury

A blog post for the ACM’s Computer Science Teachers Association about why I (shockingly) think programming contests have value.

One of the funniest skits I’ve seen in a while and the real reason why you need to keep your users in mind.

I saw a presentation that included software that will generate a 3-D representation of something based on photos at a computer science seminar at the University of Washington a few weeks back.
I just can’t wait until I can use it!

A friend send me this link to Fletcher Capstan Tables – tables that solve the problem where you need at least 2 people to add a leaf or two to your dining room table.

There is not much more I have to say on the, because the great design says it all.

Elias got a Tamagotchi (v4 – the latest which can connect via Infrared to others and to “Tamatown” on line via codes) a while back. I dismissed it for nearly a month – telling Elias to take care of it when it whined (beeped), and never really read the instructions.

Well, his first Tamagotchi (HOT A) died. Nearest I can figure, it grew up and didn’t find a mate via connecting, so the ugly ol’ matchmaker showed up. I kept thinking it was his Tamagotchi that got old like that and thought “who would be attracted to this thing?”. Anyway, because it didn’t find a mate, it died. What surprised me was that I actually got a little sad.

So by fumbling around with combinations of the three buttons, we hatched a new one (IOT A) on Friday while we were at REI. Elias watched her over the weekend, but today he didn’t want to take it to school. So rather than putting her on pause (a nice feature of the newer models), I spent the day “caring” for her. It’s still a toddler, but it’s been pretty happy. Right now it’s sleeping on my desk.

I think my goal it to get it to actually have an hatch an egg.

I’m just afraid that next I’ll move onto the @)*(# Nintendogs that Ruben bought.

Update: Elias lost the Tamagotchi. We were up to generation 3, a little dude we called Matt (gen 2 was Elias), he paused it and took it to school to play with it during his after school care. He doesn’t know where it is and we’ve looked all over. I only hope it’s still paused in case we ever do find it.  I think Elias needs to lo-jack his stuff the way he loses it…

Ruben’s camera eludes me. It’s a skinny Sony Cybershot T33. A point and click. Should be simple, no?

Well. No.

We’re on our trip to CA, and I wanted to take a picture of the Siskiyou pass summit sign (on I-5 going southbound). I turn on his camera, and open and close the passenger side window of the car every time I think we’re hitting the summit. Finally we’re there, I open the window, the cold air hits, I position my finger, and I press…..

…the power off button.

Now my first thought was to blame myself for this. This is NOT the first time I’ve done this either (and I did it a second time on the trip further down the road). However as I’m sitting here and having a chance to process the day, I put on my User Experience Engineer hat and I realized it is most certainly NOT my fault. This is really bad UI design for this camera.

Why?

Well the power on off button is right next to the button tot ake the picture. In fact the power button just behind the button for taking the picture so if you’re holding the camera closer to the back (in order to avoid having your finger in the picture) you’re bound to hit the darn off button instead of taking the picture.

Definite thumbs (or forefingers) down on this one.

On June 25, 2006, I did the mountain biking portion of the Mountain to Sound relay. The 23 mile mountain bike section of the relay starts at Hyak, in the Snoqualmie summit, and proceeds down the John Wayne/Iron Horse trail about 1500 feet to Rattlesnake Lake.
In preparation for this ride, I went up to do the 2.2 mile long tunnel one time by myself. It was completely freaky and I wanted to share it with my friends. So for race day, I mount a camera on my bike and take video through the tunnel. So I searched the web, and I found these great directions on how to make your own bicycle camera mount. (aside, we nerds heart Make magazine)

Well once again, months later, my hubby found this. Grumble.

One thing I love doing is riding a bicycle. As much as I love riding with my husband, he has this annoying habit of throwing out “Audio Cooties” – i.e. he’ll start singing whatever is currently stuck on and lodge it firmly into my head, whether I want it or not.

I could combat this by riding with my own iPod and listening to my own tunes, but listening through headphones while operating a vehicle (a bicycle is considered a vehicle) is illegal. (Aside: it is a HUGE peeve of mine to see people riding with headphones or no helmet).

Instead I came up with a way of playing tunes on my bike while training for the Seattle To Portland bike ride. My design evolved over my training but by STP it included

• An iPod shuffle, attached with velcro to my handlebar stem.
• A head phone splitter
• An extension to the speaker cord
• A cheapo radio shack speaker, placed on top of some foam on the back rack on my bike, attached via a bungie cord
• A Sony compact speaker, attached to my aero bars with a cord.

(I will insert a photo here when I can get one.).

Each speaker was attached to the iPod (which I could change just by pressing a button on my handlebars) and I could pump the tunes out to the front (for me) or back (for my riding buddies). I even used the system at the Lake Steven’s Olympic Distance triathlon (I did the biking portion).

I thought I had something novel, until my hubby sent me this.