The gentleman is correct in sitting | 30 July 02010, 21:21 |
| Working at NASA was a childhood dream of mine. At some level it was probably the common desire of a child growing up in the 1980s to be an astronaut, but for me I'd say it went further than that - I wanted to be a part of humanity's future; I wanted to be an explorer, an enabler, a part of the team that brought humanity up from the trenches and into a new era of enlightenment, exploration, and existence. I saw NASA as the embodiment of this notion - they achieved the impossible as a matter of routine and their mission was to explore the universe, starting at the edge of our planet and working outwards.
That was 20 years ago. This is now. I did, through the convoluted maze of life, end up working at NASA. (more ...)   | |
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Rules for Radicals | 30 May 02010, 0:42 |
| Note: as noted in a previous post, this is a lightly edited copy of an e-mail that I sent to co-workers recently. The lab I work in is meant to explore advanced human interface methods for future crewed spacecraft. As it is, a great deal of my time is spent trying desperately to wring funding and other resources (such as lab space) out of our organization so that we can actually perform some of this R&D work. This message reflects my take on the process and why it's important to continue trying.
We are extremists; what we pursue is radical. (more ...) | |
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Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? | 29 May 02010, 23:50 |
| There was some post on the internet recently about Rules for Radicals - I don't remember where exactly it was and don't really care; it was some trite drivel about Thinking Outside The Box or some such nonsense. But after skimming over the article, I realized that several of the notions actually apply to what I do at work.
For those who don't know: I work with a very small group of people at Johnson Space Center researching advanced human interfaces for future crewed spacecraft. Technically we're a Constellation lab, which means that if the proposed FY2011 budget is approved, my work becomes de-funded and I'm out job hunting. At least that's the first thing that people think when I tell them I work in a Constellation lab. (more ...) | |
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Oh yeah | 26 May 02010, 22:15 |
| I'm in Seattle, WA for the SID 2010 conference this week. I've been pushing a human interface architecture at work (now it's "our" architecture) and a lot of features of it seem to work well using transparent and/or flexible displays.
OLED displays can be flexible, transparent, or both - seemingly perfect. Electrophoretic ink technology can be flexible; I haven't seen any transparent e-ink displays but don't see why that's not possible (in fact I expect that it is). There are quantum dot displays which are cool, but I don't think they're going to be transparent or flexible. Anyway. So there's this display technology that's perpetually 5 years out and sure enough, at SID 2010, OLED is only really present on the 6th floor (where they're talking about what will overtake LCDs in 5 years). (more ...) | |
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Goodbye LA; it's been fun | 8 May 02010, 9:37 |
| Leaving for home in a few hours. Overall this was a really fun trip. Got to see some really cool things, both for work and on my own. Learned a lot about my co-workers (perhaps more than I wanted to know, but that's OK). Gorgeous weather the whole time. Pretty good hotel (I give it a solid B). There's plenty more to do around here, of course. Will have to come back at some point. | |
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LA | 6 May 02010, 23:25 |
| I've been in the Los Angeles area for about a week now. Over the last few days, I've done several things that I found exciting:
1) Driven the Miracle Mile 2) Driven down Santa Monica Blvd and Hollywood Blvd 3) Driven up and down at least a portion of the California Pacific Highway 4) Driven the Mulholland Freeway 5) Eaten at In-n-Out Burger a few times 6) Talked to the crew at Oblong Industries I've taken lots (and lots) of photos. At some point, I'll post them here (along with all of the other ones that used to be here). (more ...) | |
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New toy, day 2 | 4 May 02010, 19:06 |
| Still like the netbook. Still a little annoyed at the lack of bluetooth, but I'll get over it. It has this face recognition thing for logging in, which seems silly but it works, most of the time. Not especially quick. The only real problem I have so far is that the screen and the surround for the screen are very glossy, so if it's at all light outside the reflection makes it very hard to see the screen - you have to turn the brightness all the way up, and even then it's a bit tough. With CRT monitors, AGAR (anti-glare anti-reflection) was always a big deal, and that was something that LCDs were good at without much effort, so I'm not sure why they would have (apparently intentionally) taken something that is otherwise great for use outdoors and made it almost impossible to use in the sunshine. (more ...) | |
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New toy | 3 May 02010, 17:43 |
| I am now plus one Lenovo S10-3 netbook. Seems fun. The Fry's in Burbank had a much better selection of them than the one in Houston. Also, I couldn't get anyone at the Fry's in Houston to talk to me (at least nobody in the computer department). The touchpad is ... OK. Still getting used to it. The IdeaPad I played with in the store was apparently an S10-2, which had actual physical mouse buttons just below the touchpad; the one I took home has a single-piece thing which looks nice but is a bit awkward if you want to click and drag.
The thing that really surprised me about the netbooks is the lack of Bluetooth support. (more ...) | |
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... and then Nokia redeems itself, a little | 1 May 02010, 15:37 |
| The e-mail thing works now! I don't know why it wasn't working before, and I didn't really do anything to fix it, but it started working. Whatever.
In other Nokia news: the N8 looks AWESOME. *drool* | |
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Refund! | 10 April 02010, 9:10 |
| Got my tax refund, and promptly spent it. My $400 "make working pay" (or whatever it was called) bonus went entirely to car parts, and then some. I also blew a bunch of money at Target, TJ Maxx, and Home Depot. That's right: I used my tax refund to help the economy. You're welcome! | |
