Gnr8

A stylish mix of form and function; scupture and light. Generate is also an alternative source for the Ambient Orb should ThinkGeek be out of stock.

Surrounded by Art

A very impressive project to emerge from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is CANVAS (Collaborative Advanced Navigation Virtual Art Studio). It’s a 3-screened, back-projectioned portable virtual-reality open-lab for research and teaching projects by faculty in the fine and applied arts at the University. CANVAS is a space for creating and presenting computer-assisted multi-dimensional projects. CANVAS is based on the University of Illinois' CAVE™ technology and runs on the SYZYGY grid-operating system. SYZYGY is open source and is downloadable here. It runs under windows, Linux, and MacOSX.

I want a CAVE. It should be very inexpensive. I also want a flying car. And a pony....

Slashdot Dicks

Check out the recent SF Bay Guardian article by Analee Newitz entitled SlashDot Dicks. It's mostly an "I'm a feminist and am not afraid to piss and moan about it over half a dozen paragraphs"* story, however she does conclude (quite rightly) that *any* topic on Slashdot brings out all sides of an argument. The great thing about the Slashdot moderation system is the fact that well thought out, constructive posts get modded up, while the trash gets promptly slammed down. You can always rely on Slashdot for a well argued set of points. You may not agree with all of the posts -- but you can learn a lot.

(* and no, I have nothing against feminists -- only about people that whine about any topic.....)

Cable Car Update Update!

Continuing to make good progress (although "good" in this context is highly relative). Windows have been cut and trimmed. I wound up using sheets of foam insulation for the curved window trim (window cap?) - made cutting them out very easy (notwithstanding the first drawing of blood...)


You can see in the picture above that the windows trim is in place. The window caps will be glued in place.


I spray-primed the first window cap to ensure it will look OK.
Looks OK to me ;-) Tomorrow the gluing of the window caps and the cutting of windows at the rear of the cable car. Then the painting. And after the painting, the roof!

Oh, and I quit my job today. Kinda anti-climactic as there was no one in the office to accept my resignation. The lady in HR was the unlucky candidate by virtue of being the only person not on vacation this week.

Cable Car Progress

The cable care frame is made from 2-inch schedule 40 irrigation pipe. Why? It's easy to work with, is almost impossible to break and comes with lots of interesting connection joints (which makes my life much easier - I know the joints will line up....)


Here we see the walls going on the frame. Since the garage where I'm constructing the car slopes, I'm "floating" the walls. They will be levelled when I install the replica in the La Entrada school hall.


Lower walls on the frame. Making progress....

Off to Amazon.com

Well it's just about official (as soon as I sign the paperwork and hand in my notice...) that I'm off to Amazon.com. On May 1 2006 or thereabouts, I become the VP Platform Operations for the world's largest on-line retail site. So yes - if the site is down or running slow you know where to complain.

Now I have the challange of getting packed, finding somewhere to live (yes -- this will be Seattle, WA based) and moving. Oh joy!

The Cable Car Project

I'm now about halfway through the construction of the replica-cable car centerpiece for the upcoming La Entrada 8th Grade graduation. I'm begining to wonder, however, what the heck I do with a 3/4 size San Francisco Cable Car when the event is over? Thoughts?