Blog

I haven’t had a functioning personal website in quite a while. But I finally carved out some time to work on it. I even imported the blog content from my old site, which is now more of a time capsule of a much younger version of myself.

I recently went to the Air Force Armament Museum in Fort Walton, FL. It’s definitely worth checking out if you are ever in the neighborhood. It’s completely free, though I recommend giving a donation.

The coolest thing at the museum is definitely the retired SR-71 Blackbird on display out in front of the museum. Here is a pic I borrowed from an article about the museum (dead link removed, see below):

It was cool to actually be able to get so close to the plane. One thing that was interesting is just how light the materials were. It felt very hollow away from leading edges. It even seemed a bit fragile and would probably easily dent. I guess if nothing can catch you, it doesn’t matter if you’re fragile. :)

Also, the heat expansion joints were quite prominent. I’ve often heard how the Blackbird leaked fuel through the joints until the skin heats up from supersonic flight and seals tight. The joint separation was smaller closer to the center of the plane and progressively got larger out towards the wings. I guess the heat makes the plane bow outwards.

The other interesting thing is that there are actually quite a lot of seams, welds, and ripples in the skin. It’s not perfectly smooth like an expensive sports car. That matte black paint really gives the impression of being perfectly smooth in the press photos though. I guess those small imperfections don’t have any significant affect on the plane at Mach 3+.

Here is a recent story from a real SR-71 pilot on Gizmodo (dead link removed, see below). It’s actually an excerpt from a book. Be sure to read the story about the speed check from an air traffic controller.

Dead links

• http_//visitsouth.com/articles/article/air-force-armament-museum-fort-walton-beach-fl/
• http_//gizmodo.com/5511236/the-thrill-of-flying-the-sr+71-blackbird

I think the AT&T Femtocell (dead link removed, see below) is incredibly misguided technology (at least for smart phone owners). On the surface, it looks kind of cool. Essentially, it is like a tiny cell tower that you can connect to your existing internet connection. Voice calls and data are routed via a 3G connection to the Femtocell and then converted to internet protocols and sent to AT&T servers. The advantage of the Femtocell is that you can get cell coverage where you might otherwise not get it such as in a deadzone, like a building with thick walls. There are also advantages in that a private Femtocell connection will be available when all the regular cell bandwidth is used up by other users (e.g. cities like New York).

So why is it misguided? On the one hand I think customers will be upset that they need to pay $150 to fix a problem that AT&T should probably be fixing for free. However, that’s not the problem that I have with the Femtocell. The issue that bugs me is why use the Femtocell at all when everyone already owns WiFi access points?

For instance, iPhones can already communicate with WiFi for internet data connections. The iPhone will seamlessly switch from 3G to using a trusted WiFi AP with no impact on the user. Also, we already know that iPhone apps can use the headset speaker and microphone and they can be used effectively with VOIP applications (e.g. Skype). So instead of a $150 Femtocell box, AT&T should be working with Apple (and other cell phone manufacturers) to create software that will automatically switch from cellular to encrypted VOIP for voice calls. As mentioned before, they’ve already got the internet data switching working. And the iPhone is more than powerful enough to process VOIP data.

The only negative I can think of is that maintaining an open WiFi connection is probably a big drain on a cell phone’s battery. For instance, I believe the iPhone closes the WiFi connection whenever it can (especially when the screen is turned off). If cellular service is not available and the phone is sleeping, then no incoming calls will be able to be received. Also, some WiFi APs might not have bandwidth of a quality good enough for VOIP. This might necessitate a feature where the user can select which WiFI APs are trusted for voice to VOIP re-routing. (Perhaps too confusing for the average user.)

However, I think a lot of folks are in a situation where they receive 1 or 2 bars at home, just good enough to receive a call. However, if you don’t stand in the “magic spot” the call gets dropped. I think people in this scenario could benefit a lot from a WiFi-only solution rather than the Femtocell. Finally, WiFi VOIP would have an immediate effect on reducing AT&T’s cell bandwidth whereas the Femtocell will only have an effect as quickly as they are sold.

Dead links

• http_//www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/att-microcell

I am excited to report that a previous student of mine from the GA Tech College of Computing Video Game Design class has released his first commercial game. It’s called Tilt to Live and it’s available for iPhone on the App Store. It’s a fast-paced arcade style game involving tilting of the phone to steer around avoiding baddies and collecting weapons/power-ups. It is lots of fun and very intuitive. Tilt to Live is only $2. IMO, definitely worth it. Buy it now and show your support for GT-educated game developers! And if you like it, be sure to tell all your friends.

Tilt to Live Video Trailer - Direct Link

Watch video

Here are some things I find confusing.

Mimosa, Samosa, Samoa

Spicy filled pastry, champagne cocktail, or country/Girl Scout Cookie? I always have to think carefully to make sure I get these sorted out. :) You would think it’s a good thing that these words don’t regularly come up in conversation, but I think that’s the source of the problem. ** “Could/Should/Would of/have”**

I’m aware that “Could of/have” is a common grammatical mistake and will generally recognize it when I’m writing. Yet somehow I can never be 100% certain which is correct. So I hit up Google every single time. :-P I shouldn’t even bother given all the grammatical mistakes I don’t catch. ** Regardless/Irregardless**

I at least can remember which is correct. That doesn’t mean I won’t say the wrong one before it’s too late. (Hint: “Irrespective” is the source of the confusion.)

Words that I only read

More an embarrassment than a confusion, there are certain words that only seem to show up in what I read but are never spoken or heard…until that fateful day when it fits perfectly into a conversation and I mangle the pronunciation. When I was younger I have been burned by “genre” (I pronounced it “Gen-Air” ), “superfluous” (“SUPER-flu-us!” ), “timbre” (is not what a lumberjack says), “Euler Angle” (it should be spelled “Oiler” ), and “Bezier Curve”. The last, I have heard botched worse than I have managed myself (e.g. “brassiere” ).

Tornado Warning / Tornado Watch

Is it a WARNING that conditions are ripe for tornadoes and we’re currently WATCHing a live tornado or is it a WARNING that a tornado has touched down and we’re WATCHING out for the possibility of them forming? I can never keep it straight. So if you find me wrapped around a tree branch, you’ll know what happened.

Now I could make up some clever mnemonic to avoid confusion, but even those can cause trouble. :)

After running, pull the tongue out of your running shoes, prop them up, and aim a small fan inside so they dry as quickly as possible. I’ve found the fabric lining inside lasts longer, not to mention they smell much better!

I’ve talked about a few different pranks before. Now here’s one where I was on the receiving end.

Once upon a time, I was an undergrad at Georgia Tech. For a few quarters (we didn’t have semesters at the time) I lived in a house in Home Park just off campus with 4 other students: 2 girls, 2 guys. The guys, Jeff and Cory, were the ones that pranked me.

One day, I was working on a class project and needed some files that were located back on a computer lab at campus. I shut down my computer and left the house for a bit, then came back once I had the stuff I needed. I hit the power switch on my computer and waited for Windows95 to boot. After a few seconds, I realized something was going horribly, horribly wrong. A pastel pink color was loading as the background color of the desktop. Then a sheep in fishnet stockings appeared in the middle of the screen. Finally, I was greeted with a start-up sound of a sheep saying, “Ba-a-a-a-a! I love you, Jeffrey! Ba-a-a-a-a!” After Windows finished loading, all I could see were different shades of pink all over the place including the Start Menu, window frames, etc. To make matters worse, any time I moved the mouse cursor over anything I heard “Ba-a-a-a-a!!!”

Turns out, Cory and Jeff had discovered a website (that still exists to this day) called Mutton Bone that sells inflatable sheep. As poor college students, they couldn’t afford to actually buy one for a prank (thank goodness) but they could swipe the website graphics and reuse them. Once they had come up with the idea for the prank they covertly prepared all the content and then spied on me to see when I left the house and finally infiltrate my room and desecrate my computer.

Jeff has the uncanny “stupid human trick” of being able to not just Ba-a-a-a, but actually talk like a sheep. So that skill worked great for making all the sound effects with a microphone. When they actually did the prank, Cory and Jeff modified all the system theme colors to appropriate shades of pink, added the sheep sounds for all the different GUI and system events, and replaced my background image with the “Love Ewe.”

I quickly destroyed all digital evidence of the crime, but for your enjoyment I have recreated a visual of the prank as best I recall. If you want to hear the audio, be sure to ask Jeff to talk in his “sexy sheep voice” next time you see him. Oh, and I still owe those guys big time.

As a kid I remember my friends and I occasionally pretending to talk other languages that we had heard but didn’t actually understand. Basically, we would recreate similar phonetic sounds to the foreign language but not actual meaningful words. If a school teacher caught you doing this, you risked being scolded for being culturally insensitive. However, I wondered isn’t it equally likely that other cultures do the exact same thing with English? If everyone does it then it’s not so bad, right? (Famous last words.)

A few months ago, I happened across a Youtube video where a guy ponders what it might actually sound like to hear a non-English speaker talking in English gibberish. He challenges other Youtubers to provide a video example, and he also gives several examples of gibberish in different languages he has heard. Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5EZmyJ9ik

If you follow the “related links” to the video, you can find some responses. There are a couple decent ones mixed in with some garbage. However, a friend of mine just recently sent me this next video that is from an Italian musician that made a gibberish English rock song. It’s quite entertaining and the best example I think.

http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberish-rock-song.html

You can hear a few actual words that the musician likely had overheard from English songs. Honestly, I think I can understand the gibberish song better than some recent songs released in the states. :)

These recipes are dedicated to my favorite childhood movie. :)

Fettuccine-a-1981

1/2 pound Fettuccine 1 stick butter 1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese 1 cup heavy cream Salt and ground white pepper to taste

(Simultaneously cook fettuccine and prepare sauce.)

Boil fettuccine in large pot of water until done.

In large pan, melt butter. Slowly add cream and stir slowly until hot. Carefully add 1/2 cup of the cheese while continuing to stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When fettuccine is done, drain and add noodles to sauce and carefully mix. Serve and sprinkle with remaining cheese as desired.

Garnish with medallions of Mamma Frateli’s Broiled Beef Tongue.

Serve with a glass of water.

Magnifico!

Mamma Fratelli’s Broiled Beef Tongue

1 Tongue

Marinade: 1 Cup red wine vinegar 1/2 Cup olive oil 2 tomatoes 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper ½ tsp. ground mustard 1 tsp. sugar 2 Tbs. brown sugar

Use a double-edged switch blade to remove the skin and gristle from the tongue (a paring knife will do in a bind).

Grab your favorite blender and hit puree. Drop the two tomatoes in one at a time. Mix in the remaining marinade ingredients.

Place the skinned tongue in a glass baking dish, pour marinade over, and let sit covered in refrigerator overnight.

Wrap piano wire tightly around a baking dish to create a small grille. Make sure that it’s really tight so that when plucked you hear either an A Sharp (A#) or a B Flat (Bb).

Place the seasoned tongue on the piano wire. (Note that the piano wire may contain toxic heavy metals that could leech into the meat. Therefore, this recipe is best served as a last meal where long term health consequences are moot.)

Broil tongue in oven (on piano wire grille) at medium-hot setting for 20 minutes, or until fully cooked. Baste with remaining marinade at half-way point. Slice and serve.

Rocky Road! Pie

1.5 cups crushed Oreos 3 tablespoons butter, melted 2 pints Swensen’s Chocolate Ice Cream, softened 3 Baby Ruth Candy Bars 1 cup miniature marshmallows Chocolate Syrup

Combine Oreos and butter in small mixing bowl. Press crust onto bottom of 9-inch pie plate. Freeze for 5 to 10 minutes.

Hold Baby Ruth (still in wrapper) chest high and drop onto hard floor. Do this several times. Remove battered and misshapen candy bars from wrapper and further crumble them up into small pieces.

Combine ice cream, masticated Baby Ruth, and marshmallows in large bowl. Pour into pie plate with crust. Freeze until firm. Drizzle with chocolate syrup before serving.

Thanks for checking out my Goonies inspired recipes!

Next week: Bullet Hole Matzo Balls and The Chocolate Truffle Shuffle Shake!

Doom (by id Software) just recently came out for iPhone. Doom is one of my favorite classic games so I had to download it. The iPhone is definitely a popular platform for games, but First Person Shooters (FPSs) generally don’t work all that well due to not having discrete controls such as mouse/keyboard or joystick and buttons. I have found that I tend to get overwhelmed with multi-touch controls for FPSs.

John Carmack, lead programmer at id, tried some new control schemes to get Doom to work on the iPhone. One interesting approach he implemented is a virtual steering wheel to control the direction the character is facing. I tried it out and found that control mode to be very promising. It worked much better than the virtual joystick approach other iPhone FPSs have used. That is, it worked nicely when I was casually exploring a level. However when things got more hectic, I found it easy to accidentally turn the steering further than intended. This happens when your thumb inadvertently crosses over the axis of rotation and causes a large and disorienting jump in your facing angle.

An image of Doom with steering mode configured.

This problem might be able to be reduced by placing a “dead zone” in the middle of the steering wheel. (I suspect there is already a very small “dead zone” in place.) Along this train of thought, I came up with a little “mod” that sort of fixes the problem. I temporarily stuck one of those no-slip rubber feet that come with various electronics such as external hard drives right in the middle of the virtual steering wheel on my iPhone screen. This created the “dead zone” that I desired, but also gave me a tactile point of reference so that I always have a good idea what might current steering angle is. This significantly improved my performance in the game, but still nowhere close to as well as I can do with keyboard/mouse on a PC.

These two images show my “steering nub” mod

I think similar stick-on barriers could help with other aspects of FPS control too. Although, ultimately I think that certain game genres really need discrete tactile controls.

Over the years, I have kept meticulous records of my lottery expenses and winnings/income. While I’m not a millionaire, I think I’ve done pretty well. I have collated my records and put them into a chart which I think explains my winning strategy.

As you can see, I keep my expenses very low and only play the games with a high expected outcome. While it’s true that I haven’t won any money recently, I am hopeful for another windfall in about 15 years.

There’s something cool about the games and toys of decades past. It seems things were made of higher quality materials and weren’t as complicated as they are today. Nowadays, everything is made cheap of plastic and they are full of complicated electronics. Even the toys when I was a kid were pretty crappy (it was during the 80’s after all).

There are many good classic toys and games that have survived through the years and it’s likely that most folks are familiar with them (e.g. Frisbee, Slinky, hula-hoop, etc.). However, there are a few gems out there that are much more obscure, but still worth attention.

Here are some that I have happened upon that are pretty neat and might even appeal to adults.

Shoot the Moon

Shoot the Moon is a game that poses a seemingly impossible challenge. The toy has apparently been around since the 1920s. The game player must make a steel ball roll uphill along two rails that can only be adjusted left and right. If you can roll all the way to the top, you have “shot the moon” and gain the maximum points. It’s quite a challenge, but very rewarding once you get good at it. Follow one of the links below to see a picture. The basic strategy is to open the two rails such that the ball almost falls through. When you do that the ball will roll towards you just slightly. Then you must squeeze the rails together to keep the ball from falling. You must continue this process in one smooth motion and the ball will accelerate up hill. If you do it perfectly you will be rewarded with the ball smacking the backstop. Shoot the Moon might make a good executive gift for keeping on a desk at work. I loved this one as a kid too (a hand-me-down from my Dad’s childhood toys).

http://www.backtobasicstoys.com/item/productid/4540 (dead link removed, see below)

https://www.amazon.com/Carrom-American-Puzzles-Shoot-Moon/dp/B00000ISFG

Peashooter

According to my Dad, this was the toy that every little boy had back in the 50’s. Really, a peashooter is just a small blowgun designed to shoot dried peas. Back before Nerf was making all the exotic dart/missle launchers that you can buy today, kids sufficed with a cheap straw and a mouthful of peas.

Kids would fill their cheeks with dried peas like chipmunks, use their tongue to load the peashooter, and then blow to fire. With enough practice, one could shoot like a machine gun.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100811001914/http://www.peashooters.org:80/index1.htm

Johnny Astro Moon Lander

The Johnny Astro Moon Lander came out just before astronauts first landed on the moon. This is an ingenious toy that challenges the game player to navigate a moon lander through the air to a landing pad. The lander is actually a balloon with some landing gear and ballast attached, but it isn’t lighter than air. Instead, the game player controls the balloon with a fan. The fan control relies on Bernoulli’s Principle to contain the balloon within the column of moving air. One must adjust the angle of the fan as well as fan power to move the balloon and carefully land it. I’ve never gotten to try one of these and I cannot find anywhere that sells them, but it sounds like you can build your own without too much trouble.

http://johnnyastro.com/ (dead link removed, see below)

http://www.stuffwelove.co.uk/johnny_astro.htm

Water Weenie

The Water Weenie is about the simplest water gun one can imagine. It’s just a length of surgical tubing or inner tube tied off on one end and a nozzle on the other. The Water Weenie relies on water pressure from an outdoor water faucet to fill the tube and stretch the rubber to store energy for shooting the water. I haven’t owned this toy myself, but I like its simplicity (especially in contrast with water guns like the Super Soakers). I have seen someone accidentally create a Water Weenie in my high school chemistry class. The amount of water launched all over the classroom was quite impressive, but that’s a story for another time. :)

http://www.feelingretro.com/toys/Misc-Toys/water-wiennie.php (dead link removed, see below)

https://www.instructables.com/Water-Weenie/

Dead links

• http_//www.backtobasicstoys.com/item/productid/4540

Editor’s note: Original link no longer resolves; updated to an archived copy from the Wayback Machine.

• http_//johnnyastro.com/
• http_//www.feelingretro.com/toys/Misc-Toys/water-wiennie.php