I tweet therefore I am?

I don't seem to be posting to twitter very much anymore. Although I do check it a lot, especially on the weekend, lunch time, and evenings.

Here's a quick "hand count" of the the numbers:

For the past week:
12 tweets
7 @ messages (to 5 people)
2 retweets
Or adding them up: 21 interactions for the week.

For the month of November, 90 tweets (including @ messages and retweets) So, about 3 interactions per day.

I think I've largely turned into a twitter lurker.

3D Systems Sense review: a 3D scanner for the masses (almost)
source: Engadget

Nice review, looks like an interesting gadget, although I can't imagine I'd really use one very often.

Over The Door Cat Condo high rise furry feline resort
source: The Red Ferret Journal

Neat.

'Ring Clock' Makes Time-Telling Fashion Statement
source: Mashable

Here's the downside to wearable tech. You only have so many places you can wear something. It's like having open equipment slots on an MMO character.

While I might want to get a nifty ring like this, I already have my wedding ring on one hand and my GL ring on the other, so unless I want to go all Mandarin as a fashion style, no wearable ring tech for me :(

Are There Still Any Legitimate Uses For a PowerPC Mac?
source: makeuseof

Answer: Yes, all the uses, more or less, it originally had.

Finishing Plywood Edges with Edge Banding
source: ana-white.com

Healthcare.gov and the Gulf Between Planning and Reality
source: Clay Shirky

Back in the mid-1990s, I did a lot of web work for traditional media. That often meant figuring out what the client was already doing on the web, and how it was going, so I’d find the techies in the company, and ask them what they were doing, and how it was going. Then I’d tell management what I’d learned. This always struck me as a waste of my time and their money; I was like an overpaid bike messenger, moving information from one part of the firm to another. I didn't understand the job I was doing until one meeting at a magazine company.

The thing that made this meeting unusual was that one of their programmers had been invited to attend, so management could explain their web strategy to him. After the executives thanked me for explaining what I’d learned from log files given me by their own employees just days before, the programmer leaned forward and said “You know, we have all that information downstairs, but nobody’s ever asked us for it.”

I remember thinking “Oh, finally!” I figured the executives would be relieved this information was in-house, delighted that their own people were on it, maybe even mad at me for charging an exorbitant markup on local knowledge. Then I saw the look on their faces as they considered the programmer’s offer. The look wasn't delight, or even relief, but contempt. The situation suddenly came clear: I was getting paid to save management from the distasteful act of listening to their own employees.

In the early days of print, you had to understand the tech to run the organization. (Ben Franklin, the man who made America a media hothouse, called himself Printer.) But in the 19th century, the printing press became domesticated. Printers were no longer senior figures — they became blue-collar workers. And the executive suite no longer interacted with them much, except during contract negotiations.

This might have been nothing more than a previously hard job becoming easier, Hallelujah. But most print companies took it further. Talking to the people who understood the technology became demeaning, something to be avoided. Information was to move from management to workers, not vice-versa (a pattern that later came to other kinds of media businesses as well.) By the time the web came around and understanding the technology mattered again, many media executives hadn't just lost the habit of talking with their own technically adept employees, they’d actively suppressed it.

I’d long forgotten about that meeting and those looks of contempt (I stopped building websites before most people started) until the launch of Healthcare.gov.
[cont]

An Introduction To Full-Stack JavaScript
source: Smashing Coding

Bridgestone's Futuristic Airless-Tires Are Almost Ready For Your Car
source: Gizmodo

The tires are interesting, but I'd really love the car (if it had enclosed doors) I'd totally get something like this for a car to drive to and from work, if it was cheap.

Offices For All! Why Open-Office Layouts Are Bad For Employees, Bosses, And Productivity
source: Fast Company

Tear It Down
source: Rands in Repose

There are three leaders. I’m going to describe these three archetypes in a hypothetical large company, but I believe aspects of them exist in all groups of people working together on a collective goal. These leaders are:


The Lead
The Lead of Leads
The Director

10 years of Blogging

I just noticed that I missed my 10 years of blogging anniversary which was a couple days ago. I started blogging on: November 22, 2003 at 9:50pm (all the way at the bottom, I didn't have anchor tags back then.)

So hooray Internets!

Too Tired to Hustle - The Future of Work
source: Medium

Interesting read.

Web 2.0 created Surveillance 1.984
source: Medium

The model that we are heading towards, in many arenas, involves massive centralization and massive reduction in variation. Both of these tend to be very bad things to happen to thriving ecosystems.

Making things people want
source:

1. take out steps
2. make it possible for more people
3. make it possible in more situations

Tin Can app relays messages to phones without Internet, cell reception
source: Ars Technica

5 Cool Pictures of the $25,000 NOMAD Micro Home That Measures Just 100-Square-Feet
source: TechEBlog

Denim Laptop Sleeve
source: Instructables

Looxcie 3 gets a new, square design so you can stream video from your kid's chest
source: Engadget

Interesting format shift. From over the ear to a clip on square. My over the ear Looxcie is one of the neatest pieces of tech that I don't find myself using often.

DC Comics' Big Move From New York City To Burbank Planned For April 2015
source: Bleeding Comics

2015 is a lifetime away as media continues to transition to digital.

Flipboard Launches on Win 8.1 With Live Tiles, Introduces Catalogues
source: Makeuseof

Cool.

Putting Pencil to Paper: FiftyThree debuts the best iPad stylus yet
source: The Verge

Interesting.

This animated GIF perfectly sums up why no one should ever drive a car
source: Gizmodo

Cool Gif. In a similar note, I also find it interesting that office's typically provide a larger space for an employee's car than for their workspace.

The chemistry of cookies
source: YouTube

Leap Motion releases Free Form, an app that lets human hands sculpt digital clay (video)
source: Engadget

Simple Sink Cover

Our cat knows he isn't supposed to get up on the kitchen counter, but that doesn't stop him from doing so as soon as we aren't around. There's just too many things to potentially explore in the sink.

So today I finally made a simple sink cover. Cut a board, rounded the corners, used a hole saw to make a section so that you could still run the water etc.

I still need to coat it with some polyurethane, but this should put a stop to the cat's kitchen counter/sink explorations.

How Big Data is destroying the US healthcare system
source: Beta News

Then in the 1990s something happened: the cost of computing came down to the point where it was cost-effective to calculate likely health outcomes on an individual basis. This moved the health insurance business from being based on setting rates to denying coverage. In the US the health insurance business model switched from covering as many people as possible to covering as few people as possible -- selling insurance only to healthy people who didn’t much need the healthcare system.

The goal went from making a profit on most enrollees to making a profit on all enrollees. Since in the end we are all dead, this really doesn’t work as a societal policy, which most of the rest of the world figured out long ago.

Blokify: 3D Modeling for Kids
source: Fabbaloo

Interesting.

Clever ideas and hacks for your IKEA
source: IKEA Hackers

Interesting. I might try something similiar.

Chair Wear By Bernotat Co | Furniture | Home
source:

Hoodie built into a chair, also some cool chair pockets too.

Viva la Evolution - Why many companies get worse overtime
source: Medium
A code
A way to express the code
A fitness function to test the code
A mechanism to vary the code

Dio in a Day: Star Wars Black Series 2
source: TheFwoosh.com

Nice step-by-step on building a Tatoonine Diorama

Google Now for iOS up to par with Android app, updated with notifications, reminders, and more
source: The Verge

This works better on my iPad2 than my Samsung S4. Mostly due to the better distance microphone I think.

Printing in Android 4.4 KitKat (with some help from HP)
source: Android Central

HP just does not want to let this whole printing thing go does it? I can just see them dancing in the halls "Printing, It's coming back!". Except of course, it isn't.

Why Work As We Know It May Be Immoral - Editor's Picks
source: Medium

No Class Warfare, Please - We're Americans
source: FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

I Want to Be a Millennial When I Retire
source: NYTimes.com

Disney's Marvel and Netflix Join Forces to Develop Historic Four Series Epic plus a Mini-Series Event
source: Action Figure Insider

Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Powerman and Iron Fist followed by The Defenders.

The Sense: 3D Systems Launches Handheld 3D Scanner for $399 to Be Sold at Staples
source: SolidSmack.com

The Titanic was ridiculously tiny compared to modern cruise ships
source: Gizmodo

How To Install Multiple OSes On A Single SD Card For Raspberry Pi
source: Makeuseof

Gravity set in an IKEA
source: Youtube

Honest Trailers - Man of Steel
source: YouTube

New 'Doctor Who' Episode Reveals What Happened to the 8th Doctor
source: Mashable

Very nice short.

Flipboard arrives on Windows 8.1 with Live Tile support
source: The Verge

Cool.

Everything Wrong With Back To The Future in 8 Minutes Or Less
source: YouTube

Everything Wrong With Pacific Rim In 9 Minutes Or Less - YouTube
source:

Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch can now display full notifications for all your apps
source: The Verge

Looks like it's a proper competitor to the Pebble now.

Microsoft's 3D printing app for Windows 8.1 eases you into object creation
source: Engadget

WINE-O-SAUR WINE BOTTLE HOLDER
source: UncommonGoods

Rocket Racoon

Picked up the newest wave of Marvel Legends tonight (or at least the 3 that make Rocket Raccoon.)

Cool little build-a-figure.

3D Printed (in)action figures

3D Printed my 2nd (in)action figure today. I downloaded a model from Thingiverse. It's a pretty low detailed model. More or less a Kinect-type-quality scan. I thought it would work well as an action figure test print, and it did. This is printed at .3mm, which I've been having a lot more luck with than .1mm. The only slight problem with the print was the underside of the chin. There were a few tense moments when I thought the printer might not be able to handle the overprint, but it pulled it off (for the most part).

At the right you can see the 3D model as shown on the computer, and of course the kid above with a DC Direct Animal Man, for scale, is the finished print.

I'm probably going to go by the hardware store and pick up some files and a little bit of sandpaper, and I may even try an Acetone vapor wash to smooth it out just a little too.

So far I'm really pleased with how the 3D printer is getting along.

To the right you can also see a K9 model, I also downloaded from Thingiverse. It was the first (in)action figure I tried on 10/20. I was very happy with how it came out.

Jennifer bought me a nice set of paints for my birthday a little over a week ago, and I plan on finishing off K9 for sure with a nice coat of blue grey with some white and red detailing.

So far, the 3D printer is very much a hobbyist device, but in a few years, I definitely see this getting even better to the point where toy manufacturers are probably going to see a little hit to their bottom line.

Really neat stuff.

Hello November

Just a quick post so that my November 2013 page isn't completely empty.

Quiet Saturday so far.

Went through a lot of RSS feeds and I've been playing wiht the 3D printer a good portion of the day.