I side with Google, Wikipedia, and others in opposing these bills that will destroy small companies, harm free speech, unnecessarily restrict the web's legitimate purposes, while still allowing the act of piracy to continue. Don't let the entertainment industry define the rules of tomorrow's internet! Tell your congressmen to oppose these bills.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Protect the Internet, Stop SOPA and PIPA!
I side with Google, Wikipedia, and others in opposing these bills that will destroy small companies, harm free speech, unnecessarily restrict the web's legitimate purposes, while still allowing the act of piracy to continue. Don't let the entertainment industry define the rules of tomorrow's internet! Tell your congressmen to oppose these bills.
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Far East Furnishings
Today I had a pleasant surprise. My friend and cofounder of Novabox Studios dropped by with his belated wedding/Christmas/birthday gift.
I must say I didn't see it coming. He made me a Japanese kotatsu. Its a beautiful handmade piece of furniture.
If you don't know what a kotatsu is you are not alone. My mother had no idea what it was and kept questioning why a blanket was involved.
A kotatsu is a traditional piece of Japanese furniture. It serves as a simple table during the summer months and "During the winter months in Japan, the kotatsu is often the center of domestic life. In the evening family members gather around the kotatsu to enjoy food, television, games and conversation while keeping their bottom half warm under the kotatsu. It has been said that, "once under the kotatsu, all of your worries slip away as a familiar warmth takes over and you become completely relaxed."" - Wikipedia
A blanket is used to cover the legs and a heating element (traditionally a pit filled with charcoal) is used to heat the space providing a comfortable warmth. Many Japanese homes do not have heating systems as many areas of Japan do not get very cold during the winter and central heating is still not very popular. The kotatsu provides a warm place to gather when the rest of the home gets chilly.
Here are a couple of pictures of the table without the blanket.
Sitting on the right is the creator Austin Palmer.
Apparently he got the idea from a combination of my interest in Japanese culture and animation as well as a recent show hes been hooked on Lucky Star. Cue pic of two of the main characters (Tsukasa and Konata) complete with a kotatsu on the edge of the picture.
The show itself is a slightly random slice of life show about nothing in particular. It is full of various jokes about japanese, otaku, and american culture (One character is an american exchange student). A good portion of the scenes take place with the four main characters gathered around a kotatsu discussing some facet of life. Its a little hard to get into unless you are familiar with japanese culture and anime in general. If you are familiar its a fun show to watch with many witty observations of strange aspects of life, and some pretty good jabs at Americans.
Hopefully I will post more soon. I definitely have been shirking this duty. Till next time.
I must say I didn't see it coming. He made me a Japanese kotatsu. Its a beautiful handmade piece of furniture.
If you don't know what a kotatsu is you are not alone. My mother had no idea what it was and kept questioning why a blanket was involved.
A kotatsu is a traditional piece of Japanese furniture. It serves as a simple table during the summer months and "During the winter months in Japan, the kotatsu is often the center of domestic life. In the evening family members gather around the kotatsu to enjoy food, television, games and conversation while keeping their bottom half warm under the kotatsu. It has been said that, "once under the kotatsu, all of your worries slip away as a familiar warmth takes over and you become completely relaxed."" - Wikipedia
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Engaged
Wow, I never thought this would happen. (No I am not referring to posting after my long absence) I didn't think I would ever find someone who would say yes. Not only that, but someone this fantastic and beautiful. On Friday the 13th of May, Nicole said yes. Wow. Check out the photo below. Yeah wow.
It is a marvelous and new path I'm treading on. I've never done anything like this before, and I don't have much experience to draw on. I can only continue on doing my best with her by my side. However, I can't imagine anything better.
It is a marvelous and new path I'm treading on. I've never done anything like this before, and I don't have much experience to draw on. I can only continue on doing my best with her by my side. However, I can't imagine anything better.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Electronic Woes
Wow it has been a while. I have recently restarted school and am deep into wonderful software engineering papers and research. So exciting. Starting the semester turned out to be a lot harder than I originally anticipated. In order to give a proper understanding I must start back earlier in June. This is when I had my first clues that electronics just were not for me.
June: My desktop burns out its Video card. Luckily EVGA the producer of my card has a lifetime warranty policy and gladly allowed me to RMA the card for a new one. When I receive my new card my laptop promptly decides to short its own video card and give me lovely pink patterns on the screen. Still I fortunately have a replacement plan on the laptop and sent it in to get repaired.
August 20th: I have been playing laptop tag with the laptop warranty people for over two months now and they still claim to be unable to detect my problem. Finally I tell them to keep the laptop until they can find the problem. A couple days later my video card shorts out on my desktop computer AGAIN! This time it takes the motherboard with it (perhaps the cause of the first problem?). EVGA makes my motherboard as well and gladly lets me RMA both units for a free replacement. (BTW EVGA has incredible technical support well beyond the call of duty and they have fast response times, and allow you to leave your phone number rather then wait on hold. If you do this they will call you back when your place in line is reached. I cannot say enough about how awesome their technical support is.) At this point school starts in a week. Finally the laptop people find my problem and start sending it back.
September 10th: Middle of first week of school. Luckily I have had my laptop to complete assignments. My parts from EVGA arrive. The motherboard arrived dead with the dreaded FF error. (see internet for tells of woe and sadness over the FF error) EVGA again offers free replacement. I pull out my TI-83 calculator to ready it for classes to find out the memory unit has been corrupted and is dead. Missing my good sound system I plug my speakers into my laptop. A day later while sitting on my bed and NOT using my speakers at all they short out and die making HORRIBLE thumping, bumping, staticy screeching sounds. After sitting on hold with Logitech for FOREVER I finally get somebody who barely speaks english to explain to me since Circuit City (the store I bought them from) is closed they cannot complete the warranty and can only give me a coupon. Sad day... I also lost my jumpdrive.
Present Day: My computer and laptop are both finally back up, I found my jumpdrive again, and my replacement speakers are in the mail. Wow... I do not want to repeat that again. However I do have ALOT of experience in dealing with many different tech support lines now. I guess thats a plus. So much for the bonus money I got in scholarships though.
Well I've got homework to do so I'll see you later.
June: My desktop burns out its Video card. Luckily EVGA the producer of my card has a lifetime warranty policy and gladly allowed me to RMA the card for a new one. When I receive my new card my laptop promptly decides to short its own video card and give me lovely pink patterns on the screen. Still I fortunately have a replacement plan on the laptop and sent it in to get repaired.
August 20th: I have been playing laptop tag with the laptop warranty people for over two months now and they still claim to be unable to detect my problem. Finally I tell them to keep the laptop until they can find the problem. A couple days later my video card shorts out on my desktop computer AGAIN! This time it takes the motherboard with it (perhaps the cause of the first problem?). EVGA makes my motherboard as well and gladly lets me RMA both units for a free replacement. (BTW EVGA has incredible technical support well beyond the call of duty and they have fast response times, and allow you to leave your phone number rather then wait on hold. If you do this they will call you back when your place in line is reached. I cannot say enough about how awesome their technical support is.) At this point school starts in a week. Finally the laptop people find my problem and start sending it back.
September 10th: Middle of first week of school. Luckily I have had my laptop to complete assignments. My parts from EVGA arrive. The motherboard arrived dead with the dreaded FF error. (see internet for tells of woe and sadness over the FF error) EVGA again offers free replacement. I pull out my TI-83 calculator to ready it for classes to find out the memory unit has been corrupted and is dead. Missing my good sound system I plug my speakers into my laptop. A day later while sitting on my bed and NOT using my speakers at all they short out and die making HORRIBLE thumping, bumping, staticy screeching sounds. After sitting on hold with Logitech for FOREVER I finally get somebody who barely speaks english to explain to me since Circuit City (the store I bought them from) is closed they cannot complete the warranty and can only give me a coupon. Sad day... I also lost my jumpdrive.
Present Day: My computer and laptop are both finally back up, I found my jumpdrive again, and my replacement speakers are in the mail. Wow... I do not want to repeat that again. However I do have ALOT of experience in dealing with many different tech support lines now. I guess thats a plus. So much for the bonus money I got in scholarships though.
Well I've got homework to do so I'll see you later.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Projects and Purpose
A few days ago, a close friend and roommate of mine finally put our plans into motion. Under the name of Novabox Studios we have started work on a large scale software project, a video game we have named Gunslingers.
As this is a freetime non-profit effort, it has not progressed very far, but we haved launched a blog, novaboxproductions.blogspot.com, and a facebook group to post updates on the games progress. Currently we are waiting to have some cool things to show before we start posting, but it is an exciting time. My current tasks are Networking, and menu design. I have completed the functionality parts of both, but need to polish and pretty them up in order to be pleasing to the eye and efficient.
If you are interested in learning more please follow us on our blog and on facebook. We are planning on a new post every week to talk about aspects of the project, and show clips and screenshots of the game in progress.\
Hope to hear from you soon.
As this is a freetime non-profit effort, it has not progressed very far, but we haved launched a blog, novaboxproductions.blogspot.com, and a facebook group to post updates on the games progress. Currently we are waiting to have some cool things to show before we start posting, but it is an exciting time. My current tasks are Networking, and menu design. I have completed the functionality parts of both, but need to polish and pretty them up in order to be pleasing to the eye and efficient.
If you are interested in learning more please follow us on our blog and on facebook. We are planning on a new post every week to talk about aspects of the project, and show clips and screenshots of the game in progress.\
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