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  • 2011
    • December
      • Google Test
        12/16/11
        I created a website for a class. I am going to see how long (if ever) it takes for google search to find it.

        The website is Computation Theory

        This site deals with the Theory of Computation and discusses specific problems out of certain books relating to the subject.

    • September
      • Apple TV and Live TV
        09/25/11
        It took a while, but I finally figured a kind of way to do this...

        1 jailbreak your apple tv and install xbmc
        2 Install some kind of tv tuner on a PC (haupauge 950q)
        3 on that computer install media portal
        4 Enable rtsp streaming on media portal
        5 Change channels by go

    • August
      • Update Perl Modules OSX Lion
        08/14/11
        After upgrading to OSX Lion I could not install any perl modules.. Here's how to do it:

        1. Make is now in a weird spot so link it to where cpan wants it:
        sudo ln -s /Developer/usr/bin/make /usr/bin/make

        2. You will need to update xcode, so go to the app store and do

    • July
      • ImageUploader
        07/31/11
        Finally got around to working on a project that I have wanted to do. It is kind of a mickey mouse solution but it works. All I have to do is get my pictures to drop box. Then once a day the images are pulled, deleted from drop box, re-sized for the web (thumbnails too), files are renamed and plac

      • New Project
        07/24/11


        Started working on this today. Using a junker laptop and an old webcam I was able to set up remote monitoring of the BBQ. Now I dont need to run out there and see the temperature of the Q, or the temperature of the meat. I have lots more planned for this one..

      • Ubuntu On a MacBook
        07/23/11

        Was trying to install a dual boot osx/ubuntu 11.04 on my old macbook. ubuntu had all kinds of problems until I found that I needed to turn off ACPI. Once i did that everything was good. In one of the early menus, you have that option. I think it's F6 or settings, and then it is the fi

      • Race!
        07/16/11



        I am getting better! The first time is from 5/21. So in 2 months I dropped over 4 minutes!
        And instead of being 4th to last, I beat 30 people!

    • June
      • Back To The Future IPad
        06/05/11


        With Back To The Future for the IPad onsale for $0 this week, I took the time to play through it. It took about 2 hours to get through the entire thing. It was pretty fun, although the end of the game showed marty being the inventor, which is not very true to the movies. Great scene w

    • May
      • Next Stop Europe!
        05/27/11


        Looking south east from St Johns Newfoundland

      • St Johns Harbor
        05/27/11


        The entrance to St Johns Harbor Newfoundland is very picturesque.

      • Stair Master 3000
        05/27/11


        At signal hill we hiked down to the shore on the north entrance of St Johns Harbor. Nicci points out how many steps we climbed down. This was about halfway to the end, and then we had to walk back up!

      • Pot Of Gold
        05/27/11


        A boat leaves St Johns Harbor Newfoundland underneath a rainbow. I couldnt get the pot of gold before the rainbow disappeared.

      • Yellow Belly Brewery St Johns Newfoundland
        05/27/11


        And after a week of hard work we get to celebrate with a couple of brews at the Yellow Belly Brewery!

      • George Street
        05/26/11


        George street is one of the most famous areas of St Johns Newfoundland. It contains the highest density of bars in Canada. We walked through there just after eating at the Bagel Cafe so we were too full to sample any of the beers or food they had to offer.

      • Potato Bake
        05/26/11


        And back to the Bagel Cafe we go! This time I had a potato bake. What is a potato bake? Fried potatoes, cheese, ham, and peppers. Kind of like an omelet but with fried potato chunks instead of eggs. Very good place to eat in St Johns Newfoundland.

      • Cape Spear Newfoundland
        05/26/11


        Nicci and I pose for a picture at the eastern most point in north america, Cape Spear. It was about a 20 minute cab ride from St Johns. Apparently there was a huge whale swimming around but we didnt notice it. Of course, if you believe that Greenland is part of north america, there is

      • The Keg
        05/25/11


        The Keg is a chain restaurant in Canada. This one happens to be in St Johns Newfoundland. Nice place good eats, but way too expensive for what you get. I had a prime rib and a slice of cheesecake to go!

      • Classic Cafe East St Johns Newfoundland
        05/25/11


        We ate dinner at the Classic Cafe East. Pretty good place with a good view of the water. I would go back there again!

      • Memorial University St John's Newfoundland
        05/24/11


        And this is the whole reason why we flew to the other side of the continent. I am presenting at the Graphics Interface conference being held here at Memorial University. Its a pretty nice campus with this building looking the coolest!

      • Castle
        05/24/11


        This is the castle that sits on top of Signal Hill St John's Newfoundland. I dont remember what its called.

      • St John's From Signal Hill
        05/24/11


        The view of St John's from the top of Signal Hill

      • Cows Head
        05/24/11


        All of the "suites" in the Battery Hotel have their own name. We stayed in the Cows Head

      • The Battery Hotel
        05/24/11


        We are staying at the battery hotel in St Johns, Newfoundland. The pictures on their website make this place to be some kind of super nice resort. Our room was kind of a dump. But it was OK. The biggest problem was the room temp. It was 30 degrees outside, but 80 degrees inside and

      • Bagel Cafe St Johns
        05/24/11


        For breakfast, we stopped of at the Bagel Cafe! Great place. I had the canadian omelete. It has ham, bacon and cheese. Still not sure if the ham was considered bacon because of canadaian bacon...

      • St John's Newfoundland
        05/24/11


        We arrived at St Johns Newfoundland yesterday. I love the colors of all the houses and buildings!

      • Another Race!
        05/22/11


        Today I ran in the Reno 5000 5k race. I actually tried this time and did pretty good for me. 171st place! Next time I am aiming for 170th!

      • Birthday
        05/17/11


        Nothing is better on your birthday than cake!! This cake even included a fudge topping! I ate a lot of it!

      • Trip To Virginia City
        05/15/11


        Beautiful views all the way to Virginia City, NV. Nice on the way there, but it snowed on the way back! Gotta love the weather this time of year!

      • Homefront Finished
        05/09/11

        Finished homefront today.. Game was OK. I like the concept of the plot, but it fell flat in several areas.. The helicopter level just sucked. The controls were terrible. The ending was a little lame. But outside of those it was a fun game. I liked the checkpoint system where it was saved

      • Sunken Food Boat
        05/01/11


        And somewhere on Winnemucca Lake lies this. An old hot dog boat. This boat used to float around selling hot dogs to all the fisherman, however when the lake dried up it got stuck out there. If you look close you can see a trailer in front of it. Someone tried to haul this piece of hi

      • Rockin River Race
        05/01/11


        Today we finished our first race. A 10K. I hope to improve on my time!

      • Winnemucca Lake
        05/01/11


        This "lake" located just to east of Pyramid Lake in Nevada used to be a great place to fish and enjoy the summer days. And then, in the 1930's, the rivers running into the lake were re-directed and the lake completely dried up!

      • Red Ant
        05/01/11


        And Just after the Jack Rabbit went away, I found this red ant colony. They were pretty fun to watch. Millions of them were on the ground and they all knew where home base was

      • Jack Rabbit
        05/01/11


        I think this is a Jack Rabbit. He caught my eye and I just got this one shot off before he disappeared into the background

      • Ancient Lava Formation
        05/01/11


        This lava formation, called a dike, is located between Pyramid Lake and Winnemucca Lake in Nevada.

      • Blue Heron
        05/01/11


        A Blue Heron walks near the south shore of Pyramid lake

    • April
      • Pelicans
        04/30/11


        The pelicans are all over the south side of Pyramid Lake. The pyramid is off in the distance and the pelicans are hanging near to the shore in the foreground.

      • Some Bird
        04/30/11


        There were a few of these birds around Pyramid Lake today. Not sure what he is though

      • Pyramid Lake
        04/30/11


        Pyramid lake is a very cool place. And in the spring you can find a water fall or two!

      • Burrowing Owl
        04/30/11


        Found this guy on the way to pyramid lake. It is a Burrowing Owl and makes his house out of whatever shelter he can find that already exists. This one lives in a culvert.

      • Useful Tidbits
        04/17/11
        No picture today, just some stuff that I found useful.

        How to convert from string to float in C#
        I had been using Convert.ToDouble (string), however I needed a float. So how do you do that?
        Easy - float.Parse (str)


        Fun stuff!

        Heres another one -
      • Quail
        04/03/11

        Here we have some quail walking on top of the roof. They mainly try to run on the ground, but once you get close to them they will jump and fly.

      • Sparrow
        04/03/11

        Here is a sparrow walking on the rocks.

      • Finch
        04/03/11


        Here are some birds that showed up in our yard. Nicci ID'd all of them!

      • old tech
        04/03/11


        Dusted off the old gameboy. A new set of Aas and i was playing Tetris. Only made it to level 4 . I am out of practice

    • March
      • Severe Wind!
        03/27/11

        Woke up this morning to find the flag pole snapped in half! It was really really really windy last night!

      • Back to Reno
        03/25/11

        After dropping Holly off at the airport, Nicci and I once again tried to get back to reno. I=80 was closed until 2:15 PM, but we were waiting right at the point where the road was closed. As soon as they opened the roads we were moving. It was a little scary, 1 lane with ice and snow at 5-2

      • River City Brewery
        03/24/11

        With all roads to Reno Closed, we stayed the night in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn. The hotel is nice because it is right next to Old Sacramento. Unfortunately it was raining too much to spend any time in old sacramento. We ate dinner at the River City Brewing Company which was just a few

      • Rainy Safeway
        03/24/11

        We made it all the way to auburn. But it was pouring down rain, and with the temperature at 38 degrees, it wasnt going to take much to turn to snow. We were about to go through the pass, but the westbound lanes were closed, and it looked pretty bad. We decided to not go across. Which was a

      • Goodbye Santa Cruz
        03/24/11

        And we leave our place at the Holiday Inn Express in Santa Cruz and head for Reno.. It was a fun trip. The rain doesnt help our travels. We were trying to get through Donner Pass before the next storm hit...

      • Upset Stomach Remedy
        03/23/11

        So the fried food was not sitting too well with me and for dinner we ended up at this mexican place in downtown santa cruz. I thought a Beef Taco and a Guinness would make me feel better. Tasted great, but did not work as good as pepto.

      • Surfs Up Santa Cruz
        03/23/11

        Here are some surfers in santa cruz. It was really cool to watch them out there. Look how bug those waves are!

      • Dolphin Santa Cruz
        03/23/11

        The Dolphin is located on the end of the boardwalk surrounded by water. I ordered the Fish and CHiPs. A bunch of fried goodness. Tasted great going down, but the greasiness left me with an upset stomach.

      • Santa Cruz
        03/23/11

        And we finished our journey from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. I had driven through here in the past, but this is the first time I had ever spent any time.

      • Mark Foo
        03/23/11

        A memorial for surfer Mark Foo at Half Moon Bay. This serves as a reminder for how violent and unpredictable the Pacific Ocean can be.

      • The Mavericks
        03/23/11

        The cliffs near Half Moon Bay California are amazing! This is the site where the Mavericks surfing competition is held. It was not held this year, and sadly a pro surfer drowned a week before we showed up. Crazy place to surf!

      • California Coast
        03/23/11

        The California Coast is an amazing place. This was taken just south of Pacifica, CA.

      • Dottie's True Blue Cafe
        03/23/11

        Finally we got in! It is open on Wednesdays and I got the Pulled pork omelet. I smelled the smoker from the street and couldnt wait to eat. We had to wait in a line outside for about 45 minutes in the rain, but it was worth the wait! If you are in San Francisco, and have the time, be sure t

      • Cheese Cake Factory
        03/22/11

        A bad picture, but this is what remains after eating a Reesees Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cheesecake. It was the best!

      • Bum Francisco
        03/22/11

        Another reason to come to San Francisco is to get a slice of Cheese Cake at the Cheese Cake Factory. This time we almost missed our chance due to a bunch of bums. A lady visiting from Palestine was lost in the city and surrounded by bums. One lady was screaming and spitting on everyone, and

      • Golden Gate Bridge
        03/22/11

        This is another great place to view the bridge. Take the second exit after the bridge, go under the 1 lane tunnel, and then wind your way up to the top. Last time we were here, they were filming a car commercial. This time it was a little rainy but no tv cameras blocking the road! Alcatraz

      • Golden Gate Bridge
        03/22/11

        And here is the big reason to come to San Francisco - The Golden Gate Bridge. It is amazing that this bridge was built so long ago. It still looks great! If you drive out of the city and take the second exit, you can wind your way down here. I think it is some kind of military place. Much

      • Cabin Coffee
        03/22/11

        This was a nice little coffee shop between Za's Pizza and our place at the Donatello in San Francisco. Finding a bathroom in the city is difficult, and the rain didnt help my bladder pressure, but fortunately this place was there. After a mocha and a key to the bathroom we were once aga

      • Za's Pizza
        03/22/11

        We found this place in the Lonely Planet book. Not too far away from our hotel, the pizza was great. It was pouring down rain so we took a cab there. No cab on the way back though. Anyways, the crust made these pizzas. Super thin and slightly burnt to perfection. The people that worked t

      • Bojangles
        03/22/11

        This is a boat that was ROWED across the pacific from Japan to San Francisco. All rowing powered, with some solar panels to run the GPS. I cant imagine what they went through to make it that far. Read up on their story. It's pretty amazing.

      • Ghiradelli
        03/22/11

        Chocolate is always good. We didnt make it in this place, but it looks cool and is right on the water.

      • Lombard
        03/22/11

        I like this road. It really serves no purpose. People drive down this dangerous hill with their eyes on the city below, both hands on their camera, and steer with their knees. I had a bill cosby tape when I was a kid, and dr huxtable did a bit about driving down this street.

      • Clang Clang Clang
        03/22/11

        Here we see what San Francisco is known for - Trolleys. Usually only tourists are on these things with cameras clicking away. Were these things ever used for anything more than a tourist trap?

      • North Beach
        03/22/11

        And right next to Chinatown in San Francisco is North Beach. I would call this place little italy. I am unsure if it is north of anything, and it certainly does not have a beach. Anyways look at that pizza!

      • Chinatown
        03/22/11

        After breakfast we headed out for a little walk. First stop was ChinaTown. I have never been there before. It really feels like you are in another country with all the signs being in two different languages. This picture shows you how to say "Bank" in chinese. U.S. is apparently

      • Dotties
        03/22/11

        We read about this dotties place on Yelp, which consideres this to be the best breakfast place in san francisco. Unfortunately it is closed on tuesdays! Nicci and Holly demonstate their disappointment. Oh well.. looked like it might be good. We headed over to Cafe Mason instead

      • The Donatello
        03/21/11

        And I am back at the Donatello for the second time in a month! The first time was for GDC, and this time it was for fun. The rooms are nice and big and the location is perfect. Parking was also pretty cheap. I think it was like $18 a day?

      • John Foley's Pub
        03/21/11


        Finally we arrived in San Francisco! We had dinner here at John Foley's pub. I chose this place because I know a guy named John Foley! I had some kind of baked meat pie. Really tasty! It was within walking distance of our hotel, the Donatello.

      • IKEDA'S
        03/21/11

        We have always passed by this place on the way to Sacramento/San Francisco, but have never stopped there. Serves your standard greasy food, I had a double cheese burger. They are known for their pies so I was forced to get a slice of blueberry. The cobbler looked better, but since blueberri

      • Lots of stopping...
        03/21/11

        Once we got passed Truckee, CA, we had lots of stopping and a little bit of going. Holly is standing next to the snow drift here to show how deep it was. Sometimes people would try to bypass the stopped traffic by cruising on what remained of the shoulder. We saw one of them towing a u-haul

      • And the trip begins...
        03/21/11

        After a snowstorm that shut down the road, we left on monday instead of saturday. I-80 was still a mess with snow covered roads. I took this picture before I needed two hands on the wheel at all times!

      • New Visitor
        03/16/11


        This bumble bee showed up on our shower curtain. It looks like it is missing a piece of his body, or this is some kind of mutant elongated bee. I squished him and then flushed him down.

      • Sports Champions PS3
        03/13/11


        Finally opened up the box for sports champions today. After having the move since it launched, I have never played a retail game, just games that I have made. The controllers work pretty good. Kinect is more natural in a game like volley ball, but at least with the move we could play

      • Move Me
        03/13/11


        Ditched the open source world for an official sony Move Me move interface. It is pretty sweet! Didnt take much time to get the next VI Fit game ported..

      • The Pub n Sub
        03/12/11


        One of the best things about spring is to take a short scooter ride to the pub n sub and pick up subs. I got a number one nicci got a veggie, which happens to be "number V". Not sure if that is a v as in the letter v or v as in 5? Oh well they taste great!

      • First scooter ride of the year!
        03/12/11


        A few years ago I tried to ride my scooter year round, but that was probably pretty stupid. Spending all day at work thawing out just in time to get back on and freeze my way home was not fun. First ride went great! Started right up. Dead battery though..

      • Tongue Oil
        03/08/11


        Nicci and I got tasked with putting tung oil on the new taiko stands. We need to find this stuff and put 4 coats on it. Has to be done within one week!

      • Exopc Slate
        03/05/11


        Picked up one of these the other day. Lots of good, and some bad. Running windows 7, you get all the great features you expect from a full blown OS in a tablet. The virtual keyboard is better than the ipad. You can scale it to any size you want, and have the ability to move it around

      • GI 2011 Accepted!
        03/04/11


        What a great week! 2 papers accepted! The Pet-N-Punch paper was accepted to GI 2011 in St Johns Newfoundland. That place looks really cool. Its as far east as you can get in North America! Cant wait to go to this one, guess I better get the passports up to date!

      • And the construction starts!
        03/04/11


        The new kitchen is started. The old counter is gone.. Now we are waiting on the new one. They ripped out the old tiles today, and found several oddities about the custom cabinets. For instance some are at different heights.

      • Cafe Mason
        03/03/11


        Ate at this place for breakfast in San Francisco. I had an omelet with green peppers and cheese. They had some kind of name for it, but I dont remember what it was. Home fries and a few pieces of toast made this a great way to start the day! Recommend sitting by the window to gawk a

      • GDC 2011
        03/02/11


        GDC rolls around again! This is from the best part, the IGF (Independent games) awards. Lots of cool entries this year!

      • Crazy brain controller
        03/02/11


        This thing supposedly measured your brain activity in an attempt to control a game or record for player behavior analysis. This was so strange, but after watching it in use I seriously doubt its ability to really do anything useful.

      • Sony Playstation Xperia
        03/02/11


        This is a great concept. Pretty much all phones out there can play games, but the touch interface sucks for controlling them. This phone folds out to reveal a game pad. It is a little thicker than my evo, and the screen is smaller, but it would be great to play games this way. If the

      • Octodad
        03/02/11


        This was a game in the student competition at gdc 2011. The object: Control an octopus to collect bananas without slipping on them while wearing a suit. Very strange plot and very strange game. You can even control with kinect by doing a swimming motion...

      • Nintendo 3DS
        03/02/11


        Hands on with the 3DS a few weeks before the release. Pretty cool.. They demoed some augmented reality games that were a good use of the extra cameras. The 3d effect is good, but the viewing range is pretty small. Only the person playing the game can see the 3d effect.. Good enough to

      • Playstation NGP
        03/02/11


        A glimpse at sony's next portable. Looks pretty cool, however I dont know if there will be a use when everyone will have a portable game system built into their phone by the time this releases. It was only in a glass case, it was not turned on.

    • February
      • ISAPA 2011
        02/28/11


        Good news. Our paper got accepted to this conference. It is in New Zealand. Too bad we are already going to be in Alaska, it would have been fun to go to this one!

      • Under the hood
        02/28/11


        Here is a peak under the hood. Looks to be in good shape. Hopefully a few new components and I will be driving around evading the authorities just like in the CHiPs episode Rally Round The Bank

      • The MG Midget
        02/27/11


        Here it is. The goal is to have this on the road with the engine running and not just being towed by another vehicle by june. I think its possible! This thing is really small. Look how the handle bars on the scooters are about the same height!

      • New Kitchen...
        02/26/11


        We have decided to get new counter tops. Our current ones are falling off. So we hope to convert the above kitchen to the one below. Hopefully this will all be done with in a couple of weeks!


      • Pandemic
        02/24/11


        Nicci and I tried this game today. It was pretty fun. Its a co-op based board game where all players work together to prevent pandemics from occurring. We failed. But mostly because we didnt completely understand the rules. I have a new strategy that we will try out next time we pla

      • Ts Burritos
        02/23/11


        The best place for burritos in the Reno/Tahoe area. This place is located in Incline Village right off the main drag by the movie theater and the 7-11. You have to look closely as you drive by because it is easy to miss. The food is awesome. Veggie burritos and Tri-Tip burritos are t

      • New Friend
        02/22/11

        A new friend decided to drop in on the shower curtain today. He looks pretty violent, however rumor has it he is harmless.

        Had I known that I would not have violently stabbed him to death with a toilet paper tube.

      • Diamond Peak
        02/21/11


        Today we went out to Diamond Peak. It was the perfect day for skiing. The sky was sunny and temperatures steadily rose from 9 to 25. It was a little crowded, I guess with it being Presidents Day most people had the day off. Very nice drive and nice views of Lake Tahoe. Passed Mt Ros

      • Rallye To Reno
        02/20/11


        I am planning on participating in this event.. I have a 73 MG Midget that has been sitting in the garage for about 5 years now. My goal is to have it on the road by this event. It looks like it is in good shape!

        Rallye To Reno

      • National Automobile Museum
        02/19/11

        Yesterday we went to the National Automobile Museum in Reno to celebrate my toastmasters group's 50th anniversary. We got our picture taken in a Model T in garb of the era! Interesting that the gas was on the steering wheel and the gas for reverse was a pedal on the floor.

      • Ticket To Ride Marklin
        02/18/11


        Finally got around to playing this today. It's a great improvement from the original Ticket To Ride. With the edition of passengers, it makes the game that much more fun! Still not sure if there is a good or bad strategy to playing this game.

      • FDG 2011
        02/16/11

        Finished the submission for ACM Foundations Of Digital Games 2011. This year we entered the RTSS (real time sensory substitution) stuff for the kinect. I think it's pretty interesting work. We shall see what the judges think. I hope it gets accepted. This year's conference is in

      • MoveOnPC
        02/13/11

        Google Code MoveOnPC

        I have been playing around with the Playstation Move controller thanks to the MoveOnPC project.

        I interested in both the motion capture and the haptic capabilities of it. The haptic (rumble) in this controller is way better than the wiimotes. With a

      • Swan Lake
        02/12/11


        This morning we met Bob and went out to Swan Lake. We were hoping to see some bald eagles, but they decided to not show up. We did see a bunch of swans, ducks, a hawk and some geese!

    • January
      • SuperDots3000
        01/28/11


        Finally finished my entry into the UNR Windows Mobile 7 App contest. I am unsure what they are looking for or what the other entries are. It was pretty easy to develop this XNA game, however getting the environment setup was a pain. I have very few machines that support DirectX 10, wh

      • Goodbye Elk
        01/23/11


        The last sunrise in Elk, CA (at least for this trip!) I will miss this view!

      • Mendicino
        01/22/11


        The California coast is amazing. Here we are in Mendicino.

      • Elk
        01/21/11


        Here I am in Elk. I had just got done playing in the water. How did I only get 1 leg wet? Why did I not find out until later that there was a rogue wave warning??

      • Blue Orb Tour
        01/01/11


        The Blue Orb Tour in savanah was a blast. Tobias is the man! Here I snapped a picture of Drew surrounded by orbs. They were not visible with the naked eye.

  • 2010