The Column

Motto: Simply Perfect I am writing whole piece this using only the ten hundred most often used words. I am doing this because a guy whose work I enjoy did this, which you can see by pressing these words . I am using this thing he made to check my work. This week is a big week for me. A company I really like put out their newest phones . A different company I really like is BOTH coming out with more of their television show AND their movie to buy that you could not get until now. An short movie maker made a short movie about the movie I am excited to buy. Touch here to see that . Last, a different movie is coming out that my wife and I both want to watch. We read the book from which this movie came last month. It was very good so we expect the movie to also be very good. I am excited for these things, and other things coming soon. I ordered the larger phone. It comes in six weeks. It has many things I am excited for:  The camera that has larger light gathering spot...

Motto: ACTION Big things are brewing. I am watching Captain America: The First Avenger. I have made a playlist on my Plex server of all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the order in which they took place within their universe. This is the first of them. Age of Ultron comes out on bluray in a week. I am going to rewatch the entire MCU, ending with Age of Ultron after I get that. Captain America: Civil War premiers in 222 days. There's 4500 minutes worth of Marvel Content out right now. That's only one minute of Marvel content every 1 1/4 hours. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3, Agent Carter season 2, and at least one new Netflix series will take place between now and then. I'M GOING TO WATCH IT ALL. I didn't actually want to write about the Life Tracker - but when I realized I was writing about tech stuff and Marvel stuff, I thought adding this paragraph would be funny: I was forced to rewrite a portion of the Life Tracker when my weather API provider decide...

Motto: Knowledge = Voltage × Current! This column is going to be fun, but first you've got to earn that fun through some learning. I'm going to start this post off with a lesson about one of the most useful-in-the-real-world mathematical concepts I ever learned. Today, we're going to look at dimensional analysis . The word "dimension" has several different definitions. When it comes to math and science, I tend to think of "dimensions" as all the independent variables of a problem. In other words, all of the things you can change without changing anything else. Easy example: Longitude, Latitude, Altitude You if you're on an elevator, you're changing your altitude without changing your longitude and altitude. Altitude is a different dimension than the other two. Similarly, you could walk directly towards the North Pole and change your latitude without changing your longitude. These are dimensions . Dimensions are measured in units ....

Motto: Grass.RGB(0,0,255) I am in the Hill's camper at Walnut Valley Blugrass Festival in Winfield. It's raining pretty hard, so we're stuck indoors. I'm okay with that, the "just hanging out in the camper" has long been one of my favorite parts of Winfield. This is my third (fourth?) trip to Winfield. The first time I came, I came because because Melissa wanted me to. The second time, I came because I wanted to spend more time with the family. This time, I came because I wanted to come to Winfield. I just got this shirt. My Chromebook's camera is awful. In other recent news: I took a work trip to San Antonio. It's a pretty town. The Riverwalk is awesome. I wish Kansas City had anything like it. On this work trip I got to attend an Open Compute Project conference and hear a bit about who they are and what they are doing. It was cool. Also very cool was the office space it was being held in. Rackspace's office building is sweet....

Motto: Cross another off the movie bucket list I want a tablet, but... Tablets are the most fun pieces of computing tech out there - even if they may be the least useful.  Their use IS "fun". They are THE BEST general browsing experience you can find. If you have tons of time to kill and nothing to do, nothing beats a tablet. They provide a more compelling user experience than phones. They aren't as cumbersome as laptops. They are portable in ways that televisions and videogame consoles can't be. They are the perfect form factor. ... but they suck  for input-intensive applications (which is a basic requirement for most "productive" uses of technology). They aren't portable enough to replace a phone. They usually aren't capable enough to replace your computer. Tablets are perfect in theory... In reality, though, their usage case sits in a narrow window. I will say, though, tablets are PERFECT for kids. Long-ish battery life. More games...

Motto: I've got so much to tell you! I have a lot to talk about. First I'm going to say - if you noticed the new favicon, I'm impressed. If you don't see it, you will eventually. If you don't know what that is - it's the little icon next to the website name up there.  ↑ It's really small - but it's this: Not meant to look good any bigger than this. I'd like to make a better version of that sometime... but that's good for the foreseeable future. Also at the top of this page - a couple of sections: Projects & Videos. Those are a little more full. I plan on putting some more work on the Projects section soon. August's 30 Day Challenge was an ambitious one. My goal was to, each day: Run a mile 100 pushups 15 pullups Drink only water & coffee Eat in, eat up Bed at 10 Wake at 6 ...and my stretch goal: Stretching (for 15 minutes) The results: I maybe did more running, pushups, pullups, and eating in tha...