life, coding, technology, outdoors, photography
My Steam Deck has to be one of my favorite gadgets in the last few years. Gaming aside, the fact that it’s running Linux opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities.
For example, let’s use it to add a new feature to ArtBot… while I’m on an airplane. The screen is tiny, but oh man, it actually worked.
On the way to Seattle for a work trip.
Hello, Mt. Rainier.
Use this handy eclipse simulator to find out.
San Francisco, CA. 🙁
Casper, WY. 🙂
Did I mention that I’m so excited for this? I’m really excited. So excited. So excited.
We’ll be road tripping to Wyoming to see the total solar eclipse. Apparently, experiencing one is really weird.
During a solar totality, animals usually fall silent. People howl and weep. Flames of nuclear fire visibly erupt like geysers from the sun’s edge. Shimmering dark lines cover the ground.
I can’t wait!
Earlier this year, I joined a group on Meetup dedicated to creating, analyzing, and talking about digital maps. It’s organized by the fine folks at #Maptime, who have an amazing enthusiasm for all things map related. It sounded like something that’s right up my alley, considering all the time I spend thinking about maps.
Last night was project night. All sorts of folks were there, working on complicated issues such as transit, land use, green space, climate effects. It’s kind of inspiring!
I went to focus on some less lofty goals — I just wanted to get some experience playing with a JavaScript mapping library created by a company called Mapbox. My goal was to get the library up and running and then use it to display some geo-encoded data from a service I happen to use a lot: Foursquare.
It’s no secret that I really like Foursquare — mainly for keeping track of our adventures far and wide. I found a helpful PHP library for converting Foursquare (and other social networking) data into GeoJSON, which is needed by the JavaScript mapping libraries. After a couple of hours of hacking around, I got something up and running!
Pretty neat stuff! I have some ideas on how to improve this and some additional data that I want to show in the future.
This story will make my Mom proud.
When Kerry and I were at the palace of Versailles earlier this week (viewing 300+ year old artifacts), we went on a tour of King Louis XVI’s private apartment.
While taking a photo, I backed up into a rope that I suddenly felt go slack. A second later, a gigantic “BANG!!!!!” echoed through the room we were in and the tour guide said “oh dear!” with a hint of panic in her voice. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped for a beat or two as well.
Turns out, I only knocked down a pylon that was supposed to separate a non-public area from a public area.
Good thing, because 20 minutes later, we saw an ugly ornate dresser (that was designed to never open — simply a decoration piece) that sold at an auction for $11 million dollars!
London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. Europe, here we come!
Hah, a year ago I was on my way to Florida for the STS-134 NASA Tweetup!
Anyway, I just had an update from Timehop emailed to me regarding an interesting Facebook post of mine from exactly a year ago (I don’t think I had publicly shared this otherwise):
British couple behind me is looking out the window and ask a nearby flight attendant if that’s the Grand Canyon below us and to our left.
She says yes, so I look out the window and see that it’s actually Valley of the Gods in Southern Utah (neeeeerd). I turn around to say something, right as the husband says, “Oh, that is so great! I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon!”
Alright then. Just smile and turn around, Dave. 🙂
I Love People: 5,000 Miles, 930 People, 162 Seconds from Benjamin Jenks on Vimeo.
Benjamin Jenks hitchhiked across America and created this awesome video called, “I love people.” From the description: 5,000 Miles, 930 People, 162 Seconds.
Awesome!
It reminds me of this awesome video I posted awhile ago, “The Longest Walk.”