Archive for September, 2005
Years ago, I came up with the idea of a virtual keyboard using sensors on the fingers. I was amused to see this idea used in the Terry Gilliam film Brazil (1985).
Last year, Canesta invented a laser virtual keyboard. A visible (red) laser is used to project a keyboard layout onto a flat [...]
Best wishes to the crew of Shenzhou 6, the next Chinese manned space flight! It was just announced that the launch has been scheduled for 13 October 2005.
The secret to enjoying your job
0 Comments Published by Eric September 26th, 2005 in Blog/website/news comments, EmploymentToday there was an article on slashdot titled “Pay vs. Happiness”. I posted the following response:
[The secret to enjoying your job] is to work in a field that you’re personally interested in, for a company that is small enough that they do care about the employees. You’ll rarely, if ever, find that in a [...]
Just trying to blog from my Treo 650 phone/PDA using u*blog. Here’s a poor photo of myself taken with the phone:
The common automobile (Ipsomobile sp.) has coexisted with humans for over a century, and is generally considered to be fully domesticated. However, should the opportunity arise, they have been known to exhibit wild behavior. Note that the occasional playful nip should be distinguished from an actual attack, and is not generally considered cause for [...]
I was voted best speaker at the HHC 2005 conference!
2 Comments Published by Eric September 18th, 2005 in Calculators, NonpareilI was astounded to discover that I was voted best speaker at the HHC 2005 conference which wrapped up today in Chicago. I gave two presentations, one on the last year’s work on Nonpareil, and one on the calculator prototype Richard Ottosen and I have built.
When travelling, bring CD-R and DVD+R media, Tyvek sleeves, and a Sharpie. Sigh.
Nutritional information for canned purified water
0 Comments Published by Eric September 16th, 2005 in GeneralOn a flight from LA to Chicago last night, I asked for water, and was given a can of Deja Blue, a brand of purified drinking water by Seven-Up, which presumably competes with Coke’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina. It seemed perfectly fine, though I’d never seen canned drinking water before other than some that [...]
When I purchased a new vehicle in September 2004, I wanted side impact airbags, but they only were available as part of a “Safe and Secure” package that also included OnStar which I did not want. A salesman tried to convince me that I was getting a year of OnStar service “free”, but obviously [...]
New program “edit33″
0 Comments Published by Eric September 14th, 2005 in PDP-1 Restoration Project, Software I've writtenThe DEC PDP-1 computer at the Computer History Museum has a Type 30 Precision CRT Display with a Type 33 Symbol Generator. The Type 33 allows the computer to more quickly display small symbols (typically characters) using a five by seven dot matrix. The symbol is specified by two 18-bit words. Working [...]