A while back, I wrote about a super-powered cloud-based search, Algolia. I loved it while I was able to use it, but my trial expired and the price tag was abit steep for a personal blog. I reverted to Dave's Wordpress Live Search, which did a great job, but didn't have all the bells and whistles of Algolia. Today, I received an email from the Algolia team announcing Algolia … [Read more...]
Update: MagiQuest Wand Code
Apologies for the delay. I've been meaning to update the original post talking about Magiquest wands and home makerness, but haven't had time until now. I did manage to find an improved tactic to the statistical confidence path I went down using only a Raspberry Pi and LIRC to decode. The hero of this story is really Michael Flaga, who extended Arduino-IRRemote to include … [Read more...]
Control OWI Robotic Arm From Scratch
I was looking for a good project for my kids to play with robotics where they could use their preferred way of coding, Scratch. If you're not familiar with Scratch, it's a visual coding environment designed for kids. For instance, will turn the sprite toward the top of the screen and move it 10 steps. You can actually create pretty sophisticated software using these … [Read more...]
Wearality: High Quality VR In Your Pocket
Back before I started at Megacorp What Counts Things, I worked for a smaller consulting firm. Back at that firm, we had a fellowship program. What that means is that there was a group of really freaking smart people we paid to say they were our friends. One of those really freaking smart guys was Alan Kay. If you're not familiar with him, he's the guy who invented the laptop … [Read more...]
Driving Relevance: A 3-pronged Approach
I've been involved with an initiative to transform search and information discovery at a company for a while now. We're trying some really groundbreaking things, but it ultimately comes down to getting the right information to the user when the ask for it, and we tend to call this relevance. Relevance is a tricky thing because, to a large degree, it is contextual. There are … [Read more...]
We Wish You A VR-y Christmas
So, the gift that keeps on giving at my house this holiday season is the Viewmaster Virtual Reality Starter Pack. It's basically Google Cardboard for kids. It works with any Cardboard-compatible smartphone and was easy to get up and running, then the payoffs just kept coming. I've been involved with VR since the mid 90's when I was coding "4D poems" in VRML. It seemed like … [Read more...]
Crystal Knows (Me, Apparently)
So, I was alerted to Crystal (https://www.crystalknows.com/) by a coworker. I'm always interested in where machine learning is headed. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical at first and the app kind of makes me sound like a jerk, but the more I read it, the more I think it's pretty accurate. The value that Crystal promises is insight into an individual's communication style … [Read more...]
Geektool And Wunderlist: Parsing JSON For The Desktop
I am a big fan of GeekTool. For those not familiar, GeekTool is an OS X application that allows you to place "Geeklets" on your desktop. Geeklets come in 3 flavors: a file plugin to track the contents of a file, a shell plugin to run shell scripts and get the output, and an image plugin to load images. Each plugin has customization and layout options to allow you to create a … [Read more...]
Thar’s Opportunities In Them Thar Challenges!
I'm afraid this post is going to read like enterprise-grade Chicken Soup for the Soul, but I'm going to write it anyway, because I'm hoping to capture what has been a really great lesson from my current work. I am currently leading a proof-of-concept to test the delivery of some new capabilities in the firm. Everyone involved (from vendor to stakeholder) is very excited … [Read more...]
Duolingo: Esta Aplicación Es Muy Buena
It has long been my ambition to learn foreign languages, but to do so using the wrong accent. For instance, I've always wanted to learn Spanish with an Australian accent: Along comes Duolingo to help make my dreams come true. Duolingo promises free language education for the world and has some really great tactics for delivering on that promise. It's … [Read more...]