This is an absolutely fantastic TED video talking about robotic quad-copters. These things have amazing flight characteristics and abilities.
02
Mar
2012
Chad Dotson
A small town Computer Scientist / Software Engineer. Chad enjoys writing Python and JavaScript as well as tinkering with his Raspberry Pi and Arduino. When not programming, he enjoys Photography (especially lightning) and Sci-Fi.
A small town Computer Scientist / Software Engineer. Chad enjoys writing Python and JavaScript as well as tinkering with his Raspberry Pi and Arduino. When not programming, he enjoys Photography (especially lightning) and Sci-Fi.
26
Feb
2012
The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter February 25, 2012
I took these photos last night (February 25, 2012). Most are of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter last night. The exceptions are the first is a pic, which was taken just after sunset, and the third pic, which was taken at the same time as the other pictures just more towards the North.
[singlepic id=2130 w=320 h=240 float=left]
[singlepic id=2131 w=320 h=240 float=left]
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[singlepic id=2129 w=320 h=240 float=left]
19
Feb
2012
TEDxPhoenix – Lucianne Walkowicz – Look Up for a Change
Found this interesting talk on light pollution.
Source: TEDxPhoenix – Lucianne Walkowicz – Look Up for a Change.
05
Feb
2012
TED – Danny Hillis: Back to the future (of 1994)
Found this interesting TED video last night. Thought it was worth sharing.
02
Jan
2012
2011 In Pictures
These are a sampling of pictures I have taken this year. I selected them based on how representative they were of the month I took them in.
January
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This was the most snow I can remember. 6.5″ to 7″ total depending on where I measured. Duke and Daisy had fun in it.
February
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I didn’t have alot of photos from February. This was one of the few. I took it from the shore of Woods Reservoir.
March
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I got a few flower pics for March along with pictures of the Supermoon on March 19.
April
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April was the month mainly remembered for the Southeast tornado outbreak (more). The next to last picture was of the clouds that day near sunset. Other than that, Daisy liked it. I liked the hummingbird photo I took with the strange lens flare. I also liked that last sunrise photo for the colors.
May
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Didn’t have a whole lot of notable pictures for May. I thought this carved figurine was pretty neat. Its just a solar light.
June
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June was a very good month for lightning. On the 15th, there was a massive electrical storm. I captured lots of lightning strikes that day. One of the composites I created from that day is above. You can find more here and here.
July
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July was another month I didn’t have a lot of photos from, but I did get one of Duke.
August
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I started off August with a trip to Solomons, Maryland. I’ve selected a few photos from the trip but more can be found here. Towards the end there was some lightning and I tried my hand at some star trail photography.
September
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Photos from September consist primarily of ones taken from Sewanee. The photos I selected were taken near the end of the month at sunset (or just after).
October
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October was a mixed month. It started off with a bit of a fiery sunset, had some lightning, had a double sundog near the middle, and ended with another trip to Sewanee.
November
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November was a pretty good month for photos. I got some pretty good sunrise, mud hen, abstract, and star photos. The star photos I’ve included here were taken with a new lines I got, a Nikon35mm f/1.8.
December
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I was able to get some pretty good sunrise photos at the beginning of December. I toyed around with that new lens I mentioned earlier along with some exposure settings. I think I liked the results. Around the middle, I went to see Tornado Alley 3D at the Chattanooga IMax. I was able to get a decent shot after sunset of Lookout Mountain. The month ended with trip to Huntsville to see the Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Garden. I didn’t have many photos from the Galaxy of Lights so I just included one of the Rocket Center.
31
Dec
2011
HoloAD
Found this interesting video of a new product being developed by InnoVision Labs. This, like other recent “hologram” technology, uses LCD screens either above or below a system of mirrors. It does seem to be one of the more refined and realistic systems out there currently.
Links:
- Innovision‘s US website
- Innovision‘s Taiwan website
- Another video
- Yet another video
- The DVICE Article
27
Dec
2011
Good Videos From TEDxHuntsville 2011
These are from TEDxHuntsville 2011. Thought I’d posted about these already, but I guess I forgot to.
Travis Taylor – Stay With It: You Have the Power to Change Your World
Tim Pickens – Explore, Have Fun and Live to Tell About It
Daniel Crosby – You’re Not That Great: A Motivational Speech
20
Dec
2011
Programming Progress
“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.” – Bill Gates
I have that quote on my instant messenger. I found out Friday that someone had saw and used it. Its good that someone found it useful. It’s a very valid point to make that lines of code isn’t an accurate measure of programming progress nor complexity. As a place to start, people looking for better methods might like Feature-driven development with a meaningful estimating system like PERT, CPM, or other system.