Virginia Tech massacre

Yesterday was a very sad day for Hokies everywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre

Among those killed was Dr. Loganathan, whom I believe was one of my hydraulics professors.

I'm not sure but he might also have been one of the young Tech profs that worked with my grandfather on quantifying the transient effects of closing check valves (i.e. water hammer) using some of the early PC based data loggers and pressure transducers.

2006 Taxes

1040ez.
Start to finish, 30 minutes including 10 minutes deciding that trying to free e-file wasn't worth the effort.
Refund due: $14.45.

Liberated Music

Alyssa --

    A few weeks ago you said that you're are interested in listening to new music that might be suitable for vaulting.

    Below are a bunch of links to sources of legal music downloads.  A number of them are to organizations I am familiar with including:

• Creative Commons;
  
• the Association of Music Podcasting;
  
• Defective by Design
• FreeCulture.org
• Garageband.com
• MagnaTune
• myspace.com
  
• CDBaby; and
  
• the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  

Most of the others are not.  In both cases be sure to use caution and common sense.

    Most of the artists on these sites should be independent of the RIAA record labels and look at the Internet as a way to publicize their works, promote their live performances and/or are simply making music because it is fun and they want to share it with the world. 

    The best opportunities of the future are in The Long Tail.

TTFN
    Tom Sayles
    Head Coach, Cascade Vaulters

---

Liberated Music
(Links to non-RIAA legal music download information)
from the Recording Industry vs The People blog


• AmieStreet.com
• Association of Music Podcasting (AMP)
• Beat Port
• BoycottRIAA.com "Non-RIAA" List
• CDBaby.com
• Creative Commons
• Defective by Design's List of DRM-Free Music Sites
• Dischord.com
• DJ Download
• dmusic
• Electronic Frontier Foundation List of "Artists Online"
• emusic.com
• Fading Ways Records
• Fake Science
• Fat Cat
• FreeCulture.org
• Garageband.com
• harveydanger.com
• iRate Radio
• Isabella Stewart Gardner Musuem
• Jamendo.com
• Janis Ian.com
• last.fm
• Lime Light Radio
• Live Music Archive
• live365.com free downloads
• MagnaTune
• Matador Records
• Merge Records
• Mundaze
• myspace.com
• Nettwerk Download Store
• R.evolution I.n P.rogress
• RIAARadar.com
• Slankard, Megan
• Stompy
• uncoolcentral.com
• Vision Metal Records
• warprecords.com
• WPRB.com

Google Snuffs Snuffy

My First Wikipedia Article -- WA SR-204

I wrote my first article for Wikipedia last weekend.

Washington State Route 204 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I had done some reformatting on the SR-203 article (using the SR-202 article as a guide), because I drive both SR-202 and SR-203 fairly often, and I noticed that there was no article for SR-204. From the work on SR-203, I knew where to find all the required info, so I wrote the article on SR-204. When I get some more time I hope to write the articles for SR-206 & 207 as well.

Working with highway data like this info makes me want to get back into traffic engineering, and perhaps I can use the Wikipedia work to move me in that direction.

I know enough about the kind of information that WsDot probably has in their databases to know that much of the information about the Washington State Routes could be written and updated by bots. Furthermore I might be interested in writing some of them.

Idea: Open Road Logger

I think it would be useful to have open and publicly available photo and/or video logs of various roads and highways. These logs could serve as source material for projects like the WikiProject U.S. Roads and even for highway and civic planners.

To be really useful and readily available the logs probably need to be tagged with some kind of open license, like a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. This way information from multiple logs and be combined to produce reports, plans, etc., without worrying about getting the rights to use the data, which is a common problem with mapping and GIS data today.

There are a couple of ways that these photo / video logs might be facilitated. The one option might be to write GPLed a Mono / .Net application to integrate photos and/or video with GPS data in real time (as it is collected) then post the resulting log to sites like Flickr, YouTube, Wikimedia Commons, Internet Archive, etc. Another option might be to develop a flash application that would capture images and GPS data and submit it to some kind of central repository.

Logs of major highways could be collected quite frequently if open minded truckers got involved. Minor highways and local roads would likely require efforts by local supporters and/or local governments and would probably get updated relatively infrequently.

At some point I hope to try some experiments with the same road for which I wrote the original Wikipedia article, WA SR-204. It is short at about 2.4 miles and not very far away from where I live. I'd need to get a new GPS as I still haven't replaced the one that was stolen from my Jeep a couple of years ago.


Anyone know anything about controlling cameras and/or GPS receivers through USB in Mono / .Net? Also anyone have references to XML schema for geotagging images and/or video?

Yet another example...

... of why the time is right for serious reform of the IP laws. 

Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version) - Samantha M. Shapiro - New York Times:

(usual annoying NYT free registration required.)

    It's no wonder that the RIAA companies are reporting declines in sales, they're treating their most important supporters as criminals.  If these DJs tell their fans to boycott the major labels, what would you expect the outcome would be.

End the nonsense, support the creative commons.

Why Web 2.0 Matters

This video shows a little of why web 2.0 matters. I didn't create this, I just found it and share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Cousin in the news

Verity is one of my cousins. 

Out of Africa - The Bolton Common:

First YouTube Video

I posted my first YouTube video last night. It was amazingly simple. I had set up an account several months ago so that I could rate some videos, so after confirming my e-mail address (clicking a link in an e-mail message) I filled out four blanks on a web form and uploaded the raw video file from my camera. The result is this:

Spamming Google Maps

Slashdot | Spamming Google Maps:

With the increase in the availability of aerial and space photography, it seems that painted roof advertising might make a come back.

Snowy Sunset

Snowy Sunset
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Wednesday's snow storm hit during vaulting practice. So we ended early, but it still took hours for some of us to get home.

After work Thursday I stopped by the barn and took a bunch of photos, which I've posted to my Flickr account.

Company develops virtual meal technology

I ran across this AP story and was wondering if it could be used with the digital picture frames that my mom and grandma got for Christmas.

Happy New Year

All said and done, 2006 was a relatively good year for me.

May your 2007 be the best that it can be.



Yes, I'm recycling photos.

Creative Commons

For some time now, I've been meaning to update my blog with a CC-By-SA license and finally got around to it today. I've used the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike as the default on my Flickr account from about the time I signed up.

I've chosen this license because I think it is important to allow others to use my work to be creative and I want those that enjoy derived works to also be able to find and enjoy mine. The most important aspect to me is the "Share Alike" provision that applies copyleft to my work.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.

Snoqualmie Pass Photos

Parked in the Snow
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Yesterday I made the trek over to Ephrata, WA to drop off the trailer load of stuff I brought up from SoCal for a friend. While I was there, I talked with my mom on the phone and she wanted pictures of the snow I saw on Snoqualmie Pass. So on the way back I stopped and took some pictures.

Made it home to Woodinville, Wa.

Made it home safe and sound, at least temporarily.

After Vaulting practice tomorrow, I'm going to head over the mountains to Jim's place in Ephrata, WA. I'm planning to drop off the contents of my trailer and spend the night east of the Cascades. Then come back on Sunday.

Tigard again.

Stopped for a weather update and dinner near Tigard, OR.

Current plan is to head to directly home to Woodinville after dinner. Need to confirm with Jim regarding side trip to Centeral Washingtion. [His phone didn't seem to be on.]

Eureka, Ca.

Had a nice lunch with Grandma, and other relatives in San Jose yeaterday. Also got some nice photos near the Golden Gate Bridge at sundown.

 

Made it to the planned motel about 11:30, two hours behind the origional schedule, due to the moring detour around SoCal snow. Planning to lunch in Grants Pass and stop near Tigard for a weather update.

Golden Gate at Rush Hour

Golden Gate at Rush Hour
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Here are some photos I took on the way home from SoCal.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsayles/tags/sanfrancisco/