Software / Art, part I

While running into images created in the style of the iconic Obama "Hope" poster, I wondered whether there is software that can help create such images. Wikipedia to the rescue! There are step-by-step instructions for Illustrator, as well as a fully automated "Obamify" plugin for Mac that works with realtime video.

How long until artists start selling software components instead of static works? I guess we are already there...

Time? Will tell.

Here's my attempt to build a better mousetrap clock.

There are two main ways to visualize time: using digital display, or an analog dial. Each one has its advantages: digital display is precise, while analog is more intuitive. Some watches have both displays, but this results in clutter. Why not combine the best of both worlds?

With the clock face on a fully programmable screen, there is no need to display irrelevant information. I had this idea back in October 2004; the flash demo was implemented by Will Law of Hostcast. Technology—such as electronic ink—is catching up and making it practical.

This can be marketed as a dedicated clock with several "skins", as a feature of a digital picture frame, or perhaps as a screensaver for Kindle. It may be especially useful in helping kids learn to tell time.

Somewhat related: visualizing weather forecasts.

99.99% off

Recently I bought 3TB of storage for my home machine at a cost of $260. When I was buying my first PC, the sweet spot was $1/MB. The same amount of hard drive space would set me back $3,000,000. Three million dollars. Not adjusted for inflation.

It would be even more impressive if our sense of awe at numbers with lots of zeros was not blunted by the news reports.

200 PS3s = RIP MD5

The story of how a rogue CA certificate has been obtained reads like a crime novel.

Very smart people do very dumb things

Somehow, the satisfaction of linking to my post from March 2006 doesn't make up for the impact of this financial hurricane. From the same Berkshire Hathaway 2005 Annual Report, p.11:

It could be a different story for others in the future. Imagine, if you will, one or more firms (troubles often spread) with positions that are many multiples of ours attempting to liquidate in chaotic markets and under extreme, and well-publicized, pressures. This is a scenario to which much attention should be given now rather than after the fact. The time to have considered – and improved – the reliability of New Orleans’ levees was before Katrina.

Buffett warned us in 2003, few listened.

The physics of slacking

Here's a physics problem that bugged me for the last twenty years. Two people have to carry a large object up a narrow staircase. (Twenty years ago, that was a tub full of firewood for the furnace on the second floor of our dacha. Today, it's a big screen TV for my grandma.) Whose job is more difficult: the person who goes first and holds the top end of the object, or the second person who carries the bottom end?

Experimental results are inconclusive. "Difficulty" is admittedly somewhat subjective. But there should be a good physical model that leads to the answer.

My two cents

I've wondered where did the expression "my two cents" come from. There is a Wikipedia page on the subject, but it doesn't definitively answer the question.