I lost Wilson today…

13 08 2008

Today… I lost my beloved Wilson. No, not Tom Hanks’ Wilson. My Wilson was much more special. About 3 years ago, I found him all alone at a playground after the lights went out. Worn and used but still as good as any other ball you’d see on the courts, he’s been able to hold his own all these years. Never lost his grip nor nor his grooves nor his air pressure… he was a good ball.

I would leave work everyday, looking forward to seeing him there in the backseat of my car. Much like you would expect to come home to see your dog happily waiting for you at the front porch when you got home. Wilson kept me occupied and was always ready at a moments notice to reciprocate my hoop dreams. He helped me exercise, kept me in shape and meet new people. He was conversation material when I had guests in my car. He was always there for me. He was even able to raise my spirits in my darkest days. How could you get mad at anyone named Wilson? He was a good ball…

Today, I lost my Wilson @ Woodbridge Community Park after the lights went out. I walked all around and asked everyone there if they had seen him. They had not… Today was a sad day. Wilson, you will be missed.





Olympic Streaming with Silverlight is Amazing!

9 08 2008
Local cable company to Vista Media Center

Local cable company to Vista Media Center

Live streaming Silverlight footage from NBCOlympics.com

Live streaming Silverlight footage from NBCOlympics.com

I was checking out what events were on right after the opening ceremonies and couldn’t help but notice the difference in quality between the live Silverlight feeds vs my local cable to TV tuner/Vista Media Center combo. As you can see above, even though the sizes aren’t exactly the same, the Silverlight stream was definately way more sharp and vibrant compared to the Media Center’s.

To me that’s just amazing that we can have live streaming footage from China on my 200KB/s downstream that’s of higher quality than a local cable connection.





My quest to become a roboticist

2 08 2008

Ever since I was a kid I have always been interested in building stuff with whether it be with Legos, wooden blocks, bikes, or whatever else I could afford at the time. Going through high school I turned to building websites and learning how to program. In college I started out as a comp sci major but even though I ended up switching my major to an International Studies degree my passions for technology has never been greater.

I’ll admit it. I’m a closet geek and a serial hobbyist. My latest ventures have lead me to the Boe-Bot from Parallax. Since I work primarily with Microsoft technologies I thought it was awesome that they have a development framework called the Microsoft Robotics Studio. So last week I ordered the Boe-Bot kit after debating between this and the Lego Mindstorm NXT kit. The reasoning behind this? I thought I could learn more about how these things work since the Boe-Bot looks like it has more of its guts exposed and I’ve never worked with anything like this before.

So I got the package 2 days ago and joyfully sliced the package open like a kid at Christmas time. Looked at the manual’s cover and sighed…

Approximately 2 hours to assemble…

Introductory project hours to completion: 40 hours….

Difficulty level: 5 out of 10….

Looks like this might be another project that I may never get to finish. Damn you needs for instant gratification!!! =\