Toad

I saw this toad on my step while going out to get the mail. I wonder how long he'll be blinded from my camera flash.

Image processing and robots = cool

I thought this was pretty cool. A computer-controlled, fully-automated, paintball sentry gun. The sound clip from the Portal video game automated turret at the beginning when it boots up is a nice touch.

Random Internet find of the day

You can truly find anything on the Internet. Should you ever happen to have a gummy bear stuck in your ear, here is how to get it out. :-)

Doing it the hard way

I thought this was cool. Wally Wallington moves really heavy objects using simple machines. A must watch for the engineering-minded.

Misuse of equipment

I wonder what the engineer who designed this piece of earth-moving equipment would say if he saw this.

Tents on wheels for the homeless

A few days ago I stumbled across this CNN story about a unique way to help the homeless. In LA, they are distributing these tent/shopping cart devices called EDARs (Everyone Deserves a Roof). I found the story very interesting.

I'm still trying to decide what I think of the idea.

On the one hand, the EDAR does seem to improve the quality of life for those who need them to some small degree. Having people not die of exposure on the street certainly seems like a real benefit.

On the other hand, it seems like the makers of EDAR are labeling the underlying problem as unsolvable and accepting too little as a victory. The people in the video don't seem to be particularly disabled or mentally dysfunctional to any extreme. Why are they homeless? I'm sure those were probably the some of the more photogenic and likable people in the homeless population, but the question stands.

Does the good of improving the quality of life for a fellow human being offset the evil of condoning laziness, dependency, and the feeling of entitlement that damage our society and further propagate the problem?

One thing right

President Bush did at least one thing right. Tomorrow is the change to daylight savings time.

I'm glad he moved the changeover date to be earlier and the change back to be later. Sure the software programer in me hated it-- all those computer time calculations that had to change--but I will be happy for an extra hour of daylight after work.

Here in Ohio the time change marks the week I can safely go bicycling after work again.

Credit Crisis Visualized

It is not news that the whole US financial system is a mess right now. Many of us have some understanding of why, but I was recently pointed to a good visual summary of the whole mess. You can find it at http://www.crisisofcredit.com/ or on youtube in 2 parts, part 1 and part 2. I recommend the youtube version. It seems to load better.