2014s
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A circular mount that attaches to a window with suction cups (probably 4 or 6 suction cups). Imagine something that is shaped like a ring flash and holds the Dropcam in the middle.
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The mount should allow a degree of swivel to the Dropcam itself so that it can be mounted directly on the glass, but still allow pointing the Dropcam a number of degrees one way of the other.
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A little cable management to route the USB power cable in a way that limits the impact of a tug on the cable on the direction the camera is pointed.
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It should shield against ambient light in the room. This is the biggest issue with my mount. Since there is about 1" of space between the glass and the camera, at night when the lights are turned on in the room a reflection bounces off the glass and into the camera which messes up the picture but more importantly the camera detects it as motion so you get a false positive of motion.
Snowy Minnehaha Creek.
Christmas Eve steaks on the Big Green Egg. Nice grilling weather!
Lego Firetruck
Modern Legos seem so very different than the generic shapes I remember when I was a kid. Did Legos take over the plastic model scene from my childhood? These pieces are so specific to each solution. Very proprietary, in software terms. š
Blokus
I got Blokus for Christmas in the brother-in-law swap on the Olson side (thanks Max!). It’s a really fun game. Ultimately best suited for 4 players with a graceful way to play with 2 players. 3 players works but its not a great fit. The strategy of the game is to block other opponents off as they try to lay tiles down on the board. While Go players would probably cringe at the comparison it seems loosely related.
Happy to see Dollar a Day pick EFF today! Have been an EFF member for many years.
The Chess Master and the Computer by Garry Kasparov
A compelling read on how an objective was achieved, but not really. This part from the end of the article really struck me:
This is our last chess metaphor, then ā a metaphor for how we have discarded innovation and creativity in exchange for a steady supply of marketable products. The dreams of creating an artificial intelligence that would engage in an ancient game symbolic of human thought have been abandoned. Instead, every year we have new chess programs, and new versions of old ones, that are all based on the same basic programming concepts for picking a move by searching through millions of possibilities that were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Like so much else in our technology-rich and innovation-poor modern world, chess computing has fallen prey to incrementalism and the demands of the market. Brute-force programs play the best chess, so why bother with anything else? Why waste time and money experimenting with new and innovative ideas when we already know what works? Such thinking should horrify anyone worthy of the name of scientist, but it seems, tragically, to be the norm. Our best minds have gone into financial engineering instead of real engineering, with catastrophic results for both sectors. via The Chess Master and the Computer by Garry Kasparov at The New York Review of Books.
I’d add advertising optimization to the other items our best minds have gone into.
I finally got Tyler to try a fruit smoothie and he decided he liked it.
Really like how sslmate does certificates, but I sort of want to get wait for Let’s Encrypt to get going!
The view from the #TeamSPS deck at night is fabulous.
Nice writeup in The Line with Peter Zaballos discussing SPS Commerce massive growth!
Just typed a 40 character random password on my Kindle. That was horrible.
Wanted: Dropcam Window Mount
I’ve had a Dropcam now for several months and I really like the device. It is super simple to setup, has a very small and manageable form factor and it is one of those things that “just works”. I have it setup in our house pointing at the garage and alley with 7-day continuous video recording and motion detection. We live in South Minneapolis and garage theft is a common occurrence. The Dropcam keeps an eye 24x7 on activity around our garage and through our alley.
The biggest challenge I had was figuring out where to mount it. It has a really nice metal stand that provides a lot of options, but we have it placed in a bay window and there just wasn’t any place I really had an option to screw the mount into. I finally decided to use some double-stick tape and attach it to the window.
Once I did this it really struck me how nice it would be if Dropcam made a proper window mount for the camera. The camera itself is relatively light and fairly thin. It is like a small hockey puck that sits in the metal stand. It could easily be set directly onto a window.
I have to think a lot of Dropcam units end up pointing at the outside through a window. This mount I did works okay, but has some real shortcomings that a proper mount would remove.
Dropcam Window Mount
Here is what I wish I could exchange US currency with Dropcam to have.
That is easily a $20 to $30 add-on that would be a “no brainer” for many installations.
If you like IFTTT and Launch Center Pro you should check out Workflow. Having fun with it.
Waiting for PayPal security code to arrive via SMS wishing there was support for proper 2-factor auth.
Einstein Cabinet
Tammy got this custom made Einstein cabinet by artist Paul Carbo this week. I love it. I think this might be the coolest piece of furniture we have.
Starting day at Salesforce World Tour in data analysis session!
Overview from Billy Cripe of Field Nation use of Salesforce.
Salesforce Tour keynote starting.
Disappointing Salesforce Tour session on Wave / Analytics. How about adding one data source? All sizzle, no steak.
Deciding to refuse Comcasts modem to wireless router “upgrade”. Like what I have now.
Had such a great evening hanging out with Layne Kennedy, Dennys Bisogno, and Steve LeVahn! Great laughs!
Iām dumbfounded that it took me 42 years of life to realize how well a pairing knife works to take the pith off an orange.