Category Archives: Uncategorized

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If you’re at OryCon 35 in Portland, I’d love to chat. Either stop me and say hi, or find me at one of these panels:

Social Media and the Modern Writer
Jefferson/Adams      Fri Nov 8 12:00pm-1:00pm
Websites, Facebook fan pages, email lists, contests, twitter, tumblr,
Pinterest, ads, blogs and that annoying thing called a “platform”: what
works, what doesn’t, and why you need to care (spoiler: you do).
Grá Linnaea, William Hertling, (*)Jason Andrew, Aaron Duran, Cat Rambo,
Peter A. Smalley

Revision: Path to better writing or way to never finish?
Lincoln              Fri Nov 8 2:00pm-3:00pm
Endless revisions can kill good writing, but everyone says polish your
work.  Besides, the first draft is usually bad, right?  How to navigate
through the apparent contradictions without going crazy.
Renee Stern, (*)Irene Radford, William Hertling, Amber D. Sistla

Northwest Independent Writers Association (NIWA) Booth
Dealer’s Room     Fri Nov 8 5:00pm-6:00pm

The future of dental floss
Hamilton             Sat Nov 9 10:00am-11:00am
How technology will change everyday life, from taking a shower to reading
the newspaper, from getting to work to the clothes we wear.
(*)David W. Goldman, William Hertling, Mark Niemann-Ross

How near is too near
Broadway             Sun Nov 10 12:00pm-1:00pm
What time frame is too near for near future science fiction longevity and
credibility.
(*)Jason M. Hough, William Hertling, Blake Hutchins, Nancy Kress

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In A.I. Apocalypse, Leon Tsarev, the main character, uses a mobile phone that goes back and forth between phone and desktop computer. By merely knocking the phone against a display, it syncs its output to that display device.

In the novel, Leon uses it with a display in his bedroom, a wall-mounted display at the kitchen table, and on his desk at school.

The Ubuntu Edge is very similar in concept. The phone would run the Ubuntu OS, a Linux based operating system, but could be docked to become a complete computer.

The phone is currently being funded via a IndieGogo campaign, and has raised eight million dollars already.

It is described as “Dual-boots into Ubuntu mobile OS and Android; converts into a full desktop PC”.

It’s a pretty piece of hardware too, futuristic and sleek.

This is exactly where I hoped we would have been a few years ago. Now with the advent of applications moving to the cloud and seamless data synchronization with apps like Dropbox, it seems a little less necessary: I can effortlessly move between my work PC and either of two personal PCs, and I can access all my mail, documents, and applications no matter where I am.

But it’s possible that the privacy concerns over the NSA could cause backlash against cloud computing. We might just be better off carrying a secure device with us whereever we go, and avoiding the cloud as much as possible. In that case, the Edge becomes pretty compelling.

Either way, it’ll be fun to see where this goes.

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Two months ago I gained access to a MakerBot Replicator 2X, their top of the line 3D printer. Between writing, work, and kids, I haven’t been able to use it regularly, but I’ve spent several large blocks of time with it.

I’ve used it with both ABS and PLA plastic, including designs I’ve downloaded from Thingiverse, as well as creations I’ve made coding with OpenSCAD, a programming language for 3D stuff.
It’s been both awesome and kind of sucky.
First off, it’s undeniably cool. I’ve been using it mostly in an open work space, and it attracts passerby like crazy. The process of printing is entrancing, and it’s easy to spend thirty minutes just watching it construction a shape layer by layer.
When it builds something successfully, it’s awesome. I can put a simple cube into someone’s hand, and they marvel at it. My kids beg for me to print them stuff, my wife is wearing a 3D printed bracelet, and we’ve got stacks of nested boxes all over the place.
But it’s not easy to use. In fact, it bears a lot of similarity to operating an offset press, something I did in high school. It requires training, an understanding of the idiosyncrasies of the machine, and the ability to troubleshoot myriad problems. 
Other periods of computing were like this: connecting with modems in the early 80s, managing memory within the 640KB limit of MSDOS. I’m sure 3D printing will get better, because the promise is so great, but it’s still very much in its infancy.
For example, the build platform requires a very precise calibration to ensure the print heads are the correct distance above the platform, especially with ABS plastic. This process requires frequent recalibration, as the repeated heating and cooling of the platform seems to throw off the calibration. 
ABS plastic is also super-smelly, throwing off all sorts of toxic fumes, so I switched to using PLA plastic. But for PLA, the 2X seems to have problems feeding the plastic into the print heads. If it sits for even a minute with the heat on, or if it prints a piece where the plastic is feeding slowly, then the 2X suffers from something called heat creep, where the PLA plastic slowly softens such that the feed drive doesn’t push the plastic down. Few things are more frustrating than having a nearly complete model that’s been printing for an hour suddenly stop building, because of heat creep. I have more abandoned PLA builds than completed ones.
As a result, I’ve tried to play with printing temperates and speeds and added supplementary cooling fans. I’ve also become attuned to the sound of the feeders losing their grip, so I’ll quickly add manual pressure until it feeds correctly again.
Hopefully we’ll see a future generation of 3D printers that includes automatic calibration of the build platform (should be relatively simple, and more accurate than the manual process). And print heads that manage the temperature, feed pressure, and cooling to prevent such feed problems.
I’ll follow up with some photos soon.

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From a review at Boing Boing of the new Galaxy S4:

Purchase and service costs over two years start at $2,069.75 with Sprint–add $100 if you’re not porting your number over–then $2.069.99 at T-Mobile, $2.359.75 at AT&T and potentially 2.599.99 at Verizon.

That’s the only way that really makes sense to share what a phone costs. It’s not the upfront price. It’s what it costs you over the long term. And it really makes clear the different between Sprint and Verizon.