onecreativeblog

Thanks for leading the way, Steve.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:48:35 -0700

Thanks for leading the way, Steve.

4-bit input, 5-bit output binary adder I built in high school....

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:11:33 -0700

4-bit input, 5-bit output binary adder I built in high school. Logic gates are formed from ~70 TV transistors using my own direct implementation of boolean logic.

Colbert’s Stephensed Soup (Washington Square Park)

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:13:44 -0700

Colbert’s Stephensed Soup (Washington Square Park)

Spock, rationality and reasons for Truth

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:56:02 -0700

Spock, rationality and reasons for Truth :

Spock’s emotional state is always set to “calm”, even when wildly inappropriate. He often gives many significant digits for probabilities that are grossly uncalibrated. (E.g: “Captain, if you steer the Enterprise directly into that black hole, our probability of surviving is only 2.234%” Yet nine times out of ten the Enterprise is not destroyed. What kind of tragic fool gives four significant digits for a figure that is off by two orders of magnitude?) Yet this popular image is how many people conceive of the duty to be “rational” - small wonder that they do not embrace it wholeheartedly.

Just a sample of the amazing facility for instance possessed by Eliezer Yudkowski, a self-taught AI researcher and guy behind Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

I’ve been slowly working my way through his writing over the past few months and can’t recommend him enough.

Which loads faster?

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:58:00 -0700

I’m pleased as punch to announce whichloadsfaster.com, an open-source web performance tool where pages compete head-to-head in your browser to see who’s fastest!

It started as an off-hand remark by my buddy, Ricardo: “You should make a tool that can load two web pages side by side so you can see which one loads faster.” I backpedaled a little at first, the way an overworked programmer does when someone suggests sticking another iron in the fire: “Um, I don’t know if that would really work out without writing a browser plugin.” This, of course, meant something more like, “Dude, I’m lazy, and that sounds like a lot of work just to make another toy for our sales and marketing guys.”

Ricardo had me though, it would be cool to load two pages side-by-side and see the differences in real time. Dan, one of the aforementioned sales and marketing guys, was grinning next to us, enthused in an infectious way we hadn’t seen nearly enough of since the arrival of his newborn. “Ok guys,” I entreated, “maybe we can do it with iframes. I’ve been having a lot of fun with jQuery lately, so let me play around with it and see what I come up with.”

It was a lot of fun to see two pages race against each other! Performance testing can be rather bland—staring at waterfalls, repeating tests—but watching a competition seems to be one of those things that humans are hard-wired to enjoy, and it tickled me like Elmo to think that I could take something I’m passionate about—web performance—and make it a bit more appealing!

Don’t get me wrong, there are many good tools for web performance testing (notably, the open source webpagetest.org and showslow.com, which I will be working to integrate), but there are a few areas where I think whichloadsfaster adds some wicked weapons to the web performance warchest:

Competition. Since it’s easy to pit pages against each other, it becomes natural to check the performance of your most (and least) favorite sites, adding to the argument that speed is a competitive advantage.
Testing in real time, while you watch. This has a big impact factor because a “real” test holds your attention.
Support for many browsers (IE 8/7/6, Firefox 3.0+, Chrome, Safari, most of mobile WebKit). Because of the detailed and invasive nature of performance testing, most performance tools are browser-specific. We make the tradeoff of collecting fewer events for the convenience of running the tool in every browser with no install.
Finally, there is a sharing link that developers can send out to run on their friends’ browsers. This feature is something I hope to develop further by adding a beacon API to automatically retrieve the results (see below).

Moving forward, I would like to improve whichloadsfaster in three major areas:

Automation of test results. The plan is to make a beacon API and a couple of example servers to collect the data (php, rails, django). This way, developers can just send out the link and sit back and see their performance results roll in across different locations and browsers. Fully automated testing would be as simple as causing a remote test machine to load the URL you want with your desired browser. This could be done with selenium or a similar library, or possibly even built into whichloadsfaster (have to work around caching issues).
User perception testing. Since we’re right in front of the user, we can ask them which page appeared to load faster and get a better handle on that ephemeral but most important metric, time to first interaction. I’m really excited about this one!
Integration with other tools. I plan to add a link to compare your pages on webpagetest.org using the video film strip feature, and also to test the individual pages in the waterfall tool. Since this project is about spreading the web performance gospel, I’m open to linking to any useful performance tool.

A call for help

The one problem that really bugs me is that whichloadsfaster doesn’t play well with sites that try to break out of the iframe. This includes major sites that users want to compare, like myspace, twitter and nytimes.com. It’s a terrible user experience to type in one of these and watch it unexpectedly take over the screen. I’m completely sympathetic with using framebusting to avoid clickjacking attacks, but I truly think this project is a legitimate reason to frame a site, and I want to create an excellent user experience (I mean, have you noticed the keyboard shortcuts?).

I’ve successfully tested a framebuster-buster that prevents sites from breaking out, but one of the side effects is that it also prevents outgoing links. In the end, the users should at least know what is going on and why the site can’t be compared. I’ll continue to work on this, but if you or a developer you know has expertise in this area, I would love suggestions and advice via email or the github issue.

Thanks for your feedback and involvement. Here’s to making the web just work for everybody on the planet!

On our walk today we met a flying leaf dancing in the wind,...

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:00:17 -0700

On our walk today we met a flying leaf dancing in the wind, always one inch from the ground.

Of all the altitudes it could have occupied, it seemed to have choosen one inch, where it bobbed and twirled for our amusement at the end of an invisible spider silk.

That I find the actions of the leaf profound, that its pirouettes dazzle me despite my mind’s prediction of the presence of the silk and despite the unsurprising confirmation when I strain my eyes to see it against a darkened patch beyond, that I both awe and understand—that is the great joy of being human.

Homemade iPad Case

Tue, 11 May 2010 21:11:21 -0700

A few days ago I popped into the Pasadena Apple Store to look at iPad cases. I had thought that my requirements were fairly simple: a landscape slipcase with easy iPad insertion/removal that can itself be easily moved in and out of my bag. Everything at the store, however, seemed bulky, expensive and inelegant.

His spidey sense tingling at my obvious indecision (or perhaps just tickled by his curly beard), an impetuously precocious Apple employee approached. His admonition, however, was not one I expected: “now, nobody from Apple is telling you this, but if I were you, I’d go to etsy and buy a handmade case instead.” Cue my white liberal guilt.¹ Being thus rendered unable to feel good about buying yet another petroleum-derived consumer product made by underpaid workers in the third world, I decided to make my own case.

To be fair, the case is made from vegetarian leather, which is still petroleum-derived², but I rescued the material from a doomed college project ³ so I think it technically constitutes recycling.

The inside of the case is made from car headliner fabric. You know, the kind that you used to get yelled at for picking off the roof of your parents’ Plymouth Volare? No? Was that just me?

The entire case is made from two pieces of fabric, folded onto itself in various ways. All edges had to be folded over twice because the veggie leather is backed with fuzzy white stuff which doesn’t look good when it’s exposed. The exact dimensions are a closely guarded secret ⁴.

Seams were sewn on a Singer 301a that belonged to my late grandmother. I’m afraid I have a long way to go in learning how to use it properly, but I hope my attempt would have made her proud.

Using scotch tape along the seams really helped the machine glide along without bunching the material. The tape can be removed afterward by carefully pulling perpendicular to the seam, otherwise you end up with a bunch of small tape pieces that must be pulled out from under the thread by hand.

The finished case works nicely for propping the iPad up while typing on the train.

I enjoyed this project immensely. It was a real kick to make something I’ve never attempted before from materials that were lying around. Hope you enjoyed it too!

More pictures and comments can be found at this project’s flickr set →.

Oh, and to my bearded muse in the bright turquoise t-shirt, if you’re reading this and still haven’t made up your mind about your own case, I’ll totally make you one of these.

¹	While I am white, I’m not as that liberal and harbor virtually no guilt. ↩
²	Which means it’s made from animals that died naturally a long time ago, rather than recently by human hands. ↩
³	I was trying to make a folding poker table with a nice felt surface and leather border. Then someone stole all the wood pieces I had cut along with the brass hardware. Sad face. ↩
⁴	Meaning they were pulled directly from my posterior region and I might not be able to reproduce them if I wanted to. ↩

Homemade turkey burgers with spinach, mushrooms and brie. To...

Fri, 07 May 2010 18:00:48 -0700

Homemade turkey burgers with spinach, mushrooms and brie.

To make the patties, I used a 1lb package Trader Joe’s ground turkey, 1/4 cup diced garlic, 1/4 cup diced white onion, 1/4 cup soft brie, and maybe a couple teaspoons of salt. I mixed all the ingredients together by hand, formed them into 4 patties and floured the outside to keep them from sticking to each other on the plate.

When the patties were almost done, I divided the remaining brie among them and let it melt slightly on top. Try to keep the brie from spilling over the edge of the patties! The mushrooms were sautéd separately in olive oil and laid atop the brie.

What would I do differently next time? Probably Worcestershire sauce in the patties.

As it was, they were very good.

MacGyver’ed rig for epoxying the power button connector...

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:13:00 -0700

MacGyver’ed rig for epoxying the power button connector back onto my friend’s iBook G4 on which I was trying to simply replace the hard drive.

UPDATE: It worked! I managed to press the contacts to the board hard enough during curing that they still had conductivity after the epoxy cured!

Steam Cars

Sun, 02 May 2010 16:26:00 -0700

A couple Saturdays ago, @kriskowal and I found ourselves at a meeting of the Southern California chapter of the Steam Automobile Club of America of which Kris’s father is president. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen these steam cars in action. Getting to ride on these gentle and majestic contraptions was a real treat:

Kris’s father brought the Dampf ‘Bil, a wood-burning, steam powered go-kart of sorts:

Kris explains more about how it works:

It’s a really simple car, a model of the minimal steam powered automobile, built on the chassis of a wood trash-cart. The steam generator is a Dixon Boilerworks “fire tube” boiler; it burns wood under a five gallon reservoir with tubes that allow the heated air to exchange with the water. It operates between 40 and 75 PSI. The steam drives two 5” tall double-acting steam engines, offset by 90 degrees, attached directly to the rear-right wheel with a bike chain (no derailleur). The boiler is fed by a highly ineffective hydraulic landing gear pump from a 2 gallon antifreeze container repurposed for water. The boiler also has a garden hose attachment which we use to fill the boiler when cold, and to “blow down”: use the boiler’s remaining pressure to empty the boiler.

Look at it go! (that’s me riding.)

The only problem is that one tends to get covered in soot while driving it (that’s Kris):

As you can see, fun was had by all. :)

Mean happiness: Despite the bad press infographics have gotten...

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:09:18 -0700

Mean happiness: Despite the bad press infographics have gotten lately, this one is quite clever.

Caprese burgers, mashed red potatoes and green beans! The...

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:30:00 -0700

Caprese burgers, mashed red potatoes and green beans!

The burgers patties are made from about 2 lbs. of 90/10 lean ground beef, plus 1/4 large white onion (I might use red or sweet next time), 2 cloves of garlic, 4 oz. of mozzarella cheese (all diced) and a couple teaspoons of salt.

Atop the patties are slabs of soft mozzarella cheese (the kind you make caprese with) topped with balsamic vinegar while grilling. On top of that are slices of red bell pepper pressed into the cheese (totally cheated on the caprese here, they should be tomatoes) and basil leaves.

12 California Red potatoes (from a large bag at Costco) make up the potato salad, along with 1 stick of butter, 1/2 a cup half and half and salt—decadent, I know, but very tasty. We’ve been doing mashed potatoes in the pressure cooker. It’s faster at cooking the potatoes, and for added bonus, the steam relief valve popping cues you to turn the stove off (helpful for the multitasking-challenged).

I don’t normally have the energy to make three dishes on a weeknight, but tonight I felt up to the multitasking challenge. The results were happily nominated.

UPDATE: I made some more caprese burgers last night with the addition of ~1/4 cup balsamic vinegar to the patties. I highly recommend it!

"A window pops up. You read the message to decide whether to hit OK or Cancel. Nerd! If you were a..."

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:31:00 -0700

“A window pops up. You read the message to decide whether to hit OK or Cancel. Nerd! If you were a normal person, you’d have hit “OK” already”

- UX insight by Esther Nam

The Adobe - Apple Flame War

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:02:12 -0700

The Adobe - Apple Flame War:

I’ve been talking with a number of you about Adobe and Apple’s platform fight. The latest monday note by Jean-Louis Gassée (who founded BeOS after leaving Apple) makes an excellent jumping-off point, explaining some of the history and elucidating (as always) the underlying strategies of the players. Whereas Adobe is trying to commoditize it’s compliments, Apple must hold onto it’s unique strengths:

Cross-platform tools dangle the old “write once, run everywhere” promise. But, by being cross-platform, they don’t use, they erase “uncommon” features. To Apple, this is anathema as it wants apps developers to use, to promote its differentiation. It’s that simple. Losing differentiation is death by low margins. It’s that simple. It’s business. Apple is right to keep control of its platform’s future.

Gassée also nails what I find the most fascinating about the new Apple:

Does anyone mind that Jobs won’t sacrifice the truly strategic differentiation of the iPhone platform on the altar of cross-platform compatibility? Customers and critics don’t. They love the end-result. Nor do developers.

The response by the market (the consumer market and the developer market) supports Apple differentiating itself along a basis vector largely ignored by the rest of the computer industry.

This is extremely encouraging to me. I’ve always held that computers are not ready for the world, but we’re approaching and age where the average person can use a computer as a natural extension of themselves and their will to manipulate the world. I approve of what Apple is doing with the iPad not because they are Apple, but because their actions take us further toward this ideal.

In case you were wondering where all the leftover Easter lamb...

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:33:18 -0700

In case you were wondering where all the leftover Easter lamb went: Gyros! Well, my take on them anyway.

I started with a good amount of minced garlic and chopped red onions sauteed in olive oil, then added the sliced lamb and cubed roma tomatoes (on the vine, from Costco), added some flake salt and ground peppercorns over the pan. The bread is nothing special, just from Trader Joe’s, but the green stuff is mâche or “lamb’s lettuce” (also from TJ’s) and is quite tasty, like a light, nutty spinach. Topping off the ensemble is some Greek yogurt.

They turned out quite well.

Easter Dinner

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:01:00 -0700

Lamb by yours truly. Potatoes by @ErikDreyer and Diana. Salad by @jasonyo and SJ. Asparagus by steam pot.

The salad contained spinach, pears, medium-boiled eggs and from-scratch candied walnuts! It was quite a hit. The potatoes had tons of garlic, and complimented the lamb very nicely.

The lamb is from an epicurious recipie that I followed pretty closely. We started with two lamb legs from Costco totaling about 8 pounds of meat after trimming the excess fat. I tucked substantially more garlic into the meat than recommended—approximately 8 cloves cut into about 32 slices—and let the prepared meat marinate overnight.

Cooking was done on the propane grill, and turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the meal (at least to me) because although the flavor was great, the smaller pieces of lamb were overcooked. I had the thermometer in one of the larger pieces and cut the heat when the middle of the largest one reached 145°F. In hindsight, I should have measured each piece and pulled it from the heat when it reached 130°F, as recommended by the recipe. Oh well, one of the main reasons to write this down is so I can remember what I did wrong. Aren’t you glad we live in a world where we can google our past misteaks?

…

You may have noticed the topic of my site inching insidiously toward food. To tell you the truth, I’m just as surprised as you are. I mean, I’m supposed to be writing about programming, poetry and bad puns, but I end up taking pictures of dinner instead.

Well, them’s tough beans (fava maybe? Haven’t attempted those yet). The food posts will likely continue as I have no plans to imperil my excellent relationship with eaten things anytime soon.

Stay tuned for a large flickr set of food-themed photos! Also expect some posts about my new espresso machine as I continue my relentless pursuit of the god shot.

First Camera, Then Fork

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:50:43 -0700

First Camera, Then Fork:

Vi sent me this NY Times article to let me know I’m not the only one who takes pictures of food. I wasn’t really aware of being part of this emerging food-photoblogging phenomenon, but I’m not surprised, given the upward trend in the US gastronomic awareness and the fact that food is just so darned pretty!

The photoblogging foodies in the article had a variety of motivations. For me, it’s all about sharing of the joy (and products) of creation. Let my next delectable picture-post be a reminder to invite yourself over for dinner at our place. :)

Pizza according to my wife’s philosophy: “if u c...

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:00:42 -0700

Pizza according to my wife’s philosophy: “if u c sauce under toppingz, ur doin it rong!” Apologies to Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

The espresso machine is back from the shop! I fully expect the...

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:00:00 -0700

The espresso machine is back from the shop! I fully expect the productivity @fastsoft to double in the next few days.

My wife’s collection of sun-powered bobbling things. To...

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:52:00 -0700

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

My wife’s collection of sun-powered bobbling things. To the left is the Flip Flop plant from thinkgeek. To the right are her Sunshine Buddies. :D