Shape lock plastic iPhone dock.

Wed, 03/06/2013 - 8:29pm — Aaron

I plug these things in and out all day long. I just doubled my productivity.. ;)

That's a tiny bit of shape lock plastic (aka instamorph, aka Polycaprolactone) wrapped around both plugs while they were plugged in to achieve ideal alignment.

It's a silent film because I was at the office, and I figured it was pretty much self explanatory.

Quick Release Cable Harness Stitching

Sun, 03/03/2013 - 11:30pm — Aaron

A quick demo of how I stitch cables to keep them organized. (our living room has a bundle of about 5 cables running up to our fireplace mantle, so it's particularly important.)

The basic rule of thumb is to never bring the tail of your cord into the knot, or under any cables. Always work with loops.

DSO Nano Displaying Flashlight Pulse Width Modulation

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 1:32pm — Aaron

Just a short video of me screwing around with the DSO Nano and my Leatherman Serac S2 flashlight.

Useful But Strange Backpacking Gear

Wed, 08/17/2011 - 4:26pm — Aaron

This is my personal collection of weird stuff I carry when backpacking that most people don't. Throw yours in the comments.


MintyBoost
A simple light weight charging kit for iPhones or other USB charging devices. It takes off the shelf AAs you can buy at the gas station on the way up the hill (or uses more environmentally responsible NIMH batteries) so the weight easily scales up or down based on your trip. Last time out I got my phone from 40% to 100 on 4 AA's. It's not the best energy density by weight, but you can't beat the price.

Hacking an Extra Rechargeable NiMh Cell onto an "Alkaline Only" LED Circuit.

Tue, 11/23/2010 - 11:13pm — Aaron

LED with Alkalines

Celeste bought some LED lights for my bike trailer this winter (as the second half of my commute is always in the dark). They were about $20 at target and come in lots of cool colors.

They run on 4 AA batteries. I didn't notice the fine print on the packaging until we got them home and I put a bunch of Nimh rechargeables into them. The lights were horribly dim. I looked at the fine print and it basically said, 'don't use rechargeable batteries.'

iOS hardware limitations discourage long tail innovation

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 3:11pm — Aaron

CSU recently hosted an iOS app development seminar with a couple apple representatives. One was clearly a sales guy, the other was the guy who spoke code.

It was interesting. I learned quite a bit about building a basic 'Hello World' application. In the end, the tech is no different than any other I've learned. (though objective-c syntax is a bit unusual compared to the other c based languages I've met.)

So, all that is fine, but I started to get a crappy feeling in my stomach when I asked this question:

Today I hate on cyclists

Wed, 06/09/2010 - 10:07am — Aaron

It's a nice morning, it's cool out, but not cold, the streets are quiet, all is well. I exit one of my neighborhood streets on to a local arterial and find myself behind a pod of about 6 cyclists. They were either college or high school kids. They stood out to me a bit because they were all wearing helmets, which is pretty rare with anyone younger than me.

My Macbook Rocks Part 1

Wed, 04/21/2010 - 11:47pm — Aaron

I discovered today that the MacBook powers its USB port even while the system is asleep. I've had systems in the past that I've tried this with and never had any luck.

The MacBook is now the biggest most expensive external battery pack for a cellphone one could ever have! I just charged my iPhone almost all the way, while watching streaming tv on it. This reduced my laptop's charge about 20% (if that).

(don't ask why I wasn't just watching movies on the laptop.. it was a geeky experiment.)

Man, at what point did I become a big old Apple fanboy?

1. Make the content harder to get. 2. ??? 3. Profit!

Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:26am — Aaron

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/11/harpercollins-now-also-thumbing-nose-...

Book publishers have started establishing arbitrary delays in book releases to digital formats. Their hope is that maybe someone who doesn't want a hardcover of their stupid book and would prefer a 0 tree, 0 clutter version will run out and pay 60% more for a hardback so they can read Dan Brown's latest crap RIGHT THIS SECOND!

Want to make cycling safer? Start with the brains behind the wheel.

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:46pm — Aaron

How old are you and where were you when you got your driver's license?

I'm 31 years old and I grew up in a small town on the plains of Colorado. I got my drivers license after taking driver's ed in high school and passing a DMV test.

It was 1993. At the time, I only knew one or two people who had a cellphone. They hardly ever used them because minutes were very expensive. There was no such thing as texting. The town I lived in had no bike lanes, no roundabouts and GPS didn't exist. My first car with Anti-lock brakes was a 2001.

In the 16 years since I've had my license, I've never had another test. I've never had a refresh of the information I was taught in that one high school class. Most of my driver education since then has been handed to me as a carbon copy of a ticket from a cop.

Every year in America, 43,000 people die in automobile crashes. So on average, 118 people will die today. 1 or 2 will be a cyclist, and 11 of them will be pedestrians.

There are freak accidents, but I don't believe 43,000 people per year are dying in 'freak' accidents.

The cycling community is seeing a revolution in utility cycling. People are commuting more and more. Injuries and accidents are also on the rise. The motivation of the cycling community is to increase cyclist education and to encourage more people to ride. Every day my city planners are making more and more efforts to facilitate cycling. The problem is that the people they are educating don't have the ability to kill or injure others with their mistakes.

I have yet to hear a single proposal to continue the education of the people behind the wheel.

In this country you can go from 16 to 72, and take exactly one driving test. America had 48 states when your average 70 year old took his last driver's test.

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