I've done a couple things in the last week and I think I'm pretty satisfied with my most difficult goal, perform something in public. I've made two presentations at work, one to a large group (about 50) and one to half a dozen of the most important people in software engineering at Apple. I was nerveous for both but pulled it off nicely. Then last night I went to the Standford comedy club and got to participate in an improv skit with comedian Jimmy Gun. My mind froze up and I couldn't remember how Sleeping Beauty started but I did get up, got some laughs and had a good time.
In other news, I went to a Cake concert last week and it was fun. As a band, they don't have a very good live show. However, if I ever have a chance to see Honeycut again live I will certainly do so. The music was good, but the way those guys dance just makes you want to get up and join (mostly because it's so bad you could never do worse)
Oh and I'm moving this weekend. :)
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
What's your favorite color?
That's a hard question. I like vibrant colors, like corn fields, good music and spicy food, but I also like muted colors like 5:00 am and half empty bottles of champagne (in this case, half empty _is_ the optimistic view). The one color that I don't like is any shade of boring, with apathy being just behind it. If I must pick a favorite, my favorite color is a sincere smile, it looks great when you wear it, and matches with anything.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
New Years goals
When I grow up, I want to be a story teller. The kind of man that gathers a crowd at family gatherings or performs for crowds in parks. Whether that means classic stories, my own life events or maybe spontaneous fictions made up on the spot. Most of my goals this year relate to that dream, and here they are.
- Do something awesome: examples include building an interesting whatsit or finding the meaning of life.
- Do something stupid (in the pursuit of awesome): When I learned to ski in boyscouts, the scout master told me to fall down on the first run of the day, so that it's no longer a fear.
- Perform something in public: I haven't quite figured out how to make this happen, but this is the most frightening goal I have.
- Keep the plants on my deck alive: That means replacing the dead ones currently out there :)
- Plan and take a vacation: I've never been off this content. I've been cool places with my family but I really need to do something I can tell my kids about someday.
Happy new year to all!
- Do something awesome: examples include building an interesting whatsit or finding the meaning of life.
- Do something stupid (in the pursuit of awesome): When I learned to ski in boyscouts, the scout master told me to fall down on the first run of the day, so that it's no longer a fear.
- Perform something in public: I haven't quite figured out how to make this happen, but this is the most frightening goal I have.
- Keep the plants on my deck alive: That means replacing the dead ones currently out there :)
- Plan and take a vacation: I've never been off this content. I've been cool places with my family but I really need to do something I can tell my kids about someday.
Happy new year to all!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Rotation
Here's a funny bug someone had: 
They were wondering why the image on the billboard was being scaled in and out. The reason here is that the size of the image is actually increasing as it is rotated. The corners make the rectangle larger but the billboard stays the same size so there's an implicit scale operation to make it all fit.
The way to fix it, is to either vary the width of the billboard using the dimensions of the image or to rotate the billboard itself.
They were wondering why the image on the billboard was being scaled in and out. The reason here is that the size of the image is actually increasing as it is rotated. The corners make the rectangle larger but the billboard stays the same size so there's an implicit scale operation to make it all fit.
The way to fix it, is to either vary the width of the billboard using the dimensions of the image or to rotate the billboard itself.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Clips
There was a question this week about code reuse in QC, and now I fell compelled to talk about that and modularity. The original question was "Now that I've created all these javascript patches, what do I do if I want to reuse them?" The answer is to make a clip, by saving a composition with just the patch(es) you wish to reuse and publish the important ports. You can save them in ~/Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Quartz Composer/Clips and they will be available to you in the Clip Library. When you drag those clips to your workspace, they become macros which are fully editable if you double click on them.
*Insert convenient segue here* Speaking of macros, it's a good idea to organize your compositions inside macros in order to make them more readable. More importantly, name them too. It's a lot easier to figure out why your composition isn't drawing anything when you put all your background elements in one macro and realize that it's drawing above your animation :)
*Insert convenient segue here* Speaking of macros, it's a good idea to organize your compositions inside macros in order to make them more readable. More importantly, name them too. It's a lot easier to figure out why your composition isn't drawing anything when you put all your background elements in one macro and realize that it's drawing above your animation :)
Monday, October 02, 2006
1 year anniversary
A lot can change in a year. I've graduated college, ended my internship at Qualcomm, lost my grandma, started a job at Apple, moved to California, survived WWDC and the relative lull following, made all new friends and kept in contact with the old ones; and during that entire time, I've been dating Jessie. We haven't even had a fight, despite being in different states longer during our relationship than together. It takes a special girl to make all that worth while, and I'm so happy to have found her.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Width Macro
I'm going to start posting some of my responses to QC questions from the mailing list. History and justification below, but first let's get started!
Q: How do I ensure a Billboard patch does not get clipped with the aspect ratio changes?
Answer: Compute the width of the billboard as if the height were always 2. We know that the Aspect Ratio is given by (imageX/imageY) so multiply that by the (Rendering Destination Y) and you get (Rendering Destination X). This isn't perfect, it will now be TOO wide if the rendering destination is tall and skinny. So make sure the width is never more than 2 by clamping the value using the Range patch. The end result is:
I've been having trouble figuring out what to do with my blog. Originally, it was to post my photoshop work or websites but I don't have time for that any more. Most of what I do at work is confidential so I can't post that. I can't write about what I do outside of work because I live a boring life and it wouldn't attract many readers ;) So this seems like a good alternative. Keep in mind that I am doing this entirely on my own time so this has no offical capacity what-so-ever. I just find mailing list threads very difficult to traverse and would like to have a place to refer people to my well thought out answers.
Q: How do I ensure a Billboard patch does not get clipped with the aspect ratio changes?
Answer: Compute the width of the billboard as if the height were always 2. We know that the Aspect Ratio is given by (imageX/imageY) so multiply that by the (Rendering Destination Y) and you get (Rendering Destination X). This isn't perfect, it will now be TOO wide if the rendering destination is tall and skinny. So make sure the width is never more than 2 by clamping the value using the Range patch. The end result is:
I've been having trouble figuring out what to do with my blog. Originally, it was to post my photoshop work or websites but I don't have time for that any more. Most of what I do at work is confidential so I can't post that. I can't write about what I do outside of work because I live a boring life and it wouldn't attract many readers ;) So this seems like a good alternative. Keep in mind that I am doing this entirely on my own time so this has no offical capacity what-so-ever. I just find mailing list threads very difficult to traverse and would like to have a place to refer people to my well thought out answers.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
CU game!
Anyone in the SF bay area want to watch the CU game this weekend? I'm going with some of my Colorado friends and 2 of the CU guys are busy (romantic weekend together or something) so I need more support! We are going to Old Pro's in Palo Alto. Hopefully CU gets their game on for this, the most important game of the season.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Nice guys
A while ago I wrote about Green Day's song, Nice Guys Finish Last, and the statement is true. But just consider this ladies: By the time a nice guy has finished, you've finished 10 or 12 times if he's any good at what he does. Think about that next time you listen to the song, it totally fits.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Company
I had 3 visitors this week, and it was fun having Jessie, Tab and Janet in town. I can't say it was a little cramped in my apartment. Now it's just me, and I'm watching King Kong. I much prefer the original, although if I can separate myself from the way the story should be this one is okay too. Where the first on had a tag line "'Twas beatufy that slew the beast" this one should be, "It was chivalry that slew the heart of the bitch" Because this one has been updated to portray a modern, independent woman who falls in love with Kong. Good flick overall, it's just too bad the film borrows on so many of the good points of the original without following the best aspects of it. Let's see if they can end it right :)
Anyway, other stuff about this week. I took the day off on Wednesday and went camping Tuessday night at Half Moon bay. That was a lot of fun, although I prefer a more planned trip. (i.e. spontaneity is fine as long as I can trust that everyone going understands camping well enough to bring what they need) We also got to go up to the City last weekend and it's the first time I didn't feel like such a tourist while there. This weekend we went to San Jose for a Jazz festival and that was fun as well.
Tomorrow's back to live as usual, so I'm going to watch the rest of this movie and head to bed. Good night all!
Anyway, other stuff about this week. I took the day off on Wednesday and went camping Tuessday night at Half Moon bay. That was a lot of fun, although I prefer a more planned trip. (i.e. spontaneity is fine as long as I can trust that everyone going understands camping well enough to bring what they need) We also got to go up to the City last weekend and it's the first time I didn't feel like such a tourist while there. This weekend we went to San Jose for a Jazz festival and that was fun as well.
Tomorrow's back to live as usual, so I'm going to watch the rest of this movie and head to bed. Good night all!
Friday, August 11, 2006
wwdc
So... WWDC came and went and it was fabulous. Given the 100 hour weeks leading up to it, then grueling days of questions and commuting to San Francisco I'm excited for a bit of a break. Last night was an excellent way to end the week, with the campus bash featuring BT. I got to meet some cool developers and some apple folk as well, since nobody in my team or my closest Apple friends didn't come to the bash for some reason. (hello? free beer?) Our team was given today off, so I'm using it to experiment with some of the technologies Apple released this week. I think that Leopard will be a success, if only because the developer level features are so easy to use that we're going to get some awesome applications. Well, that's all for now, back to programming (but not work)
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