Monthly Archives: February 2012

Thursday night – senior moment

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Last night was a good geek out night. 3 out of the 4 guys from the UVM senior capstone project team I’m mentoring came out to the house to work on their project. The team is made up of Colin, Bryan, Casey and Chris (couldn’t make it last night) They’re making great progress. he device is going to be an interactive light sculpture that will be displayed at the ECHO Center.. and with luck.. will go with us to Bonnaroo.

The project will combine computer controlled lighting. water and computer controlled bubbles. The team is still experimenting with the mix of all of those elements. I love watching them all think things through. Much of this is new to them. .. but they’re proving to be very resourceful . Bryan had never programmed a microcontroller. now he’s a master of controlling our fancy LED strips.

 

Colin and Casey have never worked with pneumatics, but they’ve managed to work out how to plumb clear pvc and control solenoid valves.. pretty impressive. Here are a few test runs with no liquid

here are some early bubble tests with clear liquid using a small tube (photos don’t do the effect justice.. beleive me)

here are some tests with dispersive medium (ie. we added milk to the water.)

Again.. pictures don’t show how amazing this is in person.. It will be so fun to watch this project evolve… I’ll keep you all posted..

I love working with creative people like this  !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday Eveing – PopSci

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Folks,
Little brother has done it again. You just have to pick up the March addition of Popular Science. Billy’s artificial heart picture is on the front cover.. and there’s a great, great, great 6 page spread on him and his work partner Bud Frazer inside. It’s an amazing story.. that just gets more amazing every time i hear it. The article makes a prophetic observation about Billy’s turbine powered heart. (which I’m sure came from billy) that all previous artificial hearts that attempted to replicate the lub-dub pumping of the human heart will someday be viewed as mans early attempt to  build airplanes that flapped their wings.

Go baby bro !!!!!!!!!! We are so proud of you !

nite all, nite sam

–me

Tuesday night – v-day

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Happy Valentines day everyone. It was a fun day.. We woke to find that Gabe had put out flowers for Diane and peanut butter cups for me. Max called too.. Nice kids !…

Fade to early evening… Diane had planned for a special Tuesday night gentle yoga class. About 10 folks showed up. Diane had put out wine and chocolate dipped strawberry’s and chocolate dipped ginger that she’d made. We had a really relaxing class all to love music of all genres .. reggae to ragas.. After an hour of Diane’s guided meditation, gentle stretching, music, wine and low lighting we were all totally blissed out.Diane is a wonderful girl to have as my Valentine

We went inside to a feast of red food .. eggplant parmigiana, pasta puttenesca.. then cake..I can hardly move.

I have to admit that i wasn’t that creative with valentine prep this year. I did get Diane a small pretty azalea which is nice in bright in contrast to the grey ice outdoors these days. For Gabe.. I was at a loss.. ..so I went to Ambrosia.. our favorite candy store at lunch. I asked them if they had any weird shaped chocolate .. The only thing they had was lollipops shaped like a horses head. I got that and some other sheet chocolate.. and made a sweet valentine rendition of that scene from the godfather where the guy wakes up to find the horses head in his bead. (I’ll spare you the picture from the movie.. but in case you don’t remember it, you can find it on youtube.. .. it’s so disturbing, I’m not even including a link) . Not Hallmark, I know.

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I know valentine’s day is a commercially manufactured event.. but.. what’s so bad about a day that makes you step back and take stock of the love in your life. I’m blessed to have lots of love in my life.. my family.. my folks, my sybs.. I hope you all have some love going where you are. It truly is what makes the world go round.

Be mine folks, be mine Sam
-me

Monday night – new job

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Today I worked at home. I managed to catch a low grade  fever on my trip .. so I’ve been enjoying laying low today as I worked. The low pace of the day was a nice contrast to the fun but hectic pace of last week.   One of the things I had to do today was to think up a new title.. While I haven’t said it explicitly here, many of you  have probably figured out that I have a new job.   It’s only the 4th I’ve actually  had in more than 30 years of work..   As of 2 weeks ago I’m now in IBM’s Corporate Strategy group.. and I’m very excited about it. I have never used this blog to discuss my work..This blog is about my life.. but like most people, my work and life are pretty intertwined. So, while I won’t discuss what my new job entails exactly, it probably won’t surprise you that a job that involves exposure   to lots of new and interesting problems sounds very good to me.    You, gentle reader, will get to accompany me on this new job..

Wish me luck !

nite all, nite sam

-me