Almost 2:30 am. Just back fro a fun and frustrating night of working on the stamp mobile . Tonight was all about unanticipated problems… Sells like we should anticipate them… But then they wouldn’t be unanticipated would they ?!

More tomorrow

Nite all, nite Sam
-me

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Not much happened today which is good new. Diane is out of town doing a yoga training so its just gabe and i holding down the fort.. No news is good news means were managing pretty well. Diane doesnt have to be out of town for us to appreciate her… But when shes gone it sure makes us realize just how much she does for us and the house… (Thanks love !)

Since nothing happened today, i’ll dip into what happened yesterday. I didn’t talk about it then because i was so psyched to have spoken with my friend Jim who continues to amaze us with his comeback from a traumatic brain injury un a car accident

Anyway yesterday i had two busy days.. Firsta busy day at work.. Then a second busy day after work. It turns out i have three pretty big projects going right now and they are all coming due around the same time. First is a project I’m doing with homer for a friend. Of ours. its a musical device We’re hoping to complete the assembly of these things this weekend..right now homer is working on the lighting.. Its a simple moire pattern .. Very cool in person

Homer and i also have a piece planned for an upcoming show in the firehouse gallery. I involves his meal ‘water paintings’ and my computer controlled lighting. Its really mind blowing in person. Yesterday i finished a simple test lighting jug for homer to work with.. It looks like this…

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Then later in the evening seth, colin , john and i met at the stamp mobile for our first integration of the electro mechanical systems for flipping the signs when a dollar holder comes buy.. At 12:30 last night we had our first complete test after working out a few kinks,, I know this doesn’t look like much but its a real victory,,,,

Ahhh.. Its 10pm.. Time for another work call Beleive it or not.. More tomorrow

Nite all, nite sam
-me

osted using BlogPress from my iPad

I had an incredibly busy, satisfying and interesting day.. (Good code written for work, some writing for work, visit to homers for project, visit to bens for project, bad virus vanquished from computer) but all of it was eclipsed by one simple phone call. I got a note yesterday from my friend Bruce that our buddy Jim who’d been injured in a car accident in October.. Was now able to talk on the phone.
Readers of this blog will remember that jim was in a coma fro several weeks… Then.. When he woke up, was not able to talk. For a while he was only able to count, then he was able to sing.. Hn he was able to give one word answers to questions. I don’t know what i was expecting when i called today.. But what i got was the old jim.. He said he was bored hanging out in the hospital and was eager to get back to work. He had 100 percent of his memory and his sense of humor. It was amazing… Simply amazing.. I never thought id be speaking to the real jim again.. And this was the real jim… I almost cried…
We talked for about a half an hour. he talked about his family and about the food there.. he had no recollection of the last 43 months He was very bummed that he’d missed that time with his family… He told me that he was tired of hearing people respond to that with ‘at least your alive’. I had to stop and think about that.. I really is a loss. And as such, . Its something you have to mourn… Nothing can short cut that. People telling you not to mourn a loss like that is hard to hear.. We all have to honor that…
That said…. Omg…. He’s back, he’s back… Im soooooo glad he’s back !

Nite all, nite sam
-me

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This week the world lost one of the pioneers of the open internet, Aaron Swartz.

Swartz took his own life last weekend I did not know Him. but I always admired his work. From what I’ve read, his suicide was prompted by his fears of a long prison sentence after a hacking incident at MIT. Aaron had gained access to some papers on a pay for access site at MIT and had made them public. The government.. And MIT (my alma mater) decided to make an example out of the break in and swartz was facing a potential of 35 years in jail.. This little chance that would have actually happened.. But the pressure got to him.I heard one of Swartz’s friends point out the injustice that a kid who hacks computers to make a point that public data should be free and open would face criminal charges, while folks who brought on the collapse of wall street are still free and even invited to white house dinners..

Swartz always believed in an open internet… open access, open source code and open data. He created some of the technology that many of us use every day for sharing open info In fact.. many of you are reading my words now via the RSS (really simple syndication) technology that Aaron developed. He also co founded the site Reddit that many folks use. The thing he was most recently famous for was helping to organize the social media blitz that turned public opinion away from the ill conceived SOPA anti piracy bill last year

He will always be remembered as one of the guys who kept the internet open For everyone.

Rest in peace Aaron The world owes you a great debt.

nite all, nite sam
-me

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/tech/web/aaron-swartz-internet/index.html