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MilwaukeeDevHouse3 happened!

Hey, we did it…. another MilwaukeeDevHouse event.

Bucketworks hosted about 30 to 40 people throughout the night, and besides such craziness as “ghost riding the whip” and “knitting” we all survived unharmed.

We had a project board that listed what people were working on (note: photo needed!) and we had food and drink and what not to keep us going. The event was sponsored by Paladin Web Services, and addition food/drink was provided by 2XL Networks, SmallSharpTools.com and Ashe Dryden.

MilwaukeeDevHouse3

My own personal project was not as successful as I had hoped. I did succeed in getting gPhoto working on the Eee PC with a Nikon D70, as well as a Nikon D300, but my own Nikon D40 did not work, due to it being a newer model, so I spent much of my time trying to get a newer version of gPhoto installed… to no avail.

Besides my setbacks, I had a good time, and met some cool people. It was a great atmosphere to just hang out and chill, as well as get some work done.

We’d like to do it again, and if you’d like to make it happen, get it touch with me about sponsoring the next MilwaukeeDevHouse event.









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MilwaukeeDevHouse3… almost!

It’s almost time for MilwaukeeDevHouse3… it’s happening Friday, November 21st, 2008 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin…

So what is a DevHouse? It’s a hackathon event that combines serious and not-so-serious productivity with a fun and exciting party atmosphere…

People show up and either have an idea of a project they want to work on, or look for ideas, or other people to work on things with… But it’s not all serious work. It’s a party atmosphere, so you can hang out and just chill with other folks, discuss whatever, do whatever…

Since it’ll be at Bucketworks, you should also be able to use the FabLab to build something (maybe a desk?) or just create some art… (I’m actually going to be working on getting the screen printing machine up and running for part of the night.)

The main project I want to work on is exploring gPhoto, which can be used to control over 1000 cameras via connecting to a Linux computer with a USB cable. I want to use my Eee PC as an intervalometer, but also see what we can do at Bucketworks using the software and digital cameras…

So come down to MilwaukeeDevHouse3 at Bucketworks. It’s a free event, put on by Web414 and sponsored by Paladin Web Services. Food and drink and hacking and geeks… what could be better?

(Update: I got gPhoto running on Mac OS X… oh, and on the Eee PC too, it was much easier than I thought it would be.)










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The Production Assistant’s Pocket Handbook

The Production Assistant's Pocket Handbook I picked up The Production Assistant’s Pocket Handbook recently, and I pretty much read it all in one sitting. I’m really not that interested in becoming a P.A., but the book sounded neat, and as a PDF it was just $3 from LuLu.

Caleb, the author, has a web site for it which you can check out.


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Dislocated (Part V)

Treeward Bound

I had my last doctor visit for my elbow dislocation follow-up recently. I had stopped going to occupational therapy before that because I can’t afford it. Luckily the doctor says it’s looking good, and should heal up well, and I should get back my full range of motion eventually. (I’ve been trying to do my own therapy, but I skip the exercises too much.) The doctor did warn me to still take it somewhat easy and avoid any Winter sports like sledding, skiing, snowboarding, ice skating… anything where I could fall and smack my elbow, or get it pulled back and hyper extended. Sucks! And seriously, he couldn’t add shoveling to that list?

So in case you are keeping track, I got injured on August 23rd, 2008 (and again 4 days after that) and then got a crazy splint and then got that off and now I’m on the road to recovery. But the road is long, and the climb will be steep…. but we will never surrender, even in the face of Armageddon!

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Change

Things are gonna change I can feel it…

This is the first election I’ve really felt that things are going to change. For so many years I was convinced that voting was always the choice between the lesser of two evils, and that no matter who won, it would always be the old rich white guy.

I’ve never really been loyal to my sorrowful country, Blind patriotism always leaves me feeling ill, and after years of buying American made cars and seeing them fall apart, I got sick of it, and started to buy Japanese cars. But in the past few months, I started to turn… I’d actually like to see the U.S. build better cars, and I’d like to someday own one.

I still like to think of myself as a citizen of the world, and not some mindless flag waving fool, but maybe it’s OK to be a bit proud of this country. Sure, the U.S. has done a lot of evil things, but I like to think we’ve done some good things as well, and can do better thing in the future.

Anyway, I’m feeling very strange right now… sort of happy, sort of anxious, and sort of in a state of confusion.

I continue to hope for a better tomorrow…