Archive for May, 2009
I’m still alive, but I’ve been busy.
I have a new job contracting for Johnson Controls, doing work on a system that takes real time data from HVAC monitoring systems, and publishes it to a spiff web interface. I get to fiddle with all kinds of new technology tools and design practices, and also learn about HVAC from Rhiannon. Hello, learning curve.
There is an odd catch to it. I work in a large, featureless, room with three other developers, and no cube walls. It’s as though the office was laid out by a rather lazy dungeonmaster.
“You open the door to discover a 20′x20′ room containing four orcs, who are all wearing headphones. There is a treasure chest in the center of the room. The orcs have not noticed you. You may roll for initiative.”
We move offices soon.
In other news, in the last three weeks I’ve been in two sketch shows, three long form Improv performances, and one performance for Alzheimer’s caregivers, which was last night. We rehearsed like hell for the latter, and it made for a good show, and a lot of fun. The audience dug it.
I think I might be getting a little better at this performance thing, but I still don’t know exactly where I fall on the scale of competence. You can split competence in a skill into four phases, right?
- Unconcious Incompetent (You suck, and you don’t realize it)
- Concious Incompetent (You suck, but you’re aware of it, and trying to improve)
- Unconcious Competent (You’re good, but you still think of yourself as bad, and want improvment)
- Concious Competent (You are good, and you know it. Clap your hands.)
I’m somewhere in the CI / UC range, and I have no idea where. The only thing to do is practice. Well, practice after taking some time off for myself.
May 29th, 2009
Back in 2005, I overpaid my taxes by one dollar. They cut me a check for $1. Instead of caching it, I used it as a bookmark. It expired after a year.
Apparently, the IRS treats every tax year as a seperate event, for which a separate check must be cut. So, every year since 2005, they’ve sent me a treasury check for TY2005, for exactly $1. Instead of cashing them, I let them expire, so they’ll send me another the next year. I think they make fantastic bookmarks, and I want them to keep sending me more.
That’s right. I’m griefing the US Treasury.
(Update: I’m aware that I spelled it ‘caching’. I blame my creeping nerdism)
May 18th, 2009
Ever find yourself unable to sleep because you’re working through an idea?
Right now I’m wondering if there’s a good way to make up a metric that describes a building’s overal level of thermal insulation. Well, I’m sure that metric exists, somewhere. The real question is whether or not you can infer that metric for a specific building by looking only at the HVAC usage records of that building, along with a log of the outside ambient air temperature.
This would be simple if the buildings are empty, right? People and computers generate heat. As does industrial equipment. It probably gets really complicated when you factor in stuff like building albedo and solar heat gain, or the fact that people (300 Watts of heat each) are allowed to leave the building whenever they feel like it. Maybe that constraint should be changed (they can never leave!).
I guess I’ll ask Rhiannon about that tomorrow morning. Maybe there’s a baseline formula that architects use to calculate cooling loads which will provide insight to the problem. Maybe there’s a way to install cheap restraints to prevent people from moving around, and messing up the math. Wait. That last one probably violates some sort of fire code. Maybe it would be okay if the restraints had magnetic seals that open when a smoke detector goes off? Like fire doors?
Rhiannon is going to love tomorrow’s breakfast conversation.
May 13th, 2009
Dave: “Mom, would you like to go see ‘Star Trek’ on mother’s day, or is it self-serving to drag you to a movie that I want to see?”
Mom: “I think the answer to both of those questions is, ‘yes’.”
May 10th, 2009
Holy crap. I just bought a pair of Prana Stretch climbing shorts to work out in, and I am geeking out about them. They are superior in every way that a pair of shorts can be superior, and the medium size fits me perfectly. They are form fitting, waistline hugging, and offer an incredible range of motion. Even better, they look streamlined, which is really hard for cargo shorts to pull off.
Thanks to them, I have discovered that I have an ass, instead of an amorphous canvas sack attatched to my hind area.
I wish all my clothing had gussets reinforcing the crotch.
May 8th, 2009