I spent some time on this blog this weekend, upgrading to Blogengine 1.4.5, changing the theme a bit, and adding a Twitter extension, and added web analytics support through GetClicky.

Next, I'd like to add a few more custom controls that show what what's in my netflix queue, what I'm currently reading/listening to, etc.

I've spent quite a lot of time thinking of ideas for the Microsoft Dare To Dream Different Challenge, promoting use of the .NET Micro Framework for embedded devices.

The cool thing about this contest is that to enter you just need to have a cool idea which could be implemented using microprocessor-driven embedded software.

I spread the word about this thing quite extensively, but unfortunately I didn't find many people looking to join together as a team.  It was frusterating for me was trying to settle on an idea -- I kept thinking, "well that's good but there's got to be an even more killer idea".  Thus, procrastination set it, and I didn't even decide on my submission until hours before the due date!  In the end, I went with my concept for a real-time universal speech translator.  The thought had occured to me after playing with text-to-speach web apps, and babelfish, that you could really mash these things up in a web service and end up with a system that could take digital speech and perform audio-text-text-audio, translating one spoken language to another.  A few searches revealed that this had already been investigated, and Cisco is even looking at turning it into a product.  But, sometimes you just have to pick an idea and go with it, so I did.  I submitted it to the hobbiest category, as I'm just in it for fun on this one.  Jenni helped by making this cool diagram of the universal translator.

 

Other ideas included an automated bar, with tubes connected to a relay-driven pump system that can automatically mix drinks based on a pre-programmed recipe.  You could even enhance it by the "bartender" to input the contents of each bottle, and connecting to a database of drinks recipes to get a customized list.  Some people have build this already.

I also considered doing an enhanced version of trivial pursuit, where questions could be customized based on players skillsets, but got stuck on the details.

I'm curious now to see what the other entrants came up with.  They announce the round 2 finalists on Jan. 15.

There are some excellent people in Dallas who are organizing this event, where art is auctioned off for charity.

Several of my friends are amongst the 150 or so artists who will be working in shifts to complete their contributions.

Its an awesome way to support a good cause.

 

The Yoh Index of Technology Wages indicates a steady decline of wages for technology professionals in the third quarter of 2008.

Last night we went to see a fashion art installation called BASE at Corinth Park.

They had some wire sculptures by Scott Horn, and recreation of the "high five" (where hwy 635 and 75 meet, in Dallas).

 

 

I feel a little silly that I was inside my house vacuuming yesterday, while this was going on down the street.

Wow, its been a while since I posted.  But, in my defence, I've been busy, which includes getting married.  Still, I've got quite a few things to blog about, so I'll have to span the posts out a bit.

Well, some technical books arrived on my desk today, and I realized I've got to start managing this growing backlog of books I want to read!

I'm currently working through Learning WCF by Michele Leroux Bustamante, after being inspired to pursue some SOA learnings after visiting Microsoft's Redmond campus in September.

Today I received Programming ASP.NET 3.5 by Dino Esposito, which I need to study for the last exam I need to get the new Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist for .NET 3.5. 

Finally, I got More Effective C# by Bill Wagner, which was just released.  I was really looking forward to this next edition, after reading Effective C#.  Bill's bite-sized programming gems are easy to remember and I think they make you a better programmer using the language features you're already familier with. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I went to an awesome rock climbing with a friend at a gym called stoneworks, located in old grain silos in Carrollton, TX.  It was an amazing experience.  The interior of the space is really stunning.  Their routes are a good range of difficultly (from what I could tell), but as a beginner I still found a few that I was able to handle.  I may sign up for classes and try to visit this place once a week.

I'm sort of regreting missing QuakeCON, which took place last weekend.  I'm not a hard-core gamer or anything.  Actually, recently I haven't been playing very many games, except on my DS.  But back in the day, I did clock my fair share of hours playing DOOM, Half-Life and UT.  I think attending the con would have been a cool throwback for me, plus I'd have been interested in seeing some of the vendors and contests.  I wonder what they would have thought if I'd have rolled in with my macbook pro?

  

The Velvet Kittens Burlesque Dance Troupe are working on a new Website in Wordpress, with help from the lovely and talented Ms. Rose Dahling, who also does all their flyers.

The girls will be dancing twice monthly at Café Rembrandt in Dallas.