Some things will never change…Backwater by The Meat Puppets
Category: Doing (Page 27 of 28)
Via Instapundit: NHTSA Has No Software Engineers To Analyze Toyota
Not only are they missing software engineers in general, they may be in need of engineers with some very special knowledge. There are potentially two different software components involved in auto electronics. First, obviously, there’s the actual firmware that runs the electronic controllers.
But another possible point of failure exists in the software that tests the electronics. To make things simple, imagine a specialized computer that interfaces with an electronic controller and simulates the inputs coming to the controller from the vehicle. This computer also measures the responses of the electronics based on these different states. These tests are developed based on a very comprehensive, rigorous, and strict set of requirements and specifications. If the setup for the tests and measurements are documented incorrectly, or if these tests were performed incorrectly or (eek) not at all, there could be a problem.
Now, let’s just say this…
In a former life, I was employed by a company that may or may not have been involved in manufacturing automotive electronics. And I may or may not have worked as one of the software engineers who programmed the testing computers. These test programs may or may not have been written in a programming language that was developed internally by the supplier and not used in any other company or industry. So it would take either specific knowledge to do an audit of this software, or at least a bit of time invested in learning how that language works.
Oh yeah…this company may or may not have been a major electronics supplier to Toyota.
I’m glad there haven’t been any issues with the model years I may or may not have been involved in testing.
Also excellent for break dancing at your 7th grade talent show. You nose it’s true.
Don’t know if I like this song better at the start of the run or at the end, but it’s on the playlist.
Ok…I give up trying to take home video of these things that’s good enough to put on the web and be worth anyone’s time to watch. But it was really cool…like the sun rising. Glad I got to see a night launch!!!
I’ve been reading about barefoot running shoes off and on for a while. I try to run barefoot as much as possible. Then again, I’m probably not running enough these days for it to really matter. But these look cool.
I can’t believe I’m about to type this, but…
I attended a USA Rugby coaching clinic this weekend that was phenomenal. It could not have been more different than the USA Rugby “education” sessions I’ve attended in the past. Admittedly, I had very low expectations coming in, but this was time well spent.
A big part of it focused on coaching in general, not just coaching rugby, and it could have applied to any sport–any subject for that matter. Another benefit was that it actually reminded me of one of my weaknesses of being more of a big picture person. I tend to focus more on the “why” and “how” than on “exactly how”. I’m more likely to think about strategy first, then spend the bulk of my time on the various tactics I can use to implement that strategy. Technique seems to get lost in the shuffle a lot of the time.
If you’ve ever seen me do anything other than type on a computer, you know technique is not my strong point.
So, where would you guess my weakness is as a coach? Duh. Teaching technique. I need to remember that going forward and make an effort to focus more on technique and fight my urge to always move on to the next tactic.
Another option–try to align myself with people who excel at coaching technique. I like that option better. Then I wouldn’t have to work on my coaching technique so much. 😀
Union troubled by Eagle Scout project in Allentown – How dare you do something for free that these guys won't do for less than $15/hour!
Bernanke reassures markets on dollar – Uh-oh. The dreaded "vote of confidence." That means there's a committee already formed to find a new coach.
A phpBB to bbPress database converter « – But first you have to install 0.7, convert, then upgrade to 0.8, then upgrade to 1.02. Ironically, it seems completely worth it.
The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing – Some good stuff here
Can the Government Save the Airlines? – What the airlines need are a few more stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' sons of guns like Ric Flair!
Training the Mind to Run Right Through the Winter – Looking forward to not having this problem.
BeautifulPeople.com – I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. It's smart.
Happy Holidays: Google Offers Free WiFi At 47 Airports – Cool. I wish this were the norm, and I suspect it will be one day very soon.
Well, clouds were low, so we couldn’t see every second, but it was nice weather to be out at the beach to watch the Atlantis launch for STS-129. And it was so windy that we never actually heard the launch. Here’s a better video from closer up of the July 4, 2006 launch.
There’s a throwback high school baseball game coming to Knoxville. In April 2010, Farragut and Karns will play a game to benefit Parkinson’s research. I got the heads up from my one of my rugby buddies, Pat Dorwin. Pat played on the 1982 Farragut State Championship team and later was a fixture for the Knoxville Possums. One word to describe Pat–“wheels”.
Both Pat and his younger brother have both been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and this is a great effort to not only recognize their accomplishments as athletes, but to use it as a platform to raise money for research.
I’ll be posting more on this as the date nears, but it’s cool that they’ve been able to put this game together.
For more information on Parkinson’s disease visit The National Parkinson Foundation.
A rugby club is set to celebrate Guy Fawkes night round a large TV after health and safety forced organisers to use footage of a bonfire rather than the real thing.
Organisers at Ilfracombe Rugby Club in Devon say they were put off having a real fire by the ”mountain” of paperwork and regulations set by council chiefs.
With a few exceptions, rugby players aren’t generally known for our ability to deal with mountains of paperwork. Or any other kind of work for that matter.
This is sad, yet ironically fitting.
VS 2010 Code Intellisense Improvements – This is really good for me. I’m still not familiar enough with the C# namespace, and I’m not in it enough every day that that will be improving any time soon.
Notes from the Road – Really nice travel/photo site. I could spend lots of time here.
UK’s streets of no shame – When I was in Cardiff, it was only the men who were acting like this. How times have changed.
Bing Twitter – Test drive Bing’s real time search of Twitter here. It’s about to get interesting.
We’re Not The Men We Used To Be – The average man was faster than Usain Bolt 20,000 years ago? Man, I miss out on all the good stuff.
35 Year Ban Proposed For Offshore Bottom Fishing – This doesn’t sound good. I thought we only had 50 days to do something about climate change. Now we’re thinking about 35 year bans?
iDrinkCoaster – “I’ve seen koalas drink faster than you”. Technology is a beautiful thing.
At least this is where I hope we’re headed. The coming announcement of a partnership with Google, iLike, MySpace, and LaLa gives me hope this could be happening sooner rather than later. Currently, nothing really syncs up to move music from a computer to the Android phones for music the way iTunes syncs up with the iPhone. But maybe it’s that paradigm that’s wrong to begin with. What if it worked like this…
- Use the LaLa app to examine my library and allow me to build that library in the cloud. No need to upload any music to the cloud unless it doesn’t already exist there. We’re there already, but…
- Integrate LaLa into the Android Music app so that I can stream my music from the cloud to my device. Sort of like what you do with Pandora, but it’s YOUR music and YOUR exact playlists.
- But make it social–show me what kind of playlists other people are making from songs in my library. Throw in a song or two every now and then (if I so choose) as suggestions.
- In fact, let me check out playlists other people have created with x% of my songs that suggests other songs I might like. And if I buy some music from someone else’s playlist, how about kicking some change into the account of the person who created the playlist as a commission to encourage them to buy some new music too?
I’m sure there’s even more that could be done that I haven’t even considered, but manually moving files over to an Android device seems very 2001. And if you’re like me and have hundreds of gigabytes of music, there’s no way to get it all over there anyway. I want it to always be available. All of it.
Clean Your Computer Screen From The Inside – It really works!!!
Paranormal Activity –Don’t Need To See It – I’m a scary-movie-wimp. I hate them. I’d rather just read spoilers (like this one) and know that it would scare me if I saw it.
John Mayer’s Hilarious Political Answers – I’m actually liking this guy more after reading this interview. Yeah, he’s conceited, but guess what….he really IS an effing great guitar player. Flaunt it!
Google Should Stop Playing Around With Wave and Focus on Spreadsheet – I have to say, this is dead on.
Social Media Venn Diagram – I was going to post this to Facebook, but knew I’d get more attention with it on Twitter. I hope this guy makes a million bucks.
Eating practices of the best endurance athletes in the world – No wonder I can’t run like a Kenyan. I can’t even EAT like a Kenyan.
Remove RelevantKnowledge – This has to be the worst piece of crapware ever. Not sure how I ended up with it, but it makes your machine crawl. I was able to uninstall through Add/Remove Programs, but this guide should help you if you aren’t able to handle it there.