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I had a good weekend. Got my blinkenlights hobby jumpstarted again.

I made these, got ‘em half-working, then shelved them for a year. This weekend I got ‘em programmed and running stably.

Long ago, someone set my life on an irreversible path when they wrote:

ACHTUNG - ALLES LOOKENPEEPERS

Das Machine is nicht fur gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur gewerken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren musten keepen das hands in das pockets - relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.

Here are some pics of all the completed projects so far.

We had a great birthday reunion/celebration in Chicago today. Many of the people in this video were in attendance. We love you Grandad!

Irace family and friends: get in touch if you didn’t get a copy of the DVD. See you in ten years!

Geocoding. Now this is really REALLY cool. What if you could have an interactive map showing you where you’ve been on a trip, with the pictures you took superimposed on the map, placed where you were when you took them?

And what if it was easy?

You can, and it is. Here’s an example of what the result looks like in Google Maps. If you have Google Earth (and you better have Google Earth), here is the same example superimposed on the globe.

Edit: Here’s another example (Google Earth required) showing our geotagged trip to costco the other day.

What you need

1. A digital camera, set to the correct time.
2. A GPS with PC connectivity and “tracklog” capability. Nearly every handheld GPS device available has these two features.
3. A Windows computer. This can be done on a Mac or Linux box, but you may have to hunt for the analogous tools.
4. A website or flickr account.

During your trip

1. Turn on your GPS, and make sure it is saving data to its tracklog.
2. Travel.
3. Take lots of pictures.

After your trip

1. Download and install the free gpicsync by Francois Schnell. (Here’s a link to the download page.)
2. Download and install EasyGPS, also free.
3. Upload the photos you took into a folder on your computer.
4. Connect your GPS to your computer and use the EasyGPS software to retrieve the Tracks saved on the GPS. Save the data as a “GPX” file into the folder where you saved your photos.
5. Run the gpicsync software. Tell it where your photos are, tell it where your GPX file is. Consult the getting started guide for details.
6. Depending on what you want to do with your photos, tell gpicsync whether you want to create a Google Earth file (like this) or export to Google Maps (like this), or whether you want to have gpicsync automatically insert location data into your files, so that when you upload them to flickr or another location-aware service, that service will know where the photos were taken.
7. Upload your photos (and whatever .kml files and thumbnails were generated, if you asked for them) to your website or photo sharing service.
8. Marvel at your own magnificence, and think good thoughts about Francois Schnell, the author of the free software which makes this easy. If you asked for a Google Maps export, visit Google maps, and paste in the address of the doc-web.kml file you uploaded in the previous step. Or open this same .kml file using Google Earth. During this part of the process, you may need to spend a few moments reviewing the gpicsync documentation.

Did it work for you? Leave me a note in the comments with a link to your geocoded photos!

(digg this story)

Spblat’s Pit Parable
Inspired by None
June 12, 2007

Alice is on her morning stroll through the forest.

Bob: “Be careful! This is a covered pit! Step around it, please.”

Charlie: “That guy is crazy, there’s no pit there. Move on through.”

Alice: “I don’t see the pit. Or the cover.”

Charlie: “Of course you don’t. It’s not there. I was just doing my morning calisthenics in that clearing.”

Bob: “It’s there. And it’s very, very dangerous–bottomless in fact. You need to go around it. And if you only open your heart, you will understand that it was there all along.”

Alice: “I don’t know. I don’t see it, but I feel in my heart that you might be right. Just to be safe, I’m going around.”

Bob: “Good plan.”

David: “Big mistake.”

Alice, Bob, Charlie: “Where did you come from?”
Read the rest of this entry »

Grandpa Tom, Aunt Susie and Uncle Barry came up to help build a treehouse! Life is good. Check back daily through 6/10/07 6/7/07 for updates. Last update: 6/7/07. It’s done!

Also available: album view, (featuring downloadable photos and captions), full screen slide show.