Category: technology

Inauguration Panoramas

I make no claim to having any real skill making panormas. Instead, I use the very handy app DoubleTake by Echoone. Brent tool all of these pics.

Getting closer to the mall.

Gathering by the Washington Monument

Washington Monument from the WWII Memorial

Pacific – WWII Monument

Atlantic – WWI Monument

The Mega Monument Panorama

I also created a Quicktime VR file from the Mega Monument Panorama. SHIFT = Zoom In, Control = Zoom Out

nickganga’s inaugural online experience

loopt-syndication

For the inauguration of President Barack Obama this year, I wanted to make a point to include as many people in the experience as I could. Being an avid user of Facebook, Loopt, WordPress and now Twitter, it was important to find a way to bring all these services together and syndicate the information between them all. Originally, I wanted to use Loopt to track myself, but without a Blackberry Bold client, had moved to TwitterBerry and some lightweight Twitter location updating client. While I was searching for an adequate solution, I was reading through Blackberry Forums and found that the 8830’s Loopt client ran on the Bold without too many glitches (Open wap.GetJar.com with your mobile -> Quick Download -> enter Quick Download Code 29639). Loopt it is.

Loopt Link SyndicationHaving used Loopt in the past, I had known about the Loopt feature called “Loopt Link” that will syndicate the last 10 or so journal entries in the Loopt application to Twitter, Facebook, A Web Widget & RSS feed.
For Tuesday’s ceremony, I implemented all but the RSS feed into my web applications to allow for maximum visibility which put my Blackberry in control of every Loopt journal entry, Tweet, Facebook Status and post here at nickganga.com.

Loopt Widget & Journal Entries

Loopt’s blog widget is a great way to show your journal entries on an interactive map. I featured the widget here on this site in the header from Monday January 19, 2009 – Wednesday January 21, 2009 as family and friends followed us on our journey to the nation’s capital.

Loopt widget tracing path from Auburn Hills, MI to Washington, DCLoopt Widget Focused on one Journal Entry

Loopt Private Journal with all DotsLoopt Private Jorunal - Individaul Entry

WordPress TwitterTools Plugin

Alex King’s WordPress plugin TwitterTools powered the WP integration for this historic event. Because Loopt delivers status updated to Twitter, this plugin listens to Twitter and was set to create an entry for each Tweet.
Twitter Tools

OS X + Active Directory + Notebooks

Working with OS X, Windows, Active Directory and other network services as much as I do, I came across a great tip when adding a leopard based machine to a AD domain today. After you bind the machine to the domain, make sure to enable the option called “Create mobile account at login”, especially if the machine is a notebook. I’m not going to say I learned this from experience, but hey you get the drift.

Create mobile account at Login

After binding to your domain, select “Show Advanced Settings” and select the “Services” tab. Open the Active Directory settings and enable the Create Mobile Account at Login check box and confirmation box if necessary.

Flight Simulator

My project for the semester in my CSE 541 Project Planning and Management course:

Your assignment is to plan and manage the development of software for a reconfigurable cockpit simulator for an advanced stealth fighter.
The instrumentation is identical to the actual production version.
This is a tool for pilot skill and mission training. The simulator must provide a high-fidelity representation of the actual fighter’s response to the controls.
As the stealth fighter is modified over its lifetime, the simulator must be capable of being modified to reflect those changes.
It should also be reconfigurable for different fighter variants used for different missions.
The hardware interfaces are stable, available and well documented.
This is a standalone system.
The software of the aircraft’s control responses, Aircraft Model, World Model and Aircraft Controls are available as COTS products.

As the new project team, you must conduct the planning, designing, construction, testing and delivery of one of the simulator subsystems (see Block Diagram).
One Team will be the Lead System Integrator (LSI) and will coordinate the work of the other teams (subcontractors).

This is going to be a fun semester.