Published by Dan Byler January 7th, 2008
in life and ichat.
A conversation with a coworker reminded me of the beauty of technology…
In 2006, when Olivia was living in Malaysia, we enjoyed an unusual “family photo” via iChat’s 4-way video conferencing capability. With a collective spread of 12,201 miles*, it was a remarkable thing.
Pictured: Olivia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Carolyn (Garden Grove, CA), Grandma/David/Dad/Jesse/Mom/Heather(Berlin, MA), Dan (Arlington, VA)
(Via flickr.com.)
*As the crow flies radially from Arlington — presumably each packet traveled significantly farther. I did not bother with a traceroute…
Published by Dan Byler December 10th, 2007
in misc.
Published by Dan Byler August 7th, 2007
in misc and life.
Josiah Andrew Swenson came into the world on 7/27/07. He’s definitely, truly, and unequivocally not ugly:
Photos by Carolyn and Wesley Swenson. Used without permission.
Published by Dan Byler July 16th, 2007
in misc and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn, the dominant (business-oriented) online networking site, is loaded with features and, in my opinion, worth joining. Although online networking will never replace the traditional face-to-face variety, it can open unexpected doors and provide information you didn’t know you were looking for. It can also be a cheap form of personal SEO, because Google search results for LinkedIn subscribers tend to be decent.
Unfortunately, although a plethora of tools are available for free subscribers, LinkedIn restricts some services to its paying customers. A search for people who work at Company X, therefore, will usually result in a good list — but instead of seeing names in the results, non-paying members will see nameless profiles.
Google to the rescue! Just add site:linkedin.com to your Google query and you should get decent results. Add “contact directly” (including quotes) to the search and you should only get human results.
Note that Google search will not be as comprehensive as the LinkedIn search, as some users do not make their profiles public. Some combination of LinkedIn and Google searching is probably the most effective strategy.
My LinkedIn profile, fyi: Dan Byler
Published by Dan Byler June 1st, 2007
in misc.
FYI, the wedding photos will be taken offline on or about 13 June. (Quick public service announcement in place of anything interesting one could think of to write about…)
Published by Dan Byler May 5th, 2007
in ichat.
…can take a variety of forms. Need I say more?
Published by Dan Byler April 28th, 2007
in mac and tech.
On a recent bus ride from work to the Vienna Metro station, I noticed the ride was rather rough and decided to take a closer look. Using SeisMac, a tool that uses my MacBook’s sudden motion sensor to take motion measurements, I recorded some key parts of the ride.
Because the computer was on my lap, the Y axis served as a crude accelerometer; when the bus accelerated, the front of the bus was raised a little (and I was therefore pitched back a little, causing the Y-axis reading to increase), and when the bus slowed down I was pitched forward, causing the Y-axis reading to decrease.
Exhibit 1: I-66
Getting on I-66, we began accelerating significantly at about 6:17:25. We hit traffic pretty abruptly and slowed down at 6:17:45, and then hit some rough potholes around :53 (see the Z-axis)…
Exhibit 2: Vienna Metro
Exiting I-66 to pull into the Vienna Metro station:
At 6:22:29, the bus was in a 3-way-stop traffic pattern at the Metro station (note how I was so violently pitched forward and backward!). About 6:22:42, the bus made its final acceleration before letting the speed bleed off, coasting into its spot at the station.
Published by Dan Byler April 28th, 2007
in photography.
I submitted a photo of Olivia to a local amateur photography competition*, and it won! Here she is…
(*small print: I actually just threw the pic into Museumr and it did the rest. There was no photo competition and this isn’t a real picture.)
Published by Dan Byler April 27th, 2007
in misc, mac and email.
With speed, elegance, and efficiency come unexpected costs. Powered transportation, for example, brought housing choices, cheap consumer goods, etc. Unexpected costs came in the form of scattering communities, pollution, and a fattening sedentary workforce. Is it a net gain? Absolutely. But the costs remain.
Likewise, e-mail has dramatically increased the efficiency of communication. But the substitution of tangible missives and packages has its fair share of annoyances as well. We’ve all read about scandal after scandal resulting from someone hitting “Reply All” with a little too much haste and candor. (Imagine accidentally photocopying your snide remarks and mailing them to nine coworkers.)
And the phantom attachments that somehow don’t find their way into too many emails? (Imagine accidentally dropping a postcard in the mailbox when you meant to send a book. Not likely.)
Fortunately for those who use Apple’s Mail.app, there’s the Attachment Scanner plugin. It scans outgoing emails for language indicating that an attachment should be present. If there is none, it warns you before you can embarrass yourself and annoy your recipients. “Most of the time,” the developer notes, “you should never notice that this plugin is running. But in those cases when you do need it…”
