This looks pretty cool (of course, we are talking about Lego here – they do cool stuff!): you can download software to design your own models, then upload your design to Lego, where you can then purchase your model! Check it out here.
Update: some users wanted to make this better, so they hacked it, and Lego actually applauded the hack! Way to go, Lego!
This was my second O’Reilly Open Source Conference (the first one was 2001 in San Diego), and it has come a long way in 4 years. This was an amazing experience: great speakers, lots of stuff to see and so, a great location, and information overload. You (well, OK, I – I guess I can’t speak for anyone else) come away with so many great ideas and so many new things you want to try, the problem is finding the time.
I would definitely reccommend this conference, and I’ll be going back next year for sure.
If you want more info, check out the website – they have links to everything that went on, a wiki that had lots of attendees contributing, and you can find most of the presentation there as well. Not to mention all of the blogs that can do the conference so much more justice that I could here…enjoy!
Last week, Michelle and I were travelling by plane on a domestic flight. En route to the airport, I had checked our flight status, and found out that it was cancelled. We got to the airport and found out that we were on a flight that was leaving just an hour later. We checked in and proceeded to security. We were both singled out for additional checks (shoes, belts, luggage, you name it. It turns out that one of the criteria that wins you automatic extra screening is any change in your itererary, even, as we found out, when you had no control over the change in the first place. You can tell if this is going to happen to you by looking on your bording pass: if you see an “s” by your name, you are about to be the lucky recipient of extra screening! Now you know.
As an addendum, I was flying a week or so earlier, and during the trip, I had been reading Bruce Schneier‘s book “Beyond Fear” (an excellent read, by the way). In it, he was talking about how to read the security screening lines at airports to never encounter extra attention. First, I guess he’s never had his itererary changed, and two, if there are no crowds, it’s difficult to do. I was flying home from Portland, OR, and while there was a large crowd of people at the ticketing counter, there was no-one at security (I waltzed through by using a self-serve kiosk – I highly reccommend them!). And I mean this literally – I was the only one there. These people must have been bored, because they had the metal scanner turned up to max sensetivity…I’m sure it was detecting the fillings in my teeth! I don’t fly a lot (7 or 8 times a year, including return trips), and I have never had my watch set off the detector (and it’s a decent-sized metal one), let alone the rivits in my jeans. I tried a few times, removing things (shoes and watch, anyway, I wasn’t going for the pants, don’t worry), but for naught – I had my first extra screening. Fortunately, the guy was really good and very friendly, and we ended up chatting for a bit. Made me feel a little better that my first experience with this didn’t fall into the horror-story category I’ve read about now and then.
Well, the main a440 site is good, and I still (mostly) like it, but it turned out it wasn’t a blog, no matter how much I tried to make it one. At least, I’m hoping that’s what the problem was…I didn’t end up posting a lot, and what I did post got the barest treatment, with the (almost always) unfulfulled promise of “more later”. I’d like to think that I was inhibited by two things: first, it was hard to post to, and second, I included Michelle in the description of the site, so it felt like things posted there needed to be about both of us.
I’m trying out WordPress, again for two reasons: first, it’s a blog (duh!), and second, it’s PHP/MySQL, and I wanted to be able to extend it myself. Here’s hoping this works for me.
Anyway, if you’re reading, please feel free to comment!
A new website has been launched on the A440 network! My friend, Dan Emmons, has been hard at work on his debut CD – contemporary Christian music with an electronic edge. Things are still in production, but I just wanted everyone to know his new site, reverential.com went live last week. Keep an eye on it for updates! This is gonna be good…