Armadillo Armadillo, Rock Me Armadillo

It's been awhile since I had checked out Armadillo Aerospace to see what they were up to. There was an article over at Wired about John Carmack's (ID Software) Armadillo Aerospace X-Prize Project. It looks like they have made some progress.

Movies:
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2005_09_10/allHovers.mpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2005_09_10/groundLiftoff.mpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2005_09_24/2005_09_24_hoverTest.mpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2005_09_24/2005_09_27_hoverTest.mpg

Tough Protection for Your Laptop the Brain Cell by TOM BIHN

Tom Bihn bags for laptops, and more specifically for my Acer Aspire 1800 whenever I break down and order it. Looks like ZipZoomFly has a better deal than NewEgg. Feeling weak.............

Acer Aspire AS1804WSMi-128MB Pentium 4 17.0" ATI Mobility RADEON X600 NoteBook

This might be my next laptop.

Acer Aspire AS1804WSMi-128MB Pentium 4 17.0" ATI Mobility RADEON X600 NoteBook - Retail at Newegg.com

Postage Paid Envelope Revenge

Tired of receiving mounds of unsolicited letters and offers in the mail? Want to fight back? Want to get rid of that old tire in your garage that the garbage man won't take? Then read on......

Motorola Q

Is the Motorola Q the Treo 700w killer? It might be. Take a look.

The Palm Treo 700w (aka Treo 670)

Howtoons

HowToons is the result of a side project of some MIT graduates who wanted to make comics for kids intended to help generate more interest in science.

GROW CUBE ver.0 Flash Game Planet___EYEZMAZE

I can't quite figure out this flash game. :( I'm gettin closer though.

NVIDIA PureVideo Presentation

In August of 2003, I built my first media pc and have enjoyed it ever since. I am able to use it to watch and record tv, watch, rip, and burn movies and music, play games, surf the web, and listen to streaming radio (di.fm chillout!) in 5.1 DD.

It looks like I'll need to upgrade soon to add in the ability to be able watch and record simultaneously. Also, my All In Wonder 9000 is beginning to show its age; the stuttering crawl on CNN is a bit annoying as is the dropped frames during camera panning. This new technology from Nvidia may win me over. Take a look at the screenshots and how much of a difference this card makes.

• Supports HDTV (480p, 720p, 1080i!)

See Also: Snapstream.com, HTPCNews.com

GIANT MIDI Piano

depeche mode dot com - the archives

Depeche Mode is still going. Link takes you the video (quicktime) for Precious from their latest album Playing The Angel released 9/12/05.

CSS: Three Columns - Flanking Menus

Three Columns - Flanking Menus

Introduction to UML 2 Use Case Diagrams

Now that I'm starting to manage more projects I realized that I need to learn more about UML (Unified Modeling Language). Using UML to define the project scope (and whats out of scope) will help greatly.

The use case diagram in Figure 1 provides an example of an UML use case diagram. Use case diagrams depict:

Use cases. A use case describes a sequence of actions that provide something of measurable value to an actor and is drawn as a horizontal ellipse.

Actors. An actor is a person, organization, or external system that plays a role in one or more interactions with your system. Actors are drawn as stick figures.

Associations. Associations between actors and use cases are indicated in use case diagrams by solid lines. An association exists whenever an actor is involved with an interaction described by a use case. Associations are modeled as lines connecting use cases and actors to one another, with an optional arrowhead on one end of the line. The arrowhead is often used to indicating the direction of the initial invocation of the relationship or to indicate the primary actor within the use case. The arrowheads are typically confused with data flow and as a result I avoid their use.

System boundary boxes (optional). You can draw a rectangle around the use cases, called the system boundary box, to indicates the scope of your system. Anything within the box represents functionality that is in scope and anything outside the box is not. System boundary boxes are rarely used, although on occasion I have used them to identify which use cases will be delivered in each major release of a system (Ambler 2003b). Figure 2 shows how this could be done.

Packages (optional). Packages are UML constructs that enable you to organize model elements (such as use cases) into groups. Packages are depicted as file folders and can be used on any of the UML diagrams, including both use case diagrams and class diagrams. I use packages only when my diagrams become unwieldy, which generally implies they cannot be printed on a single page, to organize a large diagram into smaller ones. Figure 3 depicts how Figure 1 could be reorganized with packages.

New Release: the dandy warhols

The Dandy Warhols have a new album. You can listen to a few seconds of each track of Welcome to the Monkey House as well as tracks from their other albums.

If you forgot what they sound like you may remember Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth.

Night on the town...need ideas?

I don't know why I hadn't used evite before. I knew about it but just didn't think about using it. Dallas has so many restaurants (2344 results on Evite), many I've never heard of even though I have lived here all my life. I think just about all are listed here with good information from city search such as where to go, where to park, where to sit, and what to eat. There are also user reviews which will help you decide on where to go. Definitely a great site for planning a date.

Evite: local event listings

Music Video: AIR - People in the City
Live at the Mayan

Watch the video
Requires: Quicktime

Guerilla Drive-In

An outdoor movie theatre under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Originally started in Santa Cruz, as the buzz spreads, Drive-Ins are showing up all around America. Some folks set up a digital projector outfitted with an FM transmitter and put it inside a car. Every couple of weeks they send out an e-mail to a listserv full of fans with details on the movie that will be showing, the wall it will be projected on, the time and whatnot. You show up, tune to the designated FM station and enjoy a flick, or steam up the windows.

Guerilla Drive-In

Honda's Motorcycle Airbag

iTunes Phone - Motorola ROKR E1

The buzz today? I'm not sure its all we've been waiting for, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. The phone will be in stores this weekend. Available for $249.99 with a two-year contract.

I expected a different, more cutting edge design. Especially after seeing the RAZR phone. Instead, this phone looks like an older phone to me. James Kim, a CNet reviewer, was unable to locate any info on BlueTooth capability and hasn't located any information on battery life.

CNet Review

Edith Suzanne Taylor

Well another girl in Texas has come and gone in my life. Too bad it didn't last very long. Suzanne Taylor, age 32, is a short thing at about 5'1", has short hair, green eyes, and is cute. She looked a lot like Bridget Fonda, with more curves. No need for makeup for this girl, she was just as pretty without it. That's how I like it. She was very much settled into her career as a special investigator for the government and says she traveled to much. She was a very cool chick, I wish things had worked out but they didn't. Yep, my fault.