One of my latest projects is starting a dorkbot chapter in Las Vegas

http://dorkbotlv.org/blogs/krux

Created the second vegas tgimboej (The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk) and got it delivered to it's next owner. I managed to snap a few more photos of the box's contents this time. Check it out here:

Vegas TGIMBOEJ No 2

So I already soldered in the 3-Axis accelerometer onto last years defcon 15 badge. Did finally get around to writing some code to make use of it. I also cut circuit traces into the board using the knife on my leatherman, and added a nice surface mount max1555 lithium-ion battery charger, and rechargeable battery to replace the coin cells. took a steady hand to cut pads and traces for the SOT23 chip and surface mount capacitor I needed. I could have tried etching the board, but I didn't really want to risk damaging the existing components, and pretty paint job.

defcon badge 1
defcon badge 2

Now this sound pretty cool and is post worthy, The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk.

As I've been getting back heavy into my electronics dabbling recently, since my discovery of how cool microcontrollers can be, I've acquired even more electronics junk than the staggering amount I had previously. So it sounds like a cool way to get rid of some of the duplicate items I have, things I've just had for too long and haven't found a use for, and a way to get some new interesting gizmos to play with. Probably have enough laying around here to start a box or two myself.

this years winter break is a two part adventure... well three really. first week I'm here in the frozen tundra of michigan. I head back to vegas to hit the party at rook's on new years eve, and then off to another cold place, santa fe, new mexico, for another week.

partied late friday night, two bottles of wine, and I passed out on the couch for a few hours some time around 4am. eventually I got up, talked to the roommate for a bit, and saw zan off as she had also crashed here. then went up stairs for some more sleep, waking up around 4:30pm. good party.

saw eddie izzard at caesars palace saturday night.

and spent till now screwing around with microcontrollers, when I should have went to bed, which won't bode well for my sleep schedule.

went hiking sunday. great weather. awesome scenery. pictures don't do it justice.

mummy mountain

of course I'm sore as hell.

I was poking about in my old email and found this gem:

"I thought I mentioned it.. but here goes..

my friend john use to always make the reference "about the diameter of a
d-cell maglight" just to watch the other males get uncomfortable or self
conscious. He would of course never really say what he was referring to..
but of course the mind is more than happy to play the association game
even if it is way off...

The original reference came from a innuendo filled conversation he was
having with some friend of his. "so big and juicy you just have to put it
in your mouth", and "about the diameter of a d-cell maglight" were the
ones I remember.... the topic of conversation was some sausage that he had
gotten.

I however got the ultimate come back to his reference, when while sitting
at the dinning room table (which was always a mess BTW) he had picked up
one of the mag lights which were sitting there.. It was a four cell
model.. I had picked up the other mag light which was a three cell. At
this of course a comment had to be made...

"Mine's bigger" he said rather smugly...

"Very true, but... ", since I lived there I knew that my roommate Stacey's
kid had pretty much gutted the larger of the two flashlights, so I click
mine on and shine it in his face, "Mine works."

It was great."

so last night's sexy party was a great success. everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. made up some buffalo burgers. my pool actually got used for some swimming. I got lit, thanks in part to some stiff screwdrivers, and the pitcher of booze kelly mixed up. RSA SecureID security tokens are remarkably resilient to pool water. there was concern for the well being of the "trash can guy" as he clearly decided to enjoy himself to the point of excess. two chicks making out on your lap in the pool is every bit as awesome as you would think it to be. jose's strategy to wear a bikini top made him some new friends. I have enough beer in the fridge to supply a whole new party. the only real casualties were one glass bottle which shattered on the kitchen floor, an over enthusiastic flusher who broke the down stairs toilet flush arm, and one guy who threw up and then passed out in a trash can. and thanks to the people who decided to clean up a bit before going home, the aftermath abatement consisted of making the kitchen not sticky, cleaning up the missed bits of glass on the floor, and gathering up the last remaining cups, bottles, and towels which were scattered about.

so the trips I have plannes are...

cisco networkers, anaheim, july 22 - 26
penny arcade expo (pax), seattle, august 22 - 26 (including the west coast train trip)

woo.

posted the pictures and video from coachella. my camera was not designed to accurately pick up bass 15 to 20 feet from a bank of speakers the size of your living room, so the audio quality is crap. ::shrug::

here is the list of bands I ended up catching while at coachella...

[ more ]

so I've been sending updates of what I've been doing at coachella to my twitter account, since I can do that from my phone. ok, I could update this from my phone, but this doesn't automatically let people know when there is a change. twitter is kind of like a mailing list for im/phone text/web messages. I thought it would be useless at first, and now I see it's actually kind of cool.

http://twitter.com/krux