Ideas on Michael Doornbos

So about Star Wars...

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 14:54:34 +0000

I’m jumping off of the Star Wars bandwagon.

I don’t want to see 28 other story lines in this universe. I don’t want Han Solo’s back story movies. I don’t need explanations of how the force works, or why the Rogue squadron was so important.

I do understand that I may have to turn in my geek card but that’s a consequence I’m willing to bear.

I’m in the camp that there are 3 Star Wars movies. Two really really great ones, and one that lost it’s way trying to sell toys. They have not been edited from the theatrical versions.

Always buy good tools

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 19:38:04 +0000

A few minutes ago an old Navy buddy of mine sent me this picture with a message that just said “memories”.

He remembers something I’d sorta like to forget. This is a picture of my first car. I’m sure it’s not the same one, but the color and everything are the same.

One of the many lessons my father and grandfather taught me was to always invest in good tools. A crappy drill will fail you in the middle of a project and a bad screwdriver can strip the head off of a screw of a critical part in a flash.

Influence of the next generation

Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:19:24 +0000

Not everyone who successfully impacts the hearts and minds of one generation will carry that currency of influence into the generations that follow. -Neil deGrasse Tyson in Reflections on Carl Sagan’s COSMOS

Defiance

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 19:13:19 +0000

I don’t know why this never occurred to me before, but “the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that the flag was still there” is about defiance. The kind of defiance you need when liberty is paid for with blood. The kind of defiance you need when what you believe is not what the people in charge believe. And then I remembered that the song was originally called “The Defiance of Fort McHenry”.

Philip Zimmerman on why he wrote PGP

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:54:22 +0000

This is actually from 1999 (updated from 1991), but I love this part:

The right to privacy is spread implicitly throughout the Bill of Rights. But when the United States Constitution was framed, the Founding Fathers saw no need to explicitly spell out the right to a private conversation. That would have been silly. Two hundred years ago, all conversations were private. If someone else was within earshot, you could just go out behind the barn and have your conversation there. No one could listen in without your knowledge. The right to a private conversation was a natural right, not just in a philosophical sense, but in a law-of-physics sense, given the technology of the time.

Oats

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:20:31 +0000

Whoever came up with the idea of selling oatmeal at fast food places as a genius. And yes, Starbucks is fast food. What’s the food cost for a 1/2 cup of oats and some flavoring? Like 4 cents. I’ll bet the cup they serve it in costs as much as the food.

I don’t understand why you’d pay $3 for this on your way to work. You know you can grab a packet of instant oatmeal out of your pantry and bring it to work right? Microwave it in your coffee cup. It’s probably about 15 cents that way.

That's a violation of my privacy

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:07:46 +0000

via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

Saying "I hate politics" is wrong

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:01:44 +0000

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ‘cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. - Fictional character Andrew Shepard from “The American President”

A conversation with Ray Bradbury

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:47:20 +0000

Things that you see when you’re 3 and 6 and 10 and 12 wind up in your fiction in your 30s…

It's the little things

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:53:49 +0000

We use a Keurig at the office. I’ve resisted getting one at home because I have a hard time with the massive amount of waste for a single cup of hot beverage. Cameron at our office volunteered to collect, take home, separate the tops from the cups, remove the coffee and put it in her garden, and recycle the tops and cups separately. Just how much of a difference does it make in a 10 person office?

We humans had entered the realm of myth and legend

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:17:17 +0000

I’m going to figure out a way so that this becomes what wakes me up in the morning. This is what makes want to be more.

This is what I dream of.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xtly-dpBeA?hd=1]

Archived Comments

Trent Waddington (2011-11-04 04:17:00):

Seems this is too subtle. http://quantumg.net/saganhsf.jpg

Bursts of super productivity

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:47:45 +0000

I have a clear rhythm to my day and I’ll bet you do to. From 8am to noon on any given day, I can get more done than any 3 afternoons combined.

It’s important to be aware of your natural cycle to maximize productivity. This is a reason why it’s difficult to schedule a meeting with me in the morning. By doing morning meetings, which are notoriously unproductive events, I’d be stepping on my best opportunity to get things done.

The blinking cursor

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:45:25 +0000

Nothing triggers writers block for me like a blank word processor screen and a blinking cursor.

Nothing cures it quite like a notepad and a walk.

Them is fightn words

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:06:23 +0000

About once a week for the last month or so I’ve been in a room full of people from all walks of life and I’ve brought up Wikipedia as an information resource and it’s validity. I would strongly suggest you do the same and then ponder what you witness. The observation of this disruptive site in the eyes of about 100 people has been one of the most facinating things I’ve ever observed.

Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:03:18 +0000

We don’t have work days, we have work moments.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XD2kNopsUs&hl;=en_US&feature;=player_embedded&version;=3]

Smash the design button

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:46:56 +0000

I saw this live at TEDxNASA this year. As I’ve said before, I’ve been to both TEDxNASA events and didn’t love them. This talk however is outstanding. There are so many great concepts in this 18 mins. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE4D7OsIzuk&w=550&h=320]

Archived Comments

Chris Radcliff (2010-11-23 01:21:00):

Outstanding is right.

An update on my book

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:55:24 +0000

I’ve been working on a book for about 2 months now with a working title “A New Kind of Hero”. It was originally going to be entirely based on the Google Lunar X PRIZE but has been broadened in scope a little (okay, a lot) to include heroes outside of that particular competition. This was necessary to keep the theme of the book in focus.

Answers to some FAQs that I’m getting:

I'll bet these people have names

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:23:57 +0000

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a competition of 22 teams who are made of people from all over the world. Every so often the team leaders get together and meet in person. I’ve been invited to this meeting, but I need your help to get there. I’m creating…

a series of Podcasts to chronicle these stories
a two part book, part 1 is from the prize conception to the middle of the competition (now). Part two will be the second half of the competition
A Web application so you can keep track of your favorite teams and keep up with their progress

There is A LOT of value in meeting people in person to get their stories. The people in this competition have hopes and dreams and fears and doubts. It’s all part of the story. We can get the technical information anywhere, but it’s their journey that’s really interesting.

Inspiring kids by thinking big in space

Fri, 07 May 2010 09:31:03 +0000

The audio quality is shockingly bad in this video. This was on Feb 18th, at Ignite-DC. I’d like to do a new spin on this talk soon. This is an Ignite talk. If you’re not familiar with Ignite, the talks are all EXACTLY 5 mins. You get 20 slides that auto advance every 15 seconds. It’s a real challenge to not get behind on the slides.

Despite the challenge of giving a compelling talk in this format, I do really enjoy it. It forces presenters to get the point in 5 minutes and you can get through quite a few really great ideas in a 90 minute session.

What do you mean you don't know what your customers want?

Mon, 03 May 2010 11:57:23 +0000

I heard a form of this at least 6 times last week:

I just don’t know what my customers are having issues with. I told them about all of these things they should be concerned about and then they stopped returning my phone calls.

What? Really?

No one is more important than your existing customers. They’ve made an investment in you. Give back to them 10 fold. Don’t know what they want? Ask them! I bet they’ll tell you.

Don't wait for an expert to tell you what you already know

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:22:26 +0000

I spent much of my day yesterday at the doctor. About a week ago, I pulled a tick off of my leg and now there’s a rash. Yup, Lyme disease. Awesome. Gave me some antibiotics and now they are going to watch me closely. This post is not about that…

While I was waiting to be seen, a nurse came by to take my vital signs.

My blood pressure was a little high.

The proliferation of can't

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:06:14 +0000

You can’t use your internet connection for whatever you want
- You can’t tell those people how you build your rocket. I mean, my God man, what if the Europeans find out how we build rockets. Oh the humanity!
- You can’t share that video with your friends
- You can’t eat that, it’ll make you fat so we’ve made it illegal for you to buy it
- You can’t install that app on your phone, it cuts into our ego. Don’t you know we’re Apple you idiot?
- You can’t have unlimited bandwidth on that cell phone plan, when we said unlimited we meant 5GB
- You can’t explore that planet without a permit
- You can’t play OUTSIDE in the neighborhood, ALONE! You’re 10, you can go outside by yourself when you’re older.
- You can’t collect rainwater without permission (are you freaking kidding me?)
- You can’t build a rocket engine in your garage despite what you saw in that October Sky movie, what are you a damn terrorist or something?

Can’t can’t can’t can’t.

The art of the power nap

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:21:31 +0000

I have a very clear daily rhythm. My best writing, clarity, creativeness, code, whatever happens in the first 5-6 hours after I wake up in the morning. After that, my ability to concentrate drops off significantly. My energy level slows significantly. By the evening, it’s almost like I’m viewing the world as a different person. The modern solution is to slam a RedBull and push through it.

This temporary and probably very unhealthy solution pales in comparison to something I’ve been trying to master over the last few weeks: the power nap.

Infrared Sensor Data for Hal

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:01:31 +0000

I’m using an infrared range sensor for the real life Hal. The Sharp GP2Y0A02YK0F - Infrared Proximity Sensor Long Range -

[caption id=“attachment_498” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Hal 1.0”][/caption]

While testing his motions, I was noticing some pretty erratic behavior, so I decided to collect some data on the sensor values on a fixed object, while Hal was not moving.

This is a graph of about a minute of Hal moving the sensor from 45 to 135 degress in front of him and then taking a reading when the motion of the sensor stops. It’s at a wall, at a slight angle so the graph lines aren’t on top of each other at about 45 centimeters away.

We like to move

Sun, 31 May 2009 21:48:04 +0000

My wife and I are creative people. We’re creatively different (you might say opposite) but often known as people with the ideas. I didn’t say “all the good ideas”, just “ideas”. We like to change.

Your brain is wired to recognize patterns. It’s very very good at it. The lazy thing for your brain to do is to recognize patterns it knows. Reinforcing those patterns. Staying stationary, both mentally and physically is not good for creativity.

App turns iPhone into a credit card terminal - Springwise

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:53:33 +0000

As if phones didn’t already do enough, one of the latest mobile apps transforms iPhones and iPod Touches into portable charge card terminals. ProcessAway plugs into Authorize.net’s payment processing platform, allowing entrepreneurs to accept credit card payments anywhere they can access the internet. via App turns iPhone into a credit card terminal - Springwise.

I'd like to do something like Omni Magazine

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:03:42 +0000

I was looking through some old stuff I’ve collected over the years and found some old copies of Omni Magazine. If you don’t remember or have never seen it, it was a blend of science and science fiction in one magazine. A place to explore ideas. I loved it.

Publications like this just don’t seem to exist these days. Flipping through these old issues I’m struck by how optimistic it is. There are articles like “Immortality: Live forver in a machine”. When I go to a newsstand today everything is so cautious.