Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Statz, Coverstory, and Quartz Composer Stuff

Blowing my own horn a bit here, but hey, it's my blog and I'll boast if I want to ;-)

We (that being the Google Mac team) recently opened up the Google Mac Playground which you can read about here. The interesting part for me is that three of my 20% projects are highlighted on it.

  • Coverstory probably isn't too exciting to most of the folks reading this blog as it's a developer tool, but I use it myself on a regular basis.

  • The Quartz Composer patches are kind of fun, but again are more for developers to play with. They allow folks to take read the tilt sensors and the ambient light sensors in their portables, and use them to control Quartz Composer.

  • Finally there's Statz. Statz is a fun little app that makes changing your status on your various IM clients really easy. We'll be putting out plugins for more services as soon as we can, but for right now, we wanted to get the basic program out there for people to play with.



Anyway, thought I'd let people know what I've been up to. If you've seen my status jumping around to weird and wonderful things, it's because I've been going nuts this last week getting Statz ready to spring on the world.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Friday, November 16, 2007

Sepia Image Filtering Using SVG

I couldn't find a sample of how to do this anywhere on the web, so I thought I'd contribute something useful to society by posting it. Hopefully the next person who Googles it will turn up my page, and it will save them some time. Knowing how heavily used SVG is, it may never happen, but at least I feel like I've done something beneficial to the world.

Dave's SVG Sepia Filter Demo

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Earthquake

Just had a good shake here. 5.6 a couple miles north of us.

More details

Really felt it here...couple of things fell off of shelves. Biggest one I've felt since we've been here.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Haha...I'm gonna get my ass kicked!

So...I am sure some of you must have heard my rants before about the pit bouncers, and RCMP regarding use of force. There was an article in the Georgia Straight about private security causing problems around Vancouver and how the Police aren't responding to complaints about them. So in a moment of inspiration I wrote a letter to the Georgia Straight hoping to spark some sort of reaction somewhere...


...it'll be fun going to work this weekend! ;)

Monday, October 8, 2007

Big Blue Tahoe

Dave looking goofy
This year's big race for me was Tahoe Big Blue. With Shooting Star Adventures having shut down, Big Blue adventures in now pretty much the only game in town in the Silicon Valley area. I was racing solo, but my good friends the PowerStrangers were racing as well, so at least I had some folks out on the course who may stop to throw me some food if they saw me curled up in a ball on the side of the course.

Jen and I headed out to Tahoe on Thursday night, hoping to avoid the Friday traffic. Believing in the power of Google Maps, we followed it's instructions right into downtown San Francisco at 1700, basically forcing us into gridlock traffic. After spending 2 wonderful hours getting from Google to Oakland, we were on our way. We were staying up at the Hearst cabin (thanks Dave + Nancy!) which was great because it allowed us to bring Taita, and to be sure we had some place for Keira to play.

Monday, October 1, 2007

40th Anniversary

Now here is a family that knows how to celebrate!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Big Foot Sighting at the cabin?

Big foot sighting report

Waiting for the "probably just saw you out jogging Dave" jokes...bring 'em on. I'm ready.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Here's wishing you a wonderful day and the best year yet. It seems that it will be a year full of exciting changes. May all your dreams come true. Much love, Mom and Dad

Happy Anniversary

Hey Jenn and Dave! Happy Anniversary six years later. Way to go. Love you much. Mom and Dad

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Big Blue Tahoe

So I signed up for my adventure race for the year: Tahoe Big Blue. Originally I thought I was going to be racing with Ginny as a duo, and then with Ginny and Peter as a trio, but now Ginny, Peter, Devin and Jack appear to be doing it as a foursome, leaving me as a lone solo. sigh....

Oh well, they'll need the practice as a team for PrimalQuest 2008 which they are signed up for...since this will be Peter, Jack and Devin's first adventure race ever, it should be....uhhh...interesting.

Now I just need to find a kayak, and a place to stay in Tahoe for the weekend of the 22nd.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The DeathRide




Top of Carson's pass after biking over 100 miles and climbing more than 15000 feet. The California DeathRide was one of the nicest (and hardest) rides I've ever done.

Thanks to Esther for looking after Taita while I was out playing in the 30 degree heat.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

PWNED!

Sorry to link to a video with ads, and even sorrier to link to Fox "news" but this story is just too good to be true.

Clicky

Watch the video attached to the news story.

For those confused by the title, click here

Friday, June 1, 2007

Just for Brennan

You've all seen tea that eases upset stomachs, helps one sleep, calms one's nerves... there is tea for headaches, tea for nursing mothers, and tea for flatulence. But here in Spain, they have TEA FOR BRENNAN!

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Watch for us on the ferries....

Bren and I are riding the BC Ferries. If you are on the Queen of Burnaby, the Queen of Tsawwassen or the Queen of Surrey keep an eye out for us.

Here's what you are looking for:



(click on image for larger picture)

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Spring at Shuswap Lake

These flowers were planted by Gran many years ago. They bloom each spring but few of us get to see them. The name sign was made by Pop in about 1990. Our neighbour, Gail Skelley, took these photos.

From the things-that-make-Dave-cry-dept:

29 MILLION dollars was spent on this:

Creation Museum

Isn't it wrong that it is open on Sundays?

Sigh...

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Sponsor Jen and Keira on the March of Dimes Walk

Jen and Keira are going to do the March of Dimes Walk in May. March Of Dimes is an organization doing research into preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. This organization means quite a bit to us specifically and any sponsorship would be greatly appreciated.

Sponsor J & K by clicking here

Now accepting sponsors...

What do Wade Simmons, Yozo Shimano, and Brennan and I have in common? We are all in the May issue of Bike Magazine.

It's a little blurry, but that's a shot of Bren and I racing the Sea2Summit in Sept 2006. Believe it or not, a buddy of mine on the train recognized me (or more accurately my bike/shorts/jersey, and brought me the magazine this morning.

We're also part of their official press release..

Looks like it will be an great race...

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Brennan's Ouchie

What happens when you insert finger into ground at high speed by falling off a bike.

Click on photo to continue...if you dare.

Warning! May not be appropriate for younger viewers.

Ouch!


and if that wasn't enough, check out the movie.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Mossop boys

Hey, was interested in seeing what Dave Mossop has gotten himself upto, as I read in a letter from Ruth that he's now with Freeride Entertainment, a company that makes a lot of my favourite MTB videos...and found this:

John Video

It's a video of John's work...looks pretty interesting. If you also just go to:

Dave Video

You can see the stuff that Dave is doing, he's got some pretty cool videos to see on the site aswell.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Future me!

Thought I'd just give you guys a quick taste of what I'm going to be doing in my future years...at least, the kind of flying and skill I'll have...;)

Link

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Mañana Time

Keira seems to be enjoying the Mexican life...


Friday, March 2, 2007

How well do you know Africa?

I got 25 with no cheating at all...how do you score?

Africa Test

Shan...I expect perfection :)

(Edit: For those of you having difficulty, memorizing this song should help. Yes I know it's slightly out of date, feel free to do better)

Monday, February 26, 2007

A Holy Patent

I bow to our new godly overlord.

(Warning, link goes to the patent office...just in case you aren't allowed to go to those links).

House of Cards

I thought I used to be good at card houses...

I've been put to shame.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Keira stuff

I've been lame, but I finally did some updates on Keira's playpen. Added five more sections to it. I'm still only about a year out from being up to date...sigh :)

Sunday, February 11, 2007

WordPress 2.1

The blog is now updated to WordPress 2.1. Hopefully this should cut down on the Spam, and make it easier for people to post stuff. Sorry I haven't been posting much recently, but I'm hoping to start putting stuff back up ASAP on a more regular basis.

Thanks to everyone who is posting :)

Monday, January 29, 2007

Burn's Dinner

Here is how our crazy friends showed up for a Burn's Dinner a la Puerto Vallarta.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Mexican Christmas

Here are a few shots of our Christmas in Puerto Vallarta. Sorry to all you Vancouver people who suffered the storms...