Author Archives: Fresh

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The Art of Communications (LOL)

Ok, so….I’m ironing my clothes on Labor Day, getting them ready for the work week. My bluetooth headphones are on and I’m streaming some very chilled beats via the Fluid Channel on somafm.com. I’m just about done ironing five days worth of clothes and in comes my 22 y/o daughter from downstairs, or her bedroom, or wherever. The dialog begins:

Her: Dad, did you get my text? (her mother and brother already answered)

Me (taking off headphones): No, I haven’t looked at my phone in like 90 mins. (checks text message…. and sees this):

Me: Do you mean to tell me, couldn’t come upstairs, or from your bedroom or from WHEREVER you were to ask me this ??

Her: Well I…

Me (cutting her off): LOL, if it’s something important, or you need an answer…just come and ask me…you and your brother are the same way! Geez LOL.

Her: Ok okaaay, how is 2pm?

Me: Fine

After she leaves, I’m like, how did this SMS thing get folk to be so lazy, I mean, we’re in the saaaame house! I’ve heard stories of teens right next to each other, texting things back and forth when they can just show each other whatever it is! LOL.

I got to thinking, it’s been a long time since this thing worked,We have four in the house that worked when we first moved in almost 20 years ago. Look familiar to you?

The art of communication in 2019…gotta love it.

peace…Fresh

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The Return of Tech Times – The Podcast

Tech Times Podcast

Greetings all,

If you’re fortunate enough to have Labor Day off and not working as I type this, I hope you’re enjoying the weekend.

This post signifies the return of a podcast I started back in the Summer of 2013, entitled Tech Times. It started out as an answer to the annual AudioMo challenge and evolved into a podcast I actually enjoyed doing. Part of the enjoyment came via the ease of using my iPhone to record the episodes on the go and quickly upload them, with tags and artwork, to the then BLIMS server associated with the ADN (Application Developer Network) for streaming and/or download. ADN was primarily a place for developers to talk software coding, app development, and the like, but subjects were wide open beyond that. It was a user run, free microblog, with the developers creating the infrastructure and apps to build it. It was like a young Twitter without the advertisements and other aspects that Twitter is now known for. A nice breath of fresh air with great members. With ADN going away, that site has now evolved to Pnut which is essentially the same as ADN with many of the same users. I’m fortunate to have been able to grandfather in after the transition, and still engage their regularly.

After listening back to all of the previous Tech Time episodes today, I found it interesting to compare what was then to what is now, in terms of how the technology of these topics evolved. That said, I’ve decided to continue the podcast by now employing the ever simple to use Anchor app in the iOS Store. It didn’t take long for me to create the trailer episode, add background music from the app’s library, add tags, and submit for possible upload to a number of different streaming services, including Spotify, pending approval.

I’ll be posting episodes 11 through 22, one a day, through the middle of September, then start the new episodes after.

So yes, this should be fun again, especially talking about my thoughts on some of the current technology that wasn’t even in existence or barely in existence 5 – 6 years ago, as well as those that have evolved. You can stream the new episodes after 11 Sep 19 here: Tech Times – The Podcast. Hope you enjoy listening.

oceans of rhythm,
Fresh!

  • PNut (nee ADN)
  • Tech Times – The Podcast
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    Bot fun (no, not the social media type): Mindstorms NXT + Android

    Greetings all, hope all is well.

    I’m an AFOL. You may be asking what that is. I grew up playing with and very much enjoying Lego as a child, back in the day, like in the 70s (LOL). Since it has evolved, just as I have, I never really lost interest and have become an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego). If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a few recent tweets from me on just how much this “play system” has evolved, especially in the area of robotics. I started getting into the Lego Mindstorms robotics kits about six years ago – nothing heavy, just dabbling here and there. It got to the point where I developed a six week summer camp Mindstorms Robotics curriculum for my son’s school and got involved with the local 4H chapter to see how that curriculum could be evolved for the next year, as well as help me with one of his school science projects involving robotics.

    In any event, I got the urge to play around with a simple bot I built some time ago and found an Android app that I downloaded to my daughter’s old Droid. Took it for a spin last night. This kinda rekindled my interest in it again because I hope to be doing some software coding for it next year, to use along side the graphical user interface code blocks programming app designed by Lego (these kits are used by young kids all over the world so… 🙂 )

    Anyway, that’s it for now. Should be fun getting back into it when I have time as it’s technically stimulating, for sure.

    oceans of rhythm,
    Fresh!

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    Social media’s growing influence (and distraction)

    Ok, I get it…old hat, right, right. How ironic is it that I have written this post to primarily appear on social media (my Twitter account).

    With regards to the subject of this post, I’ve read what feels like a countless number of articles on reducing social media distraction/improving productivity – and after all is said (read) and done, the simple bottom line is – just (don’t) do it – close the tabs, kill the notifications, put the phone in the other room, delete the apps etc.

    I will attest, from experience, that for the first time since 2008, I’ve lost the desire to spend a very great deal of time on Facebook, to the point of it being down to five to ten minutes a day only to check on the few FB groups I am an admin on. This final new found freedom is more than very nice. Similarly, I’ve been off Instagram for a month now and I’m feeling the same about that platform. What is left, is Twitter, a platform I’ve been an early adopter of (since November 2006). The truth is, as toxic as Twitter has been known to become, I draw value from it – it feeds my ever-increasing knowledge of topics I’m interested in – and the type of feeds that do this are 95% of the time not personal feeds, so by tailoring my followers list, I avoid a lot of what I consider to be toxic, immature, foolish, etc (sometimes that leaks through via other user retweets, but…what can I do there? It’s not frequent).

    Anyway, as I enter in to the last quarter of the year, this second annual sabbatical ended up better than last year’s. My hope is to redirect the time spent on social media as I did, to accomplish much more, in preparation for 2020.

    oceans of rhythm,
    Fresh

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    POTD – 33/365

    Seems to be a trend, especially in music production social media circles, that you see plants among tech. Interesting. I think it an attempt to bring the starkness of tech to the organics of life… maybe to add an atmosphere of serenity.

    Peace.

    Fresh.

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    POTD – 32/365

    Keeping a diary, or journaling (as it is now called) is age-old. I decided to try and start two years ago, January, right before my dad passed. There are many merits to journaling (so many references on the net that I won’t post here) and for those I’ve read, they all seem it hit on the positive aspects.

    There are plenty of journaling apps available but, again, I’ve decided to keep it old school for the tactile aspects of actually writing in a book, etc (everything doesn’t have to be in the cloud).

    I’m trying again, but this time by focusing on this one tenet:

    “Discipline begats discipline. Like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.”

    Have a great day.

    Fresh.

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    POTD – 31/365

    “The name is Jupiter, from the galaxy
    I came to meet you, to make you free
    Deliver to you a flower from
    A distant planet, from where I come”

    Jupiter – Earth, Wind & Fire – from the album “All ‘n All”

    Europa Clipper is just one of a handful (ok a little more than a handful) of NASA planetary missions I work on daily. It’s set to launch on (right now) the SLS (NASA’s Space Launch System) in 2022, performing a number of orbital trajectories and gravity assist flybys to get to Jupiter and explore atmosphere and oceans of the gas giant.

    I’ve worked on data packages for one of the scientific instruments and the possible Europa Lander that will also visit Jupiter.

    Talk about a “ride”…

    Peace,
    Fresh