Artemis II

Today’s Artemis II launch was very cool to witness in person (virtually).

I don’t think I’ll ever forget NASA’s minute by minute updates pre-launch as well as few minutes into getting into orbit.

🚀

It is 2026 and I am really glad NASA has invested in technology using which I can, from the comfort of my home, view the cockpit of the Orion capsule. They must have spent a fortune in the number of cameras sprinkled all around Cape Canaveral (not to mention combine the energies of 1000s of component makers for the entire mission). A breakdown of that investment would surely be fun to read at a later point 😛

In the meantime, I suppose the reader and I will have to settle for a free 3D printed model of the Orion capsule:

https://www.printables.com/model/1601287-artemis-ii-orion-spacecraft-1100-part-1-crew-modul

And potentially the European Service Module for it (paid):

https://www.printables.com/model/1635472-artemis-ii-orion-spacecraft-1100-part-2-european-s

I got curious to learn more about the specific path this mission will take and on Wikipedia I did find a 2D version of the proposed trajectory (look for the two GIFs added there):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II

The more I looked at this diagram in the wikipedia article, it looked like the symbol ampersand [&] to me (sort of):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II#/media/File:Artemis_2_map_march_2023.jpg

In my search, I also found a live 2D tracker here:

https://trackartemis.live/

But these weren’t enough for me – I further wondered.. “has someone created a 3D version of Artemis II’s trajectory perhaps?”

I was SUPER EXCITED to learn that yes, someone online DID! :

https://orbitcodex.com/tracker?mission=artemis-2

Those who know me personally, know that I love visualizations like this. So I thought I’d share it in this post with those that care about all things space-y 🙂

As I find more cool resources, I’ll edit this post with links, in the meantime I pray that the Artemis II mission succeeds with no problems.

I am pretty sure all over the world, amateur photographers are going to be busy with trying to image the Artemis II mission from earth which I’m sure I will enjoy after the 10 day mission period is complete.

On a rather funny note, some of the more comptuer-y viewers were very-very amused to know mission commander’s ipad’s password (not that they can do anything about it from down here on earth lol).

Darrell Mozingo speaks about 10k Deploys Per Day at Canton Software Craftsmanship meetup

 

Darrell Mozingo gave a talk about 10k Deploys per Day today at the Canton Software Craftsmanship meetup.

Youtube playlist:

 

In the spirit of saving time, thought I’d post some hyperlinks Darrell cited during the talk, mostly as points of quick reference:

If this helps you in anyway, do let me know.

Startup Bus – The Maker Bus 2016 Panel

Startup Bus MAKE 2016 - Akron Launch Party

When Will (@yaworsw) invited me to Startup Bus – The Maker Bus 2016 Panel Discussion, I was speechless. A MAKER centric STARTUP BUS in AKRON, OHIO!

I was speechless for two reasons:

  1. I knew I could not participate in the Maker Bus as a rider. This made me sad, as early April I committed to a full-time software developer position which conflicted with Startup Bus Akron’s schedule.
  2. I chose to participate in the panel. This made me happy.

I told Will that he can expect me at the panel discussion.

Continue reading “Startup Bus – The Maker Bus 2016 Panel” →

Cleveland International Film Festival 2016 Akron Preview

I had a pretty busy day today, so I went to the Cleveland International Film Festival 2016 Akron Preview at the Akron Civic Theater – a perfect Akron treat!

Was great to catch up with familiar folks and made a few new friends.

My experience was outstanding right from the ushers, to eating delicious food, watching a great selection of trailers and movies hand-picked by the organizers for Akron.

Fun facts from the announcer’s desk:

  • Nightlight Cinema has had 200,000 attendees watch films at their cinema!
  • Good Ol’ Boy is going to be THE FILM that will celebrate Cleveland International Film Festival’s 40th anniversary
  • This year’s festival will feature a film from Antarctica!
  • At the Akron Preview organizers clocked 750 RSVPs – the preview grows!

Here are the trailers/movies that I witnessed on screen:

Trailer for ‘CAN YOU DIG THIS‘

Trailer for ‘THANK YOU FOR PLAYING‘

Thank You For Playing (2016) – Official Trailer from Thank You For Playing on Vimeo.

Trailer for ‘EMBERS‘

Trailer for ‘ART OF BURNING‘

Trailer for ‘GOOD OL’ BOY‘

Note from the producers:

Trailer is yet to be unveiled but for now here’s the poster

I’m sure glad I got a sneak peek into the trailer!

This is the headlining film at the main 2016 Cleveland International Film Festival event and the producers plan to be in attendance on 3/30/2016 as is evidenced in their note below!!

In attendance on 3/30/16 Screening of GOOD OL’ BOY at CIFF’s Opening Night will be:

  • Roni Akurati (Actor in Title Role)
  • Anjul Nigam (Producer / Writer / Actor)
  • Frank Lotito (Director / Producer)

 

Good Ol Boy
Good Ol Boy

Movie: ‘STUTTERER‘

Movie: ‘TWISTED‘

 

I was glad I was able to attend the preview. Looking forward to the next one in 2017!

Julie Lerman speaks at Bit Factory in Akron

NB: Thanks to @sadukie, @eswise, @ardalis and @thebitfactory, Akron got a real treat: Julie Lerman (@julielerman) visited and spoke about https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework

I learned from Sarah that Julie Lerman was scheduled to talk at the Bit Factory in Akron. At my current project we’re using Entity Framework 6 and I felt like it would make sense to learn about Entity Framework 7 and the new stuff from Julie as I have read one of her books in the past and learned a lot about the topic.

I’m glad I attended the talk. I offered the organizers the option to video tape the speech, but Julie didn’t like that idea (possibly due to a conflict with a pending Pluralsight course).

Most of what follows can be found summarized in her Pluralsight courses that have been published and will be published in the future. You can also feel free to read her thoughts directly at her blog here: http://thedatafarm.com/blog/

More specifically if you wish to find notes on Entity Framework 7, head over to the .NET blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/

Continue reading “Julie Lerman speaks at Bit Factory in Akron” →

TEKDigital: The Era of Mobile

I met Katie (TEKSystems) a few weeks ago and learned that her company was interested in hosting a panel discussing The Era of Mobile at their very first TEKDigital event in Cleveland, Ohio.

When I asked Katie about video taping the event, she mentioned it wasn’t planned but she would definitely care about it being video taped. I offered to help with the video taping.

After our first meet, I did my best to connect Katie with other friends I know that work in that space.

I’m glad I was able to help her out tonight and help record it.

Archiving the night on video was a bit challenging given the venue and layout (apologies for sudden camera twists), but I find its highly invaluable for me to have it as a sharable asset in its raw form.

I hope you enjoy the comments regarding the topic from the Q&A hosts as well as the attendees.

It was a great night.

Here’s the direct link to the playlist for this event (more interesting playlists can be found by clicking here):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA8bbF-9MWQV6BOe_87vCa3_vXTyCjXEQ

And here are individual links to the videos parts:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IltklIXrfY4&list=PLA8bbF-9MWQV6BOe_87vCa3_vXTyCjXEQ
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in12vj18BmY&list=PLA8bbF-9MWQV6BOe_87vCa3_vXTyCjXEQ&index=2
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma_4PZzPLkU&list=PLA8bbF-9MWQV6BOe_87vCa3_vXTyCjXEQ&index=3

Thanks to:

TEKSystems

Make on the Lake recap – 3D modeling and Augmented Reality

I had always wanted to go to Make on the Lake meetups hosted at LeanDog. I’m glad I was able to make this event.

The folks from Photonic Studio were pretty thorough in their demos of explaining basics of creating 2D shapes in tools like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.

Once the SVG assets were created, it was time to load them in Autodesk 123D-Design. The cool thing about 123D-Design is that what was simply 2D can now be given a form in 3 dimensions (think a square turning into a cube).

After you have created your form in 3D, its time to load that in Autodesk Meshmixer to change it further. Meshmixer allows you to sculpt the object the way you want. It also allows you to paint it.

Once you’re done with that step, it can be exported into an STL file for 3D printers. Or, you can simply load it into your account in the Augmentedev account to interact with it on an iPhone or Android smart phone.

I cannot explain my joy in finding out that I can interact with a 3D model this way in the virtual world. Of course its not 3D printed or anything, but from simple 2D -> 3D -> Augmented Reality the whole thing takes very little amount of time.

The most amount of investment you have to do is invest in learning to use the tools. Any tools you choose for your 3D adventures, will have their own respective manuals. This takes time to master.

If you are a business looking to Augmented Reality to boost sales, do keep Photonic Studio in mind. They know their stuff and are able to simplify these steps and make professional experiences!

Back to the Future and gaming with my son

After a multiple day hiatus, my son asked me in the evening today that he’d like to play a 2D platformer game he played before called Dragon Quest.

He sat down and in under an hour completed the entire game. I was flabbergasted!

I searched around for a few minutes and found a game called Ruthless Pandas in which the Pandas seek to battle with Brown bears that have taken over the planet.

It being Back to the Future day, I ran all three Back to the Future movies in the background as he hadn’t seen any of them before. Sequentially .. not at the same time Lol.

As he played the game, I started to notice the following things:

  • It didn’t really matter to my son what power ups were available as long as through visual aids it was clear what power ups he Could attain vs not (Red/Green vs 100 for this and 1000 for that)
  • Also, many of the tools of destruction (which were based on real ones) varied in their ability to cause destruction. He was able to quickly recognize what they each did from the ship and was able to claim victory
  • He absolutely loved to celebrate his success by hitting a high five with me after each level
  • Things he did not understand, he made it a point to understand by asking me guided questions
  • Upon asking which of the two games were his favorite, he said Dragon Quest was much cooler as it had a dragon in it
  • Visually he was Very surprised whenever a slightly bigger opponent was presented (Dragon in Dragon Quest and a larger ship in Ruthless Pandas)

I think many people don’t realize that when kids play games they are learning crucial skills in self-improvement.

I try to space out game days with my son as I know he thoroughly enjoys playing them and its a good complement to his education.

His thoughts are very unique and I enjoy our interactions very much in many contexts. I’d like to post reflections after many more weeks to see what other observations I can glean on while gaming with my son. Sharing this for those that develop games. I’m joining that group soon as my son has some ideas for games involving our cat Sal.

Oh and the Ruthless Pandas game .. he finished that one in a few hours as well.

I’m open to advice for any other ones for him to play on a PC or a Mac. Keep the suggestions coming in the comments.

Linux Mint on Acer C720 Chromebook

A friend of mine recently was struggling to install Linux Mint on his Acer C720 Chromebook.

I took on the challenge and succeeded.

Here’s a summary of my steps I performed to succeed at this:

  • Setup the system for developer mode using google’s documentation
  • Create a Linux Mint bootable USB
  • Login to chromebook with your google credentials
  • Get to a shell by pressing CTRL-ALT-RightArrow (basically the former F2 key)
  • Login with root (use root as the password)
  • Type in crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1
  • Type in reboot (system will reboot)
  • Once it comes to life, you’ll see the regular “Yellow Exclamation” screen, during which you can press CTRL-L
  • You’ll get a prompt asking you to press ESC to change boot sequence, go ahead
  • At this point you should see the Linux Mint boot screen, press TAB
  • replace — with mem=1G
  • Continue with the installation of Linux Mint as normal
  • Once its setup, every time you boot up the system you will have to press CTRL-L on login screen on the Red Exclamation screen to boot from the hard drive and skip the chromeos check up front

The key I found was in the mem=1G and the crosssytem commands.

I also read that Google’s newer models will have better support for installing other distros.

But since my friend had an older model, I thought I’d give it a go. I’m glad I did.

He now has a full blown Linux system on his chromebook and is happy as a clam!

Chromebook specs:

  • peppy c6a-v3c-a86
  • acer c720 chromebook (7077.95.0)
  • memory: 1988M 9767 MB/s
  • SeaBIOS version -20131018_145217-build121-m2
  • SC2 M2 SSD ATA-10 Hard-Disk (57241 MiBytes)

Thought I’d write this up for the other 100s of folks that would rather stick with their working chromebooks and enjoy Linux Mint on them 🙂

Edit: After posting this post, I cross posted this to reddit and another redditor advised of an alternate solution by an image creator called distroshare:

https://www.distroshare.com/distros/get/57/