Ideas I should have patented... · Saturday December 12, 2009 by Michael Caldwell
I have noticed that I have had some pretty good ideas growing up. Unfortunately, I neglected to ever actually pursue these ideas, thinking myself either incapable of completing or engineering these ideas, or because I simply forgot. Without Further ado, I give you the things I should have patented:
1. The scroll-ball
In the nineties, I got my first mouse with a scroll wheel. Such a novelty! So convenient for surfing the net, and equally great for working in Photoshop! Not long after having one, I thought it would be super to combine that technology with the already popular trackball, and make a super mouse that could scroll both up and down as well as left and right. Well, I never did anything with that idea, and 6 years later apple released the “Mighty Mouse.” I got my wish (but no cash… Bummer).
2. The touch-mouse
Once the “Mighty Mouse” (Now just Apple Mouse) was invented, I thought about how it was able to sense that fingers are present in either the left or right positions, thus knowing when to right versus left click. I found out that the principle of finger detection is the same technology they use for track pads on notebooks. I thought to myself that having a track pad on the top of the mouse instead of the scroll ball would be way cooler. There would be no ball to clean, etc. Well, Apple did finally do that too when they created the “Magic Mouse.” It also has multitouch capabilities as an added bonus!
3. No-Glasses 3-D Screen
Remember those cool pictures that moved when you changed the relative viewing angle? (lenticular animation) Well, that is because there are 2 or 3 images split up into vertical line segments, and spread across the whole area of the image with a prismatic lens on top which allows only one set of vertical lines to be seen at a time. Well, this seemed like a perfect technology to combine with the high-pitched LCDs. If 2 images (stereoscopic) were positioned in vertical lines and placed behind this same type of prismatic lens so that the left eye and right eye will only see isolated images, the effect of 3D would be produced. Well, I didn’t jump on this idea, and now it’s been patented and even demonstrated. This example is not exactly the same, but it uses the same principle involving a lenticular sheet, and augments it with 16 projectors.
4. The Digital Rubick’s Cube
Back in the day when I first learned to solve a Rubick’s Cube, I thought to myself that it would be quite convenient to have a a digital one capable of shuffling itself or solving itself. Well, many years later such a thing was created. It’s called the “Rubik’s Touchcube.” To bad I never saw it through to actually creating it. I must say however that mine would have been cooler…
I’m sure there are more, but this is good for now.
Christmas 2008 · Thursday January 22, 2009 by Michael Caldwell
I realize this is coming somewhat late, but better late than never, correct? Meghan and I traveled down to be with our families in California. We pulled a 50/50 with ‘em. We spent Christmas Eve Eve with my family, and have a big traditional get-together. It was fun to see all the siblings. Now with everyone off living their own lives, it’s very difficult to get us all back together. We managed a few times, and it was fun. I love my family.
The 24th we spent with Meghan’s family, then bounced back and forth for the remaining days of vacation, doing various things at eachother’s houses. We went to Knott’s Berry Farm to see my sisters in law perform in the parade. It’s a fun thing to do, but it was really cold there. I’m such a wuss. I love 70 degree weather… We spent New Year’s Eve at my family’s house, and renewed the tradition of firing off the cannon at the stroke of midnight. (give or take a minute…) I wish I had a photo of that, but alas, no photos were taken. Wat great fun.
My brother got a Wii Fit for Christmas. Can I just tell you how fun it is? That thing provided hours of entertainment, although most people only like to play the ski jump game. I took first place in Hula-Hooping and Super Hula-Hooping. My wife took first place for the Ski Jump, and My mom was just entertaining to watch… Love ya.
I was over at my parents house one day with nothing of particular importance to be doing, and asked my dad what a can was on the shelf. It was sterno, which brought back memories of yore when we would play with a model steam engine which we would run using sterno. This prompted me to ask if we had ever fixed it when it had broken 10 years prior, which it hadn’t, so we decided to pull it out and fix it. It was a fun frivolous project, but yielded the result of a fully functional steam engine. It was a really fun experience.
My cat, Ying · Saturday January 17, 2009 by Michael Caldwell
June 21, 1992 – December 12, 2008
I love my cat. Back in the summer of ‘92, we found a fat stray cat on our porch. We decided to keep her. She was very friendly, and thus we named her “L.C.,” which is short for Love Cat. One day, we found out that she wasn’t fat at all, she was just pregnant. She had four kittens, and they were very cute. We gave 3 of them away, and kept the one we called Bluey. L.C. was going to get “fixed” to make sure there were no more unexpected presents, but lo and behold, she was already pregnant again, and this time, she had a litter of 8 kittens. Ying was one of the 8, along side Bert, both of whom we kept. The cats over the years developed their very distinct and different personalities, as well as their habits of where to sleep and generally live. Ying stayed upstairs, where, incidentally, I also resided. Out of all the cats, she was the one with whom I was most familiar and most attached. She was very loving and enjoyed sitting on tummies and kneading them with her paws. She slept on my bed, and would always be where the people were (and where the whippet wasn’t)
On December 12, 2008, my kitty, Ying, was put to sleep. She was 16 years old. She had a tumor in her abdomen, and was considered too old to be put through a treatment. Why am I telling you this? It’s my way of remembering my cat, and preserving a memory of her. My whole website was named from her back when I first purchased the domain in ‘98. People probably don’t understand what Yingster” means, but to me, it represents my cat who was always there during my life growing up. She will be missed, but not forgotten.
Terminal Tip: Drop Box · Tuesday November 4, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
Where I work, we are often placing files from one Mac to another by placing files in each others “Drop Boxes.” (~/Public/Drop Box) This is a very nice system, however it does have it’s flaws. Not all computers seem to experience this, but for myself and others where I work, we found that the files retained the permissions of the user who dropped the file in the drop box instead of inheriting the permissions of the drop box, which would make the recipient the owner of the file. This isn’t a huge deal. It just means that we had to save a copy of the file, or get info and change the permissions in order to edit and save. My clever brother helped me by giving me a command to run in terminal that makes any file placed within the specified folder inherit the permissions. In this case it’s using ACLs (Access Control Lists). Below is the command.
Be sure to put your correct user name in place of the word USER in the above command. I hope this helps someone who is experiencing the same problem.
BYU - Things that "erk" me · Saturday November 1, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
Ok, to preface this post, I do like BYU as a school, and as a clean campus and fun environment with nice people. I like the school, and I’ve liked most of my teachers, etc. That’s all fine and good. There are a couple of things that I view as problems with the “system” though. I just thought I would address these here for my own purposes of ranting, and also to see if anyone else agrees.
Transferring
BYU is NOT set up for accepting transferred students. They accept a lot of transferring students, such as myself and my wife, however there is no way for them to accommodate these students as far as majors are concerned. The problem is that all the majors are set up as four year structured programs for freshman which allows them to take their general education credits alongside their major classes at a controlled pace. This is great for the freshman (assuming they pick the major they want in their first semester) but it makes it difficult for us transferring students. In some cases depending on the rigidity of the major, we are left only being able to take 2 or 3 major classes and have to find something else to fill the rest of the time since we have no more general education credits to take to remain full-time students, and it may still take 4 years to graduate! This is one of the reasons I didn’t bother applying for Industrial Design; I don’t want to be stuck here for 4 years in addition to the 2 years I already spent on my associates, and 1 year I spent finding Mechanical Engineering wasn’t what I really wanted to major in…
Applying for a major
The other gripe I have here at the “Y” is the fact that one is required to apply to individual majors within the school after having been accepted into the University! This frustrates me, because some majors only accept people fall semester, and one can’t take ANY classes regarding said major until one is accepted, thus making a wasted semester or two. Aside from the potential lost time, I find it somewhat of a statement of their intentions as a school by doing it this way. Using myself as an example, I wanted to apply for the Graphic Design program. In order to apply, I had to submit a portfolio of work I had done. This was difficult since I had never taken any classes in the arts and did not know what exactly they were looking for. I even met with a teacher to discuss what I should put in this portfolio. After all that hassle I didn’t get in. So basically, they are only accepting people who are already proficient in that area of study, and turning those away who want to learn. I don’t think that is entirely fair.
Taking this a step further, some programs are even worse than that. Another reason I didn’t bother applying to the Industrial Design program is because you have to reapply after you first and second years there, which means that you could invest an entire year in the program after having been accepted, and then be cast out to find another major. This also does not seem fair. BYU Idaho handles things in a different way regarding this, and I think it makes a little more sense. BYU Idaho has an open enrollment policy where anyone can take the first year’s worth of classes without applying, and then there is a screening process to see who is doing well in the programs in order to continue to the rest of the program. I think this gives students better chance to see if they like the major and to get a feel for what it would be like to continue, and also see if they have potential in that field.
So, to recap: I do like being at BYU, I do like my teachers and the atmosphere here. I just wish that those in charge would consider making changes that could benefit us students who transfer here, or who don’t know exactly what it is that they want to do for the rest of their lives, who aren’t a particular child prodigy in any one subject.
Microsoft Office 2008 · Thursday October 30, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
Anyone who knows me knows that in general I am disenchanted by Microsoft, but really, that isn’t going to be the point of this post. Microsoft got themselves to become an industry standard for document editing and spreadsheets which is perfectly acceptable. The only thing that comes close and is available cross platforms in my opinion is OpenOffice.org which is amazing, but it still isn’t as polished and ready for consumer consumption from what I have seen. Office has always had quirks which I don’t like but have lived with and have generally been happy, that is to say, I have never found a suitable replacement to offset my need for Microsoft Office. Office 2004 has been the version I have used for a number of years, (4 to be exact) and it has worked well. With the advent of Apple switching to Intel processors however, Microsoft Word has since been run under “Rosetta” which allows applications compiled for PowerPC processors to continue to function well with Intel processors. I had been looking forward to a new version which would be compiled and meant for use on Intel based Macs since it should be faster, have better load times, etc. I don’t have an extensible budget to allow for purchasing the new version, however I did receive the new one where I work. I was curious to see how it compared.
I was immediately put-off by the similarity in look and setup to Apple’s iWork suite. While I do like iWork and I like that Microsoft tried to put a “Mac feel” to their application, it just gives the impression that they copied an existing product rather than create their own unique text editor. The next thing that I noticed as I began to use it is that it’s slow. Painfully slow. I don’t know why this is, but it feels slower in almost all aspects when compared to it’s predecessor. For those old time mac users, it feels like going from Word 5.1 to Word 6.0. It just felt different and slow. So, I am not going to bother upgrading. Fortunately Microsoft has provided DocX support for Office 2004 and thus I will be staying there until a better solution presents itself. I’m still betting on OpenOffice to produce a better product before the next version of Microsoft Office gets released…
Reception of the new MacBooks · Wednesday October 15, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
I’m always excited for new products being announced by Apple. Yesterday, Apple announced new laptops and a new external monitor. I was excited to see some change. It’s been a while since something completely new has emerged, and I was excited. Although, there are things I definitely don’t like, it was still fun to see something new come out.
MacBook
I love the new MacBooks. I think they are just wonderful for non-pro users. All of my major issues were addressed in this update (not that I didn’t already love my MacBook…) First of all, the aluminum enclosure. I love it. It’s much more durable and less scratch prone than the plastic. It looks nice. The back-lit keyboard is a welcomed addition to the pack of features. That is something I have wanted for quite a while. The glossy display? I’m not so keen on it, but since I rarely use my MacBook for work, and it’s already got a glossy display, I don’t mind. The battery indicator on the side is a nice addition as well. One thing that does make me sad however is the lack of FireWire 400 or 800. For me, FireWire is a necessity. I don’t care much for USB, and I enjoy being able to use Target Disk Mode to connect my laptop up as an external disk. This lack of FireWire wouldn’t be too devastating if Target Disk Mode could be achievable through USB… But alas… a tragedy.
MacBook Pro
I was not a pleased with the direction the new MacBook Pros are taking. I certainly enjoy the new manufacturing process and overall look of the new MacBook Pros. Additionally, the ability to easily replace the HDD without removing 32 screws, and removing the top-case is a welcomed change. However, I am deeply disappointed that there is not an alternative for the glossy display. As a professional computer, and as a computer that is known for being a standard in the graphic-arts industry, I feel glossy display’s are the wrong choice. I feel that the over-saturated and untrue colors are more of an appeal to the trendy-college-student types rather than the working professionals.
LED Desktop Display
So good, and so bad, all rolled up into one. I love the methodology for using this display as a secondary display on a laptop. The screen acting as another power adapter for the laptop is just clean and brilliant. No clutter, no fuss, just sweet convenience. And finally, a screen with a built in iSight, just like the iMacs. I’ve been wishing for that for quite some time. But then, there is the glossy problem. To reiterate, I don’t like the glossy displays. Colors become different as they transition from one part of the screen to another. Angles combined with the gloss make it impossible to tell exactly what you are getting. I use a glossy iMac at work, and I love the computer, and it’s great for most things, but it is lacking when it comes to fine tuning colors.
All in all, there were some very neat new things introduced, but in my own opinion, there was nothing that made me want to jump up and buy a new computer… Maybe once they give me the option for a non glossy display…
Blogging · Saturday October 4, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
This is harder to keep up on than I had originally anticipated. I thought when I got a blog, there would magically be time to write awesome existential thoughts and insights upon the meaning of life and other seemingly deep topics. Then I realized I didn’t have that much insight, and conceded to blog about family events and maybe a review of a movie. Well, school started and I have since realized that I rarely have a moment, and if I do, I’d rather spend it with my wife or on homework… No offense to you, readers… If I have any…
So, the news for me is that this semester is fairly difficult. I’m finding that some of my classes I really enjoy and other i don’t. I’m taking a machining class which is really cool. We get to make a hammer, and a vice, and other neat stuff. I’m taking another class on the properties of materials. We are doing neat stuff, but I’m not sure it’s my cup-of-tea… The knowledge I gain is quite interesting, however I am not convinced that it is material which I desire to study for hours on end and apply to my future job. But it is interesting, and if the tests don’t kill me, they will only make me stronger, right?
My new job is going well. Once again, I work for L I M E as a graphic designer. I’ve been having fun making brochures, logos, and websites. My co-workers are very friendly, and I am glad that I started working there.
The last thing to report is I finally got my dream computer. I got a MacPro 2.8 Quadcore. We were able to purchase it on Ebay for a reasonable price. It’s just in time too, as my last computer I had worked practically to death. So, that’s all the exciting stuff I have to talk about for now. See ya later!
What a summer! · Friday September 12, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
Well, I have to admit, it has been a long time since I wrote. We have been so busy! Over the summer, we had a lot of family projects and fun. I’ve already told you about our trip to the Hollywood Bowl, Olympics and skeet-shooting. Well, we also helped both of our families with projects. My family, the Caldwells, worked on redoing the backyard in preparation for the upcoming marriage of my sister, Amy. We hired people to do all the landscaping… But we Caldwell men made a patio cover, which was no small task. The main part which was difficult was the lifting of the several beams. The main beam was a few hundred pounds, and capable of supporting 10,000 pounds. Seem like overkill? Well, we were obeying the minimum requirements set forth by the city code… Otherwise, this would have been a lot easier… It all worked out, and looks nice.
Our next task was to repaint the inside of Meghan’s parent’s, the Joneses, house. They decided to repaint the dining room and the family room. They chose a nice green color with white trim. I worked with KC making baseboards and Meghan worked mostly on painting. It turned out really nice!
Near the end of our summer, Meghan’s family went to a place called Oak Glenn where we got to pick raspberries, which we then ate. It was really fun. It was my first time picking berries. I normally do not like raspberries because they are tart, however, these fresh ones straight off the vine were wonderful. I liked then a lot!
So, now we are back in Utah for school. We had some excitement when we got back. A friend of mine, my manager in fact, from Simply • Mac started a new marketing firm called L I M E and offered me a position, which I decided to take. Meghan started a new internship, which she is doing almost full-time, and I have 14 units that I am taking. Just 3 semesters left… So, between work and school, there isn;t much time for blogging and all that jazz. Well, that’s the update. Hope you liked it!
2008 Summer Olympics · Monday August 11, 2008 by Michael Caldwell
I always remember when the Olympics were on as a child. It was a fun time when as a family we would watch people we don’t know do things we can’t do. I don’t know what makes it so fun, but it is.
I’m really enjoying the Olympics this year. More than usual, I would say. Maybe it’s because I’m older and I can appreciate the difficulty of each of the Olympic feats, or maybe it’s just the time I enjoy to sit down with the family. Since Meghan and I are here for the summer, it’s nice to spend this time with our families since we never get that opportunity during the school semesters.
Another thing I like about the Olympics which I never really appreciated when I was younger is the tolerance that is displayed between countries. I don’t pretend to understand global affairs in their entirety, but I certainly understood less when younger. There is something that makes me feel good just to see these representatives from numerous nations coming together in peace for sport and ignoring the tensions which would otherwise arise between their respective countries. This peace that is felt is one of the things I love about the Olympic season.
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