Who am I?
I'm a coder, a gamer, a husband, a father and an occasional hardware hacker.
I love gadgets!
I enjoy building software at work and at home.
I was a Director of Software Development at Homestead Technologies for over 10 years and I'm now a happy Intuit team member!
This is my personal blog and my employer is not responsible for its content.jtokash on twitter
- There is IKEA hardware in the interrogation room in tonight's Covert Affairs. #nerd 2 days ago
- "the Liquid Pencil certainly did a better job of erasing, most likely because it didn’t write much to begin with" ouch http://bit.ly/aQayCy 4 days ago
- The iPhone game, "No, Human" is terrific. Played it on and off the past several days. 4 days ago
- The new iTV from Apple sounds exciting, but watch TV on my iPhone, so I hope the cool iTV stuff goes to all iOS devices. 1 week ago
- Cool currency redesign http://dowlingduncan.com/dowling-duncan-redesign-us-bank-notes/ 1 week ago
- When do we get iOS4 for the iPad again? 1 week ago
- The logo for Facebook Places has a square with a 4 in it. Crazy. http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/19/facesquare/ 2 weeks ago
- Great JQuery Gotchas article! http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/08/04/commonly-confused-bits-of-jquery/ 2 weeks ago
- # calls I dropped on ATT this week: 0. On Verizon: 1. Interesting... 2 weeks ago
- @KramerHS nice! 3 weeks ago
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Monthly Archives: September 2006
New Triklits Video
I just uploaded a much better quality video of the Triklits set I bought from www.triklits.com a few weeks ago. First I talk about the programmable nature of the lights, then I talk about the built in animations. For the code I demonstrate in the video, see this post.
links for 2006-10-01
Posted in Links
TechShop Grand Opening Video Tour
I spent a couple of hours at the TechShop in Menlo Park today. It was a blast – here’s the official tour (the guide is Jim Newton, one of the founders).
Previous TechShop news can be found from Phillip at Make and here.
Posted in Make
Torchwood – the new Doctor Who spinoff starts in October. Right?
Apparently, DigitalSpy thinks the air date is 10/22/06. Let’s hope so!
Posted in Doctor Who
ScobleShow
The ScobleShow is off to a great start. The wide screen format for the videos is wonderful.
Some highlights:
- Referring to all the game changing advancements coming to the automobile industry and how big car companies could get really beaten by the competition if they don’t pursue the right set of technologies, Jonathan Schwartz says he’s glad Sun doesn’t have to worry about that kind of problem. “I don’t worry about that other internet coming out.”
- Thomas Hawk is a dangerous, dangerous man. Everytime I encounter his photos, writings and, now, videos, I want to buy lots of expensive camera equipment. Fixed focal length lenses sound awesome.
- Discussing slower computers as a power-saving measure to cut enterprise server costs, Tim Bray mentioned that concurrency will soon be a big thing for back end programmers. We deal with concurrency a lot when writing UI code and he’s right: it adds complexity. I’d like to hear more from Tim about this topic.
- The Language War segment was funny to see recorded. That type of conversation happens all the time when programmers get together. Lots of direct Q&A between coders with different language prefs. I’d love to see a casual video like this with 3 or 4 language creators moderated by an expert level programmer.
- The Printing For Less segment was great. Interesting jargon to listen to. Meanwhile, the company’s culture, policies, and procedures are very next-gen.
- B5 Media and Smug Mug had great things to say. I was particularly pleased with the sincere humility they projected when speaking about the challenges they face and their competitors.
- Shai Agassi shared a lot of great insight about SAP and its customers.
Scoble wants to know who he should interview next. My picks: Bunnie, Steven Levy, Bruce Sterling, Bill Hill (again), Alton Brown, Justin Kitch, Tim Schafer. Also, the woman who created the c64 clone that’s hackable (Jeri Ellsworth). UPDATE: Here’s a video of Jeri speaking at Stanford.
Posted in Web
The Starbucks Machine in Homestead’s Kitchen
Last week Elizabeth (my hero) on the admin team here at Homestead put a Starbucks machine in our kitchen. It grinds, brews and pours each cup on demand. Great, great stuff! It also brews hot cocoa that tastes pretty good! Tenshi, an anonymous Homestead blogger shares her opinion of the coffee and cocoa on her blog, here.
Posted in Homestead
Homestead’s 8th Annual Talent Show (2006)
Our 8th Annual Talent Show was last month. Thai, our CTO, hosts the show almost every year and Justin, our CEO, peforms every year. Along with the retreats and anniversary parties, the show is part of our culture and an opportunity to learn about and laugh with our coworkers. It’s awesome! Roger uploaded the acts to YouTube this year – now everyone can join in the fun! Justin and Dave did a great version of Paul Simon’s Graceland (retitled HoldLand) that rivals their Demo ’05 performance. Also impressive: Aubrey’s song and Ron’s short film.
Posted in Homestead
TechShop: Kinko’s For Geeks
[Update: MAKE did an interview / tour.]
I’m ecstatic about the news that TechShop is opening right here in Menlo Park, CA – less than 2 miles from my office! 3D Printers, Laser Cutters and CNC machines in a workshop that only charges $30 a day?!?!?!
Here are some excerpts from their site to fill you in on the shop details and then head over to Make to learn about the Grand Opening event this weekend (I’ll definitely be there)!
- TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment…a Kinko’s for geeks.
- TechShop is for EVERYONE! If you already know how to use all the stuff at TechShop, that’s great. But most people only know how to use a few of the tools, machines and equipment at TechShop. If you want to learn about the equipment and tools you have never used before, you can take a short group “Building Block” class to get up to speed in about an hour, or take a more in-depth class on any subject to learn about it more fully. Don’t be afraid to try new things, no matter if it is welding, using a milling machine, working with fabrics and leather or plastics, or cutting keyways in a gear. The whole point of TechShop is to enable you with a wide variety of new capabilities so you can start to see the pathway that lets you make new and exciting things.
FAQs:
- Our goal is to have the TechShop facility open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But initially, the hours will probably be 9 AM to 10 PM, 7 days a week.
- We will have programs and classes for kids. We are still working on the details but kids and young adults (under 18) can work at TechShop with a parent or legal guardian.
- We have priced TechShop Unlimited Monthly Access Passes at $100, and TechShop Unlimited Daily Access Passes at $30. Up through the TechShop Grand Opening weekend, you can also buy a TechShop Annual Unlimited Access Pass for $1,000.
Posted in Make
