Summer 2011 – Week #11 Review

Oh my only a month left.

• Techshop laser class: I know, I already did a laser cutter class but Techshop is much more concerned with how their equipment is used than your usual hackerspace, and hence whatever previous experience I have is null and void. Which is a good thing, because my previous experience pretty much adds up to… null and void. Essentially. The class was very straight forward, and was geared towards people that would never set foot in a hackerspace. Hell, even some old lady that could’ve been my mom attended the class. Now, I have to put this class to good use, and I figure cutting for 2 hours will break me even. Better get started…
• Another outing to the San Francisco Symphony, this time to see the somewhat traditional Four Seasons mashup concert, featuring Vivaldi and Piazolla with their respective Four Seasons (no, I didn’t like Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks). In contrast to last week’s concert, the soloist was amazing: she had ideas that really challenged my preconceived notions of how the Four Seasons should be played, and just killed the Piazolla pieces. I need to get my hands on her Four Seasons album, and then be depressed I didn’t at least seriously try playing as well as her.
• Happy Hour! The usual, except there was also a commercial space meetup at the same time, and I got to talk to guys doing space. Very different from the usual social media/analytics/ads dance in the valley, and gave me much needed perspective.
• ebook reader reconnaissance: earlier I’ve mentioned my thoughts on ebook readers, and how I lacked one, but recent developments have had me reconsidering my position. First is the fact I keep finding myself in public transportation with nothing to do, or sitting anywhere without anything to do. The second was finding out they have touch-based ereaders now, which may change my objections to the Kindle. Previously, I hesitated buying a Kindle because its handling of print-sized PDFs was subpar, and didn’t want to shell out almost twice as much for a 10 inch model or one of it’s brethren (really, $300+?). But upon finding out touch-based PDF handling was fairly snappy, I’ve given serious thought to the Kobo Touch. I went and tried it out at a closing Borders today, and got to see everything but the PDF handling. However, it’s almost enough for me to order one, and I’ll sleep on it for another night or two before buying one, receiving it in the mail, and reviewing it.
• Throughout the week, I’ve been working on my reprap. This is week 1 of the build, and I’ve been breaking new ground. Hopefully this won’t stretch out to a week 3; eventually, I’ll post my build log as a project, probably after I’m done with the mechanical build, hopefully sometime this week