Fun With Transparent Screen Backgrounds

Click for a larger picture. This is my "transparent" desktop. I apologize for the poor photograph; it was the best I could do without a tripod and proper exposure levels.

"'Looks like the amusement factor of 'transparent' screen background is getting bigger and bigger. The french Mac fan site Mac Bidouille opened up a dedicated part of their web site where fans can post shots of their transparent backgrounds.' Other great transparent background shots can be found at Flickr." ~ Slashdot

You know you're a good software engineer when...

You know you're a good software engineer when you not only crash your own program, but also crash the development environment you were working in! That, or you don't know what you're doing. Visual Studio 2003 kindly graced me with this "catastrophic failure" yesterday while I was trying out a new idea. It didn't work.

Shh... It's a secret...

Can you make this out? I don't want to say what it is yet, but its the output of part of my thesis. Click for a bigger picture.

Google Desktop Search is just plain cool. I've written a plugin for it that Brian and I will officially announce next week, but I thought I'd share that with you. In case you were wondering, muscadet is a dry white wine. I'm not exactly sure why its in the dictionary I was using to recognize the words (small hint there), but it was. What's really neat about this is that my file had a higher pagerank than the original file! If you want a sneak preview, ask for a demo next time you're in the apartment...

Anyone have spare LEGO bricks?

I think I've been officially out-geeked with this. I think a 3-speed automatic transmission built out of LEGO is the coolest thing I've seen done with these toys yet.

I've got a challenge for my friend Chris, a Mechanical Engineering Masters Student and a GAANN Fellow in the College of Engineering: Can you top this guy? Perhaps build a five-speed, or do a reverse feature? ;-)

Of course, I was always more of a Construx kid way back when. These things had the versatility of an erector set, the ease of LEGO, and were of course fun to tinker with. I even had the little motor blocks to make moving projects, though I think I burned them out after chaining together too many batteries at one point when I discovered that I could make it go really fast when I added more batteries and bits of foil.

Moving on... (literally)

Last Thursday, IBM officially started processing my move... I got the relocation bonus today (Yay, I can finally buy... a Washer and Dryer?), and have been in contact with the relocation company. IBM outsourced my "relocation process" to Cendant Mobility. Cendant outsourced my "move" to Move Management, Inc. Finally, MMI outsourced my actual moving to Graebel Van Lines. Got that? Need an org chart? Somewhere in there fits the no fewer than four separate offers to be preapproved for a mortgage from three separate companies, the apartment hunter in Austin, and, well, Me. I think they're going to be disappointed when they find out I only have a bedroom of stuff to move... ;-)