CSCI 100 Final

1. The Ebay item I found was a Martin DC16RGTE Acoustic/Electric guitar
which is currently at 1,275$ to bid with only 45 minutes left until bidding closes. The user, saleasylum's feedback score is 204 and 99.5% positive. The seller perfers the use of Paypal for payment. The bid price is the current price to bid on the item. The time left is when the bidding will end and a winner is declared. The user's feedback score shows the amount and quality of transactions they have done on Ebay. The use of paypal is an outside site which securely handles money transactions on the internet.

2. The outside site I found detailing this guitar was a forum where people are able to discuss acoustic guitars. This is the site http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-40279.html. In particular, they are discussing the various types of wood used on the fretboards.

3. Wikipedia doesn't detail the specific guitar, but I found information about it on Martin's website: http://www.mguitar.com/guitars/choosing/guitars.php?p=m&m=DC-16RGTE%20AURA. The neck material is Select Hardwood, the fretboard is Black Micarta, the top of the body is Solid Sitka Spruce, and the back is Indian Rosewood. Very nice.

4.The Picture I found on flickr is not of the specific guitar, but another similar martin. Here it is: The site address for it is http://www.flickr.com/photos/foto_vet
/349892345/ and it is entitled "Acoustic Delight".

5. The effect I put on this picture using Gimp was under the artistic filters section and called "Cubism". Here it is:

First Snowboarding of the season!!

So, i managed to go snowboarding this weekend! Me and a couple friends got up at 5am yesterday and drove to Crested Butte, for a free day of snowboarding. In fact, they are free until December 15, so perhaps we will try to do it again before then. I brought my digital camera, which has a broken screen, so I cannot see what the pictures look like when I take them. I began taking pictures, hoping they'd turn out alright, and they probably would have. Unfortunately, having a broken screen also means that I can't see the alerts that come up, namely, the one that says "No memory left on card"... so yeah, I didn't end up getting ANY pictures with the camera! Total bummer, it was so beautiful up there! At least I won't make that mistake again, and like I said, we will probably try to get another free day in before the 15th.

DARPA & Team Mojavaton

Cars driving themselves, pretty cool eh? This was the context for the most recent DARPA challenge. But first of all, what is DARPA? Well, it stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and they basically are advanced research for the American Military. A few years ago, they had a similar challenge for automated aircraft, which produced the "Predator", which is a fully automated spy plane which can detect enemy troop movement, and plot attacks. The latest challenge, which is to design a car which can drive by itself in an urban situation, detecting signs, traffic, and other obsticles like a normal human driver. This way, human lives wouldn't have to be put at risk in dangerous situations.

Team Mojavaton is a team which competed in the latest challenge out of Grand Junction. Their vehicle, a Nissan Xterra, did manage to succeed in the task, though they did not win the 2,000,000$ grand prize unfortunately. One of the most important (and expensive) parts of the vehicle was the velodyne laser rangefinder. This could actually detect objects up to about 300 feet using 64 lasers which spin on the top of the vehicle, and can detect the objects and their distance from the vehicle. Another important element is a powerful GPS system which tells the car it's exact location.

Rockies & The hand

Well, the rockies choked. Guess theres a reason why the Cardinals are my team. It is unfortunate though, it would have been really good for this state for them to have won. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, and at least it might not be so incredibly busy at work for a little while! Lets see... had a doctor's appointment early this morning for my hand, and everything has healed up just fine, though I kind of figured as much since there is absolutely no pain or loss of movement anymore. I will try to get a picture of my current x-ray up here shortly, so check back!

Image Effects

Yet another post for class, these images were created using Gimp 2.0.
This is my flickr account

This picture used a lava render under the Script-Fu section to create
the background. The text layer was modified by the IWarp filter.

The background in this picture was done with the Coffee Stain effect
which is under the Script-Fu Decor section. The text was modified
by the glass effect tile.


This background was done with the circut rendering effect in Script-Fu.
The text is normal.

This background was created using the cubism effect in the artistic filters
menu. The text was edited using the drop-shadow within Script-Fu.



The background on this picture was created by the GIMPressionist artistic
filter. The text is normal-- a invisible layer sits on top which has the supernova
light effect.

Podcast

My Alehouse Podcast

Made with Audacity & Lame mp3 encoder

Chairty Event

Ok, so now it's time to talk about my band. Yes, we rock out, and really enjoy playing together. This is a given. Unfortunately, we all have very busy lives and it's hard to get together regularly to practice. Also, our drummer just moved, and we used to jam at his old house, so getting things set up at the new place has been a very long process. We do have a show coming up, a charity event raising money for cancer patients here in Junction. Should be a great time, though I still have to figure out how I'm going to get off work!

Waiting for the snow to fall

Ok, so this is my first post, and it's officially halfway through October. The Rockies are rockin' it all the way to the world series, and everyone at my work (The Breckenridge Alehouse) is going crazy (especially the customers).

Yeah, baseball is cool -- but not as cool as snow! Which, unfortunately, is not yet falling. The tension is high amongst us mountain riders this time of year. The cold is arriving, but not the snow (yet). So, in classic snow god praise fashion, here are some pictures from previous seasons. They just make the mouth water, don't they? Sure they look good, but hopefully this year will be even better! With all the precipitation we've gotten in the Grand Valley this year so far, it's looking like there will be quite a bit of snow. Quite exciting, though the waiting is certainly getting old. I want to ride NOW! So, as the lifts begin to open, and the excitement builds, we bid farewell to summer, and hello to the small gap between resorts opening and the flood of tourists coming to enjoy (and destroy) the mountains.