Best New Album of 2011

The best album of 2011 goes easily to Florence + The Machine for Ceremonials. I cannot say enough good things about this album—it rocks in a way that so few do. I recommend that you listen to it from start to finish, using your good headphones, as loud as is comfortable. Ceremonials improves upon the stellar work already done in Lungs by adding layers of complementary complexity.

Best Purchase of 2011

This was probably the hardest category to judge. The contenders were priced from $10 to $30 000 and each was special in their own way.

1. 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe, 3.5 L AWD Crossover SUV
   
   An obvious choice for inclusion: a large crossover with almost every option standard, the best warranty and service, and for $10 000 less than a base-model American car. I can attest to the electronic stability control's ability to keep the car completely under control even while making sharp turns on unimproved dirt roads at speeds as high as 80 km/hr. The 10 km/l (city) 206 kW engine is also more than capable of owning anything other than a sports car. Incredibly roomy, and can still make a U-Turn within a residential street with feet to spare.
2. Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor Headphones
   
   In November of 2011 the ≈10 year-old headphones I use at work (almost 6 hours a day) started failing. In true geek fashion, I began researching replacements rather than just picking up whatever $20 pair was on sale at Best Buy. After this purchase, I can say without a doubt, that your music experience to date has been absolute crap. I am now re-listening to all my music because I can now hear instruments I never new existed on the recording. Crisp, tight highs without booming bass in a light and comfortable package.
3. LEGO Space Police Message Decoder (set #6831)
   
   This set completes my collection of Space Police I LEGO sets—a collection I started when I was 8 or so. The sets were first released in 1984, and were the first LEGO theme to incorporate "good" and  "bad" organizations as well as lights.

Best Event of 2011

+ 
The best event of 2011 goes to the Boise Music Festival where I got to cross two items off my bucket list: see MC Hammer live, and purchase a Joan Jett concert T-Shirt firsthand. Yes, that's right, "Can't Touch This" and "Bad Reputation", live, in a single event. Less well known, but possibly more impressive was the "School of Rock" band, in which a bunch of kids rocked harder than most of the other performers that day.

Best Book Read in 2011

The best book I read in 2011 would have to be George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (Book 1 in the Song of Ice and Fire series). Aside from being well-written and set in an interesting world, what made me love this book is that the story revolves around the women and children instead of what you would initially think of as the adult male main characters. This series has become popular of late due to the HBO miniseries based on it, however in my defense, this book was on my list years ago.

Best TV Show in 2011

I had to remove the word "new" from this category, because almost without exception, all the new shows this year were absolute crap. The few new shows I do enjoy, I enjoy because I can watch them just as well while doing seven other things at the same time as they require an average of 7.625 brain cells to understand. The show which I most enjoyed in 2011 was Castle. I'm pretty sure the purpose of Castle (and all of television for that matter) is simply to provide a stage for Nathan Fillion to show us how awesome he is. Nathan's intellectually hilarious Rick Castle is placed against Stana Katic's outstanding breakout performance of Det. Kate Beckett, and supported by a laundry list of stellar supporting roles, including, my prediction of "starlet to watch," Molly Quinn.

Best New Movie in 2011

Sucker Punch takes the cake, although I expect you won't agree with me. It seems as if this movie's merging of over-the-top action sequences mixing concepts from fantasy, anime, steampunk and WWII with abstract commentary on the injustice and horror of the protagonist's situation confused most of its audience. However, I will leave you with a one-sentance synopsis that should explain my love of the movie: five heroines armed with bastard swords, flintlocks and bedazzled 1911s take on an army of steampunk nazi-zombies with help from a rocket propelled mecha with some of the best team fight choreography I've ever had the pleasure of feeding to my eyeballs.

Tthat completes (for the moment) my "best of" post for the year.

(100 points if you can translate it)

Today was my first delivery from Brown Box Organics, which does organic, local, produce, dairy, grains and proteins delivery in the Boise/Eagle area. I was pretty excited about this because I HATE grocery shopping, especially for produce. Because of this, my diet tends to be high in protein and carbohydrates, which generally leaves me with less energy go grocery shopping and come up with interesting ways to use produce in my diet.

Brown Box also has variety packs, where you pay for a quantity of produce, and the contents change on a weekly basis. Basically, this means that Brown Box is, like, the most awesome service ever.

And delivery is free.

I was amazed when I came home this evening because, including the cooler I had left out, they filled an additional cardboard box and paper bag. It was like christmas. That you could eat.

Today's haul contained:

• 1x loaf of sourdough bread
• 8x 4 oz cups of cinnamon applesauce
• 2x ½ gal of 2% milk (in glass bottles, old school style)
• 1x 6 oz "berries and cream" yogurt
• 12 brown eggs
• 5x Valencia oranges
• 5x kiwifruit
• 3x Fiji apples
• 5x Bartlett pears
• 3x Bosc pears
• 3x Bananas
• 1x bunch celery
• 1x bunch chard
• 1x head Romaine lettuce
• 9x green onions
• 7x carrots
• 8x red potatoes

All of which was from Idaho, except for the kiwifruit and carrots, which were from California.

The chard, green onions and eggs are in the oven as a quiche, and the potatoes, celery and carrots are headed towards a stew this weekend.

It's official, after eight hours of orientation, I have completed my first official (paid) day of employment at Micron. Aside from the requisite harassment-free workplace and confidentiality presentations I am very happy with my choice of employment. Even more incredible was, for an engineer-rich company, there were actual real-live females in double-digit numbers. Amazing!

Thats right, it says R&D, that's short for Research and Development, which itself is short for Super Awesome Engineer of Awesomeness.

2001 was the last time I had ready access to a dishwasher.

Today has been a long time coming.

Yes, that is a photo of my dishwasher. It's an amazing machine that turns dirty dishes into clean ones using only electrons and water.

I also have a machine that does the same thing for clothes. I've used these before, but they also required little metal disks that one had to visit a bank that was only open at inconvenient hours to acquire.

And most importantly, the center of any male household, the entertainment center.

It's in front of the fireplace because, really, who wants a volatile chemical reaction that requires constant feeding of hard-to-acquire organics, decreases the oxygen concentration and produces unregulated heat output. Instead it's a 47" 5.1 all-digital HD theater with high-speed internet for media streaming. Way better.

Putting two adult males in a single college apartment is a lot like the junk drawer--everything goes in, gets moved around until it fits, and is mostly ignored until its needed. Now, I not only have room for everything, I have a room for everything. I've discovered an office is an amazing room where you can put all your stuff that society frowns on. Apparently guns in the dining room and soldering irons in the living room aren't exactly kosher. BUT, turn an office into sporting goods storage and a laboratory, and it's dandy.

With my most closest family members now living 1,100 miles away, I figured this would be a low-maintenance way to keep them abreast of my goings-on in the oddly shaped state famous for its potatoes.

For those of you new to my blogging style, I don't use real names. I respect my friends privacy enough to keep them anonymous, but not enough to keep them secret. For those of you that know them as well, I expect the nicknames won't be too hard to figure out.

Over the next few days I will be back-posting a historical record of the last six weeks, as well as adding new adventures as they appear. I hope you enjoy, or not, I don't really care.

The 1911 is perhaps the most famous weapon designed by perhaps the most famous firearm designer ever, John Moses Browning. (As a side note, I have a theory that to design great firearms, you must be named John. In defense of this theory, I present John Browning, John Pederson, and John Garand.) As of March 29 of next year, the 1911 will not only reach 100 years old, but will have the honor of being in widespread use throughout the entire 100 years.

Image from http://thepaulkfamily.com/gunweb/PW9108LP.htm

First, I love this handgun on an aesthetic level. The proportions are beautiful, the thin frame and the subtle curves produce elegant lines that say, "sure, I'm designed to kill Polynesians on PCP, but I do it with style." This pistol is what boys are genetically predisposed to think of when they hear ".45"

I love this handgun on an ergonomic level. The thin frame makes this the most comfortable .45 caliber firearm I have ever held. The grip is long enough that all of my fingers grip metal and not air, the backstrap contour fits my palm like a glove, and the trigger lines itself up nicely with my finger. Interestingly enough, it has been my experience that this pistol fits small- and large-handed shooters equally well, something that cannot be said of my previous Beretta 92FS or even my Springfield XD.

I love this handgun on a functional level. Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, a well-maintained 1911 can be disassembled using nothing but your hands. With a drift punch and a .45 case the mainspring and trigger can be disassembled, and the grip panels removed. The 1911 also eats any ammunition I throw at it, from Wolf, to the most extreme hollow-points, every time I pull the trigger, the gun goes bang.

I love that this handgun is made entirely of steel. As Boris succinctly, if not accurately said, "heavy is good, heavy is reliable. If it doesn't work you can always hit them with it." I know on an intellectual level that modern polymers can be just as reliable as traditional metal, but I love the steel. I love that when I slide the 1911 into my IWB carry holster, its a little cold. I love that my carry pistol has wear marks where the steel shows through the finish.

I love that this handgun shoots the .45 ACP--a bullet that comes out of the barrel a diameter that 9mm hollow-points only aspire to be. I love that I can mix a small martini in the tip of my Winchester PDX1s. I love that the .45 is the ballistic equivalent of throwing a brick at someone's head.

Most of all, I love that, even at 100 years old, I can walk into any decent gun shop and find at least 7 high-quality examples of modern 1911s for sale.

DEFCON was bitter-sweet this year. Once again I was unimpressed both by the average quality of the talks and the complete lack of organization or forethought. However, I was lucky to have several friends visit Las Vegas at the same time, and so the trip out was not a complete disappointment.

DEFCON has one fatal flaw: it does not require registration. That's right, when DEFCON opens, nobody has any idea of how many attendees will arrive. Presumably this is due to the fact that the first Def Con attendees included a large percentage under indictment.  At that point in time, anonnymity was paramount.

At that time, Def Con also only had 150 attendees.

Pure anonymity is a problem. DEFCON's laughable attachment to this idea is even more obvious when watching the awards "ceremony" for one of their many contests. To make sure the right person gets credit for their work, submissions in contests must contain a "secret word." If you don't know the secret when you claim your prize, you don't win. Why does DEFCON use a simple registration process such as this for contests, but not for the conference as a whole? Beats me.

DEFCON needs to allow people to register. It's OK if they register using an alias, or a "secret word." Hell, if security is that much of a problem, I think DEFCON could come up with a system that could encrypt your registration confirmation to a provided public key. That way, when I arrive on Thursday, they won't be out of badges, or there will at least be one waiting for me.

Oh yeah, they ran out of the much-desired DEFCON badge halfway through the "preliminary events" day. I have a story.

I arrived in Las Vegas at about 1:00pm on Thursday afternoon, about when the conference opened. In the time it took to check into my hotel, walk across the street (literally) and withdraw cash from an ATM, DEFCON had run out of enough badges that they gave me a paper substitute. At most, two hours. Two hours before there is a shortage of literally the most anticipated product. Bad planning doesn't seem to do it justice.

Even more frustrating is the fact that my roommate, who checked in 5 seconds earlier, received a badge. Apparently, my line at the registration desk was out. Just mine. And no, they wouldn't trade me. Even the next day when additional badges "showed up" (qué?)  I was not allowed to trade for a real badge.

Now, ultimately, I got a real badge, but only because @vandalswang was kind enough to trade the two Ninja Networks invites I had won for his badge.

Overall it was fun, but I won't be doing it again. Not unless I'm press, a speaker, vendor or a goon. They're guaranteed badges.

She knows, because aliens speak to her through the Internet. In 2012, a "Planet X", which is currently orbiting on the opposite side of the sun at the exact same radial velocity as the Earth, will accelerate past the Earth, and Planet X's gravitational pull will cause the Earth to start rotating the opposite direction. This will happen so fast, that the atmosphere will continue on at its same speed, causing 600-mph winds and general mayhem across the world.

Now, I knew this was absurd, but I couldn't prove it. So I did.

The Earth's equatorial diameter is about $40.0 \times 10^{6} m$, in Flagstaff, Arizona (about where she lives) which is at 35° of Latitude, that diameter is $D_{equator} \cdot cos(35^{\circ}) = 32.8 \times 10^{6} m$

The Earth rotates once a day, giving us an angular velocity (at $35^{\circ}$) of:

$72.7 \times 10^{-6} \frac{rad}{s} = 379 \frac{m}{s} = 878 \frac{mi}{hr}$

So stopping the Earth instantly would produce 878mph winds. I'm not sure of the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, and so can't estimate the slowdown time that would give a $\Delta V$ of 600mph, but it doesn't matter because:

The kinetic energy of a rotating sphere is:

$E_k = \frac{1}{2} I \omega^2$

where I is the moment of inertia of a solid sphere, and ω is the angular velocity in radians per second. The moment of inertia is calculated as:

$I_{sphere} = \frac{2}{5} m R^2$

which leads to the expanded equation of:

$E_k = \frac{1}{5} m R^2 \omega^2$

The Earth's mass is approximately $5.97 \times 10^{24} kg$ and its radius about $6.38 \times 10^{6} m$, so, the energy required to stop the Earth's spin is:

$E_k = \frac{1}{5}(5.97 \times 10^{24} kg)(6.38 \times 10^{6} m)^2(72.7 \times 10^{-6} \frac{rad}{s})^2 = 257 \times 10^{27} J$

That’s 257 octillion or 257 million-billion-billion Joules. Putting that in perspective, we receive about $1.37 \times 10^{3} \frac{W}{m^2}$ from the sun, or $701 \times 10^{15} \frac{J}{s}$, so the energy required to stop the Earth’s rotation in 1 day is enough to heat and light the Earth for eleven thousand years. Assuming that the energy transfer from “Planet X” or the aliens is 90% efficient, that leaves $25.7 \times 10^{27} J$ of waste energy, probably being converted to heat. That’s enough energy to raise the temperature of all the Earth’s oceans 4,527°C or to 8,211°F, which is just colder than the surface of the Sun.

And if you followed that, ladies and gentlemen, you are either a physics major, or an engineer.

This is a historical cross-post of a short-lived feature I posted on Facebook called "You Might Be an Engineer If..." with a slight edit. The original post can be found (for now) here.

Note: For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, the @ sign identifies another person on Twitter, i.e. when I say @BluePlasma I'm indicating that BluePlasma is also a Twitter user, and it ensures that he will see that particular update. The hash mark (#) identifies a tag, which allows Twitter users to search for similar Tweets regardless of the source. RT stands for Re-Tweet, and is simply me reposting something someone else wrote, to spread the word. Every update with #defcon would appear in the global defcon search. The few posts from other users are prefaced by that user's name in brackets before the update.

Wednesday

• Packing for DEFCON. Where did all these transformers come from?

• Pre DEFCON movie of choice? Swordfish, naturally.
• Toothbrush: check. Soldering iron: check. Drill press & corrosive chemicals? Check. #defcon

Thursday

• Truck is loaded. Gassing up, then picking up @BluePlasma.
• Tank is full, windows clean, tripometer reset. Vacation has officially begun. #defcon
• Just left kingman, hoover dam here we come! #defcon

• Finally here, photos to come. #defcon

• I know you haven't been out of your cage in a while #defcon attendees, but fanny packs went out of style in 1985...
• Waiting for the FPGA talk to begin, supressing urge to stab geeks who talk out of their @$$.
• Just missed out on an FPGA giveaway because I didn't keep the signs of my exponents straight #defcon
• FPGA talk a dissapointment, #defcon is out of badges now, glad I got mine ealy.

• #defcon badge made hackable. @BluePlasma has the bootloader working.

• At #defcon Toxic BBQ, center table.

• Back from the bbq, almost got to beat the crap out of an asshole. There's always tomorrow...
  • [leahshanker] @zanfar What happened? You too? Lol
  • @leahshanker Pretty sure it was the same asshole. You're missing all the solder fumes over here
  • [leahshanker] @zanfar en route to the electro palace lol

Friday

• Back at the Riv. Not enough sleep & the coffee isn't working. Free breakfast nice, though. #defcon
• Hanging out at the hardware hacking village. Riv skybox 210. #defcon
• Change of plans, checking out the badge talk with @leahshanker
• Thinking of moving the Electro Palace "Lite" to the HHV this afternoon. Watch #hhv for details #defcon
  • [leahshanker] @zanfar That's what I've been saying! Catch ya at HHV later
• I know you love anonymity #defcon, but its time to grow up and require pre-registration.
• #defcon : a charlie-foxtrot hasn't been this well reported on since Vietnam
• Back to #hhv, now with tools! #defcon
• RT @Blueplasma: @zanfar @blueplasma on the way to the #hhv at #defcon. We're bringing equipment and here to help, the Big Scott and the Skinny Asian
• Thanks to @BluePlasma 's superior situational awareness, we avoided the #defcon hallway of death. RAWK!
• Back from #hhv @ #defcon. Now its time to write some C...

• Naps good. Walking to the riv. Fences are higher than they look #defcon
• Just played with a real-live PDP-11/70. Three-phase-powered computing = geekgasm!
• is declaring tomorrow officially "tweet in hex" day. #defcon
• Benihana open until 10 #defcon #thegreatfoodsearch
• Hilton fail, I shouldn't have to search for an ATM in a casino. #thegreatfoodsearch
• @leahshanker @shankmasterzero Start thinking of alternate food ideas.
• Benihana was delicious #thegreatfoodhunt was a sucess. Next up; hacker karaoke
• Android flashlight app makes decent replacment for a lighter #defcon #hackerkaraoke
• There is something very right about singing Frank's My Way while in Vegas #defcon #hackerkaraoke

Saturday

• Done for the night. See you bright and early tomorrow (today) #defcon
• [leahshanker] @blueplasma Brekkist?
  • [blueplasma] @leahshanker Yahar, awaiting RedBeard's shower completion, then we be plundering our inn's hot breakfast line
  • I'm up, I'm up. Breakfast, then #defcon. Coffee too. Lots of coffee.
• @leahshanker in track 1, save you seats?
• #defcon parking meter talk was well done, almost enough hardware content
• Quadrotor talk is awesome. "We started with a minipc, but needed real-time data, so switched to a MCU" #defcon improving.
• Quadrotor talk the best of #defcon. Real-time X, Y & Z control with heads- up display and inertial nav. #defcon awesome.
• @leahshanker @shankmasterzero We have saved seats, and are camping Adam's talk. 4th row, center chairs.
  • [blueplasma] @zanfar omw Thank you!!!
  • @leahshanker just kicked us out we have line space now, though.
• 6th row center for Adam Savage, close enough to see his bad haircut. #defcon
• Just found a ttl-compatible gps reciever with external panel-mount sma connector that outputs nema messages and a 1hz pulse for $30! #defcon
• A. Savage talk too short, nothing I haven't already heard. Heading to "Hacking the Smart Grid" in 18 min. #defcon
• Humor? From a #defcon presentor? Laser keylogging promises to be good.
• Laser Keylogging: best talk at #defcon, even if the presenters have girls names...
• Step 1; go to laser keylogging talk at #defcon. Step 2. Step 3: profit!
• Calling yourself "social engineers" makes you neither less of a grifter nor an engineer #defcon
• Back from #defcon for the day, at the hotel eating homemade spaghetti. Tomorrow @BluePlasma and I will be at the #HHV helping out.

Sunday

• Turn on TV to see the opening credits for Lethal Weapon 4. Awesome! #ImTooOldForThis #defcon
• Hanging out at the #hhv. Helped @joegrand solder, so we're #defcon approved now If you want to learn hardware, see @BluePlasma or I.
• #defcon is over, little disappointing, but not bad overall. Next year: real attempt on a black badge. Cigars & The Strip tonight.
• #defcon tricks to gain followers: insult @donttrythis 's hair or that @joegrand needed your help (sorry Mr. S, it was just the camera angle)

It is an interesting social convention to celebrate this event, which has no biological significance, especially because today has no real association with that day except for, by an act of providence, to have the same markings on a particular calendar. Due to the peculiarities of our "modern" Gregorian calendar, there have actually been 27 years, 7 days and 13 seconds (if you consider a year to be a 365-day period, and a day to be 86,400 seconds) between that point and the same time today. On a purely celestial scale, the Earth has orbited the sun 27 times plus about 7/100 of a degree, while the Moon has waxed and waned almost 334 times, or 27.8299 lunar years.

Leaving all this out, some incredibly (as expected) awesome things have happened throughout history on this date:

• Soldiers of the First Crusade starve themselves and walk barefoot around Jerusalem so that nine days later they can claim it was God's will that they wade in their enemies blood "up to their ankles," ironically, bled from Jews and Muslims alike.
• Vasco da Gama set out on the first ever direct journey from Europe to India, which is probably the only reason modern American schoolchildren know of the Cape of Good Hope. Unlike Columbus, he actually arrives.
• The first confirmed tornado death in America happens in Cambridge, MA. Remains the only tornado not to target a trailer park.
• The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition, promising to resolve differences with the crown peacefully, which is basically a footnote in history because a year later...
• The Declaration of Independence is given its first public read in Philadelphia, the (third) Liberty Bell is rung, and the United States begins its first war (and wins).
• Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo harbor on his "black ship" and initiates trading relations between the Empire and the U.S. under the threat of military force, setting an ironically accurate tone for the rest of history.
• The newly-formed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (then the North-West Mounted Police) begin their first assignment: march West to force drunk Americans to respect their authority. Canada still considered to be "America's Hat."
• The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published, beginning its illustrious career as a status symbol for pretentious snobs everywhere.
• Count Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin is born, later perfects navigable lighter-than-air transport, and, like all pre-1940 German engineering advances, is forgotten by the world, which continues to be surprised with the craftsmanship of a BMW.
• The first reports of aliens in Roswell, NM are broadcast. Alien hats go on sale a few hours later.
• John D. Rockefeller is born, who would later become an evil rich white oil baron and setup the modern, targeted philanthropic structure, fight racial segregation, improve public health and directly or indirectly fund 23 Nobel laureates. He continues to confuse hippies to this day.
• The IBM CICS software is released, still in use by 90% of fortune 500 companies 40 years later.

I hope you now know more than you ever wanted to about this date, and can now resolve the inferiority you feel in my presence by way of fate.