Brad's Blog

Published: 2023-01-18

ChatGPT on choosing a JavaScript framework

ai chatgpt fun

Prompt: Explain how to select a javascript framework in the style of edgar allen poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "’Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door — Only this and nothing more." But the tapping grew louder and more insistent, and ...


Published: 2013-05-09

String Theory

fun physics running strings

I'm not a physicist, but I've got some views on string theory that I'd like to share. Here goes: Brad's String Theory: Axiom I While in motion, strings will become untied, regardless of advanced techniques employed to fasten them. Brad's String Theory: Axiom II When at rest (i.e. upon completion of aforementioned motion), strings will be resistant to any attempt at unfastening. These statements are, to best of my knowledge, universally true, based on ...


Published: 2012-09-25

Fixing Bugs.

fun programming


Published: 2012-09-20

A Vision of the Future

fiction fightthefuture fun law patents

The year is 2213. The US has extended the term for patents from 20 to 100 years, and passed legislation granting greater powers to patent holders. Additionally, the richest nations of the world have organized the The World Patent Protection Agency (or WPPA). The WPPA consists of a judicial committee that has far-reaching powers to protect patents across national borders. This is accomplished through the levying of hefty fines and possible embargoes for nations that do not comply with their ...


Published: 2012-08-27

A scenario for the future.

fiction fightthefuture fun

Just jotting down a thought I had during my commute this morning... A large, multi-national corporation essentially has a monopoly on the seeds of a plant that's used as the world's major food source. It just so happens that they've also got a patent on a genetically modified version of this seed, which is the version of the seed that gets distributed to farmers.The corporation can detect their patented genes in any of the food grown ...


Published: 2012-03-10

Running with Zombies.

fun iphone running zombies

I picked up the Zombies, Run! app today, and I'm pretty excited about it. If you haven't heard about it, check out their video: I've only had one run with the game, but the story felt very well-done, and I really like how they've added an extra element of fun to my run. Of course, I'm a fan of all things "Zombie Apocalypse". If you do pick up a copy, spend some time setting up ...


Published: 2010-02-24

Specialization

Fun humanity

Thanks to @mxcl for tweeting a link to this: http://gist.github.com/313640Things I've done (or similar)change a diaperplan an invasion (warcraft counts, right?)butcher a hog squirreldesign a building (with legos!)write a sonnet songbalance accountsbuild a wall fencecomfort the dyingtake ordersgive orderscooperateact alonesolve equationsanalyze a new problempitch manureprogram a computercook a tasty meal (yum!)fight efficiently (yay for taekwondo!)...not quite there yet:conn a shipset a bonedie gallantly (here's hoping!)Hooray for Humanity!


Published: 2009-03-24

mod_python checks your blood pressure

Fun Python django

I'm deploying a django project using mod_python... now, usually I will just use my package management tools to install a binary version, but this time I need to build it from source.As I get ready to go through the whole configure/make/make install process, I peruse the output of configure just to make sure everything is ok...checking for gcc... gccchecking for C compiler default output file name... a.outchecking whether the C compiler works... yeschecking whether ...


Published: 2009-01-04

Morphology is Fun!

Fun Image Programming morphology vision

Morphological operations are very common in image processing. The two most basic of these are Erosion and Dilations, and from these, additional morphological operations can be performed. While there is an abundance of literature on the topic of morphology, I often like to view concrete examples of the operations. So, I've published a few images that illustrate the output of 1-to-5 iterations of various morphological operations --erosion, dilation, opening, closing, gradient, top hat, and black hat--with various structuring elements--rectangle ...


Published: 2008-12-04

radiohead - 15 steps video

Fun awesome music

Updated... BIZRADv2... is a bit better.rh.createWidget("BIZRADV2", "4G5D1F9F2F0G8I9H1F5F2E0D5E1F7C8F5GaK3E1G5D1C2E4C8C9C7C6F4D5DaD9E8D5D1K9D8D7D1D0G5D2E1D4DaD9D6D3E5D1C2E5D3D4DbD0D4E1D5DaD9D8C7H2D4E9E7D5C1E3D1D2D5D7C8EaD9D1H3D1D7DaE6D5C1D3E7F4D8CaD9DaD1C2C1C0F2C1C2D0D7D8D6E9FaH3C4F1G3H5F4E0E1G8DaC9D3E2G1D5E8C7E6E4C3E0CaFbD7J");


Published: 2008-11-12

Wordle - Cool Word Clouds

Fun

I've just run across Wordle, a nifty app that generates artistic word clouds based on text you give it. It also consumes rss or atom feeds, so you can do something like the image below:It's quite interesting what sort of things stand out in this... I just happened to notice that everyone want great web!


Published: 2008-10-05

on beards

Fun beard

I just ran across an interesting beard video on vimeo. Lots of cool links including beards.org, the World Beard and Moustache Championships, and the BLF. Fun stuff.


Published: 2008-09-23

hack your iphone earbuds...

Fun Hack Hardware iPhone

I've been complaining (inwardly) about my iPhone's earbuds since I first tried them on. Who knew it was so easy to just hack them!iPhone / iPod Touch Headphone / Earbud Replacement


Published: 2008-09-13

Pondering a Robotic Lawn Mower

Fun Hardware robots

Last weekend my gasoline powered lawn mower died. This prompted a search for a new mower, during which I stumbled upon some of Friendly Robotics' Robomow; a line of battery-powered robotic lawn mowers. Now, I have to admit that for the past 15 years or so, every time I've mowed a lawn, I've thought about the possibilities of a robotic lawn mower, and I'm not at all surprised that there's a company producing these. At first ...


Published: 2008-08-08

The Apple Dock is a Mirror!

Fun Mac

I guess I'm still a relatively new Mac User, but I consider myself fairly technical and probably more savvy that your typical Mac user (though there are a lot of mac users who are far more savvy than I!)Imagine my surprise when, while working tonight, I discovered that the Dock in Leopard is a Mirror! Yes, I'd noticed the reflection of the Icons, but tonight, I actually saw my cursor (in Terminal) moving as I typed... that ...


Published: 2008-07-12

Why Bluetooth headsets didn't catch on in the '90s

Fun Hardware


Published: 2008-05-20

pyCropper

Fun Image Python

Occasionally, I need to crop some images. I suspect this happens to a lot of people, and they simply use their favorite photo editor to perform the task. For a few images, this works just fine. Plenty of people have Photoshop, the Gimp, or even iPhoto. This past weekend, however, I found myself needing to crop about 1000 images, and I need to do it quickly. This was more than my machine could load into the Gimp at once. Even ...


Published: 2008-05-02

A Go at California Rolls

Food Fun

Well, I've tried to make some California rolls. I think they turned out OK. Not the prettiest rolls, but they tasted good... maybe I shouldn't have eaten them all, though!These were made with the following ingredients: 1 cup of rice. (most recipes call for short grain rice, but I used long grain rice)1Tbsp of Rice vinegardash of saltNoriCarrotsCucumberImitation crab meat (or real crab meat if you have it)1 AvacadoBoil 1 and 3/4 cups of ...


Published: 2008-01-14

Super Spicy Creamy Veggie Chili

Food Fun

I like food. I like to eat it... I like to make it. A few days ago I got a craving for some chili, and I almost had all of the ingredients that I needed. What I didn't have, was meat. So, I decided to improvise, and what resulted was the recipe below. It's sure to give all the gastric goodness of any other spicy bowl of chili!Ingredients:1 can black beans.1 can dark red kidney ...


Published: 2007-05-26

Thunder Demons live here!

Fun

While walking across campus, I noticed this particular image attached to a large green box that I knew to contain electrical "stuff". Now, I know the dangers of mixing humans with direct electrical current, but I'm not so sure this image evokes the correct message. I'm not sure that a monstrous blob of electricity has ever actually jumped out of a box in order to heinously inflict harm to humans as they unknowingly walk by... I could be ...


Published: 2006-12-02

That's Amazing

Family Fun Girls The

'Tiz the season... so today I went to Wal-Mart to get a Pre-Lit Christmas Tree. I'm still a little amazed at how easy this thing was to assemble when compared to a real tree of the same size. Sure it doesn't smell like a real tree, but I don't have to worry about watering it so that it doesn't become a fire hazard. Besides, the girls really liked it, and that's all that counts! In ...


Published: 2006-10-02

Pink for October

Fun

If you visit my site often (or even occasionally), you may have noticed a slight change. Well, it's sorta Pink for October, in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Also, my Mom's running in the Little Rock Race for the Cure... Good Luck!


Published: 2006-10-01

Peppers!

Food Fun

Thanks to my grandparents, I'm now in possession of quite a few Capsicum annuum chile peppers! Everybody that knows me, knows that I'm quite of fan of these. I'm guessing it will take me a day or two to eat all of these... I guess we'll see :)


Published: 2006-09-19

Speak like a Pirate Day!

Fun

Avast ye! As it be a day 'fer celebrat'n pirates, ye should be learn'n to speak like one, and then drink like one. So says I, Calico Sam Kidd


Published: 2006-07-28

Spiral

Fun Linux OS X

I've recently grabbed the latest version of Inkscape, (which resulted in the Spiral) and I just have to say, "WOW". I'd played with the software about a year ago (maybe more), and it's amazing how far it's come. Works perfectly on Windows and Mac OS X (with X11). If you like to use your computer to draw, download Inkscape now!


Published: 2006-07-24

YouOS

Fun Programming web

Occasionally, I run across some project that's implementing an idea that I've had ... That's the case with YouOS. I think I even wrote a paper about it in 1998, but that's what happens when your lazy (read: too many other things you have to do!)I created an account, and though it was a little slow for my wife's laptop, YouOS is really a very impressive project. Now, all the world needs is a very ...


Published: 2006-07-11

A Penchant for Circles

Fun

Apparently I like Circles, as is evidenced by my latest desktop background. If you've looked through my other background images, you'll notice that I also like a simple, unobtrusive image behind my work. After I created this one, it seemed to remind me of something... and after a little though, I remembered Sacrifice, originally developed by Shiny. I won't go into a long spiel, but it had beautiful graphics, a very interesting interface (once you got the ...


Published: 2006-06-20

Games!

Fun Games

This may come as a surprise, but I actually got into computer science thinking I would eventually find a job making computer games! What's more surprising, though, is that I've never even tried to write a game of any sort! There are plenty of places to start, I mean, there's only 11,000 game projecs on Sourceforge. Now, I'm guessing that about half of those are actually Libraries or Frameworks for developing games, and sometimes I ...


Published: 2006-06-07

Google Knows Me!!

Fun Programming

Yesterday I discovered that Google knows who I am! This is surprising to me since, for several years, this site has never been displayed when searching for Brad Montgomery! I have a Page Rank of 2! Apparently, I'm currently the 3rd most popular Brad Montgomery, right after Brad Montgomery - The motivational Speaker and his blog (Both have a Page Rank of 4), and Brad Montgomery - The Actor. Surprisingly enough, Brad Montgomery - The Actor, only has a Page Rank of ...


Published: 2006-05-31

Pleonasms...

Fun

Spare me your pleonasms, and I shall strive to do the same! :)


Published: 2006-05-25

Rosemarie

Family Fun

Well, Summer's almost here! So, if you're feeling the need to whip yourself back into shape, I know just the person! :-)