The eve of easter was marked with an intense session of apartment cleaning, however bad an idea this may have been. I even sorted my cache of resistors. There is still plenty to organize, but things are more manageable, especially with regard to the desk on which I build so many of my electronics projects.

Nd:YAG, HeNe, Argon Ion

Freshly unladen of clutter, I felt free to fire up an array of three lasers for the first time in concert. The triad of chromes shone brightly across my apartment’s newly cleaned floor in all their spectral glory. Maybe this summer will afford the opportunity to mix the colors and draw some pretty pictures; what else would one do with such a source of white light?

I’m back at school for the Spring semester and am reasonably excited about it. As I sit here in my apartment, I am quite pleased that I can walk around for the first time in many months without shoes or socks on and not worry about getting my feet dirty. Thank you Roomba. Roomba stopped making beeps, and will need to go in for service, but cleans extremely well anyway. The iRobot people sent a replacement brush guard straight away–but I think this Roomba may have been treated poorly in it’s prior life.

The next few months will provide me with plenty to keep busy; microcontrollers and software and photographs and lasers and wire cutters and books and music and classes and learning and evenings and everything else, but I’ll miss some things from my winter break.

Esther having some foot, me having a messed up sleep schedule, interesting conversations in the bcfg2 IRC channel, and good times with friends.

I think I’m ready though. I’m relaxed. I have a new desktop pattern set. The floor is clean.

The Roomba Scheduler is possibly one of the coolest robots one can buy for the home today. I was amazed at how well the thing works. I can’t wait to use the Roomba Open Interface and my new BlueSMiRF to write crazy software, like the Wiimote/Roomba solution. Awesome.

Unfortunately, while my Roomba was out on it’s first vacuuming mission of the Living Room floor, it dropped a little yellow clip behind it. I quickly pressed the power button, and the robot halted immediately. The Roomba had broken it’s Brush Guard.

My experience with iRobot so far has been limited, but the interface that they provided for support is good. They have online chat, e-mail, and phone support, all of which is staffed reasonable hours. I sent an e-mail with attached photo asking for a part replacement. I hope they respond to it promptly, because I really want to get vacuuming : ).

I was disappointed, but these things happen. Mine was a reconditioned unit; perhaps the previous owner was not so nice to his robot. Roomba makes these cute melodies of beeps, and drives around and gets stuck, then un-stuck. Sick almost seems like a better word to describe it’s condition than broken.

I’d say that Barilla’s Angel Hair is really one of my favourite long noodles. Its just the right diameter, cooks quickly, and is just the right texture.

Highly recommended.

More laser stuff soon.

So I’ve been very busy… Perhaps this isn’t the most original way to begin a post after a long hiatus, but alas it is the truth. I hear Charlie Deets has been busy too, and he is back as well.
The summer ended with a bang as I finished up lots of exciting things at Argonne then traveled to WWDC. The conference was completely awesome; good times with good Apple folk. I hope to go back next year; hopefully with some more accumulated Mac programming skill. School is exciting; Algorithms is super hard, User Interface Design is pretty interesting, the first course I’ve had to do a legitimate project throughout. It is going to be pretty awesome.
I’ve hacked together my first AppleScript Studio app; which was fun, and I’ve been doing some intense Python coding for my UI Design class. These are not the most impressive of my current projects though; because the venerable LaserLine is back on track. More updates to follow.

Fall is here and again it is time for me to head back to school. Saturday I moved in to my new apartment, yesterday I organized everything in an appealing way, but today was the most impressive experience yet. It was a day of “real” things. Things like shopping. It was fun, but took too long. Also I made a great meal, which I shared with my friend Tony.

Again, this was amazing fun, but took too long for me to do very regularly. I hope my classes are enjoyable; I’ll find-out Wednesday. Maybe I’ll have some time to post some useful things here, progress on the Laser Galvos and my trip to California, now that I’m back at school.

Here’s to a new semester.

The New Super Mario Bros. is the only video game I have ever been really immersed in for a long period of time. It is the only video game I have ever gotten close to completing; right now I am at the two-star level. Its really just an excellent device at $129.00 with compelling titles like Tetris and Mario Kart, and Mario Brothers. I can no longer say: “I don’t play video games.”

Also Weller/Cooper Tools really came through for me recently. In March I ordered a replacement tip-retainer sleeve for my somewhat vintage 9911AS soldering iron. It was backordered to a warehouse in Mexico, but Arcade Electronics went to great lengths to get it for me. When it finally arrived around June 15th, I was eccstaic. It was finally here, a rare part for a long discontinued product. When I went to install it on my soldering iron I was crushed when it didn’t fit. The part number on the box matched and everything. I thought it was a lost cause, but I decided to e-mail Paula at Arcade anyway. She put me in touch with Larry Smith at Cooper Tools, who went above and beyond what he had to do for this tiny part. He went down to the parts department, tried out the part personally and came to the conclusion that the one I had must have been incorrectly packaged. He then dropped the correct part in an padded mailer and sent it directly to me free of charge, three days later. I received it, and everything was perfect! Finally, after more than three months I was able to use my soldering iron to its fullest capability. Thank you Cooper Tools.

I’m really excited.

Dear Joseph Hagedorn,

Congratulations! The Apple Developer Connection is pleased to award you a WWDC 2006 Student Scholarship. This exclusive Scholarship Program will kick off on Sunday, August 6 with a full day of presentations and hands-on sessions designed specifically for student developers…

This means I’ll be in San Francisco from August 5th or 6th for at least a week. Its been so long since I’ve traveled, now I’ve got an awesome trip to go on. Excellent.