Monday, March 31, 2014
Day 51
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Day 50
Field Research and Batteries
I set Glass up plugged in to my car's auxiliary outlet this morning for a charge. Unfortunately, my Prius shuts off after about 15 minutes without its digital key within range.Glass turns itself on when charging begins, but doesn't turn itself off when power is lost. The result was a completely discharged Glass as the day began. Bad Google; bad Glass. Glass should not power up when it is plugged into power for charging after it has been manually turned off.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Day 48
Into the Void
Courtesy of the "dry run" two weeks ago, packing for the Jemez Botanical Expedition took only minutes and was much more compact. This will be a chance to use Glass for genuine research. We'll be documenting each site, filming the collection methods, and generally getting a very thorough set of data for my nephew's senior botany project.Thursday, March 27, 2014
Day 47
Arms Control Glass
A colleague and I met with the folks from our on-site inspection testbed. Things look very promising for a realistic field trial. We'll not only get point-of-view video from Glass, but also have a videographer record the activities from an external view as well.Springtime in Glassland
At least some of the Wisteria have survived the spring freezes we've been having. Now there's a cascade of purple and lavender blossoms draping our fence in the hidden garden.Saturday morning I head back into the Jemez to help my nephew with data collection for his senior class project. If there's cell service, I'll have an update, otherwise it'll have to wait until Sunday PM.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Day 46
Glass for On-site Inspection
My day job includes a project dealing with how mobile technology can assist arms control and nuclear safeguards inspectors. Frankly, it's not that easy to get a high-tech device into what often are sensitive industrial or military facilities.Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Day 45
Seattle Springtime Video
The thing about Glass is that it lets you record things you never would have with a hand-held camera, even a smartphone. For example, on Friday we were boarding a SWA flight to Seattle and I had a hand on my luggage, the other on my boarding pass and ID, and a hoard of impatient travelers behind me. No way could I have stopped to pull out a camera or phone for this:Monday, March 24, 2014
Day 44
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Day 43
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Day 42
Saw the Chihuly glass explicit at his museum downtown this morning. It was excellent with opportunities to use and compare all three of my cameras: the Canon point-and-shoot, my Droid, and Google Glass.
Each had their strengths and the results were good overall: great color saturation, outstanding composition opportunities, wonderful shapes, dramatic lighting. Video with Glass was particularly fun and effective.
Had a nice chat with one of the museum staff who noticed my Glass. Only the second he's seen.
Still having trouble embedding photos with Blogspot when using it on a mobile device. Imagery will probably have to wait until Monday when I get to a desktop computer.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Day 41
A day of travel, my first trip by air with Glass. Lots of good photos and videos, some candid, others just because the camera was handy. It's been a full day with ABQ-SEA travel, lunch in Ballard, getting settled at the Chilcote residence, and a Dungeness crab dinner. Plenty of good material, but it will have to wait until the morning for downloading and attaching.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Day 40
Busy, Busy
Time well spent today putting finishing touches on the Glass field trial methods. In a week or two we should be running actual proof-of-concept tests in TA-5 to get a feel for on-site inspection with Glass.I did a system reset on the Sandia-purchased set of Glass and handed them off to Maikael. He'll spend the next two weeks spinning up on the technology. After that, we'll get them over to Sharon and that will mean we have three Explorers in the group to help out with field trials.
Meanwhile...
It's spring in NM even if it's still cold and snowy back east. Here's a couple happy snaps of the greenhouse with iris starting to bust out in front of it.And here's Bella Cat at the door in the Hidden Garden with late afternoon sun.
Time to get packed for Seattle. Tomorrow, if I can successfully post from Phinney Ridge, we'll have Glass views of airport security, Southwest Airlines, and Seattle without rain.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Day 39
Haze
It was an oddly hazy morning up in the foothills. Although clear in the North Valley, the mountains were a backlit with an odd dusty fog. Not at all pleasant for photography.The work plan for Glass in our TA-5 testbed is moving ahead. I made a 2 minute video of some mock inspection activities in our technology display area.
But otherwise, it was a quiet day for Glass. Even the drive home had only one small traffic backup, which I handily avoided.
Flight School
The air was dead calm tonight when Kent and Ric came over for "game night." Perfect for Wi-Fi helicopter flying. The young padawan has learned much...Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Day 38
It's been a day in front of the computer (Glass-less) or in meetings (almost Glass-less). About all I can report on is that I updated the Google Glass Wikipedia article to include a reference to the Rx lenses roll-out. A quick screen shot with Glass captures the crazed excitement of the moment.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Day 37
Fitness
This morning I had my periodic fitness assessment down at Medical. I brought along Glass for show-and-tell. The techs were blown away by the capabilities and the possibilities. Almost effortlessly, they started taking their own videos. Here I am looking profoundly amused.Sunday, March 16, 2014
Day 36
The Ill-fated Jemez Botanical Expedition of 2014
Yesterday's attempt to harvest grasses and forbs at the top of Capulin Canyon in the Jemez Mountains was met with abject failure. Mom Nature thumped us and set us packing.Saturday, March 15, 2014
Day 35
The Great Jemez Mountains Botanical Expedition of 2014
Woke up early to a rare foggy morning in Albuquerque. Kent came by and we loaded up the Prius. Destination: St. Peter's Dome Road and the headwaters of Capulin Canyon, high in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. It had rained the night before and we thought snowline might be near the research location where my nephew was going to be collecting field data for his senior botany project. But it was just a trace of precipitation--surely the sun would melt off a little spindrift snow.Friday, March 14, 2014
Day 34
Packing
Not much time for a blog post tonight as I prep for the weekend outing--collecting botanical field data at 8500' in the remote Jemez Mtns with my nephew for his senior biology project. Despite the remoteness, we'll be able to car camp, which let's me get very sloppy.Thursday, March 13, 2014
Day 33
One Third of the Way There
Thirty three days have passed since I started this blog and I'm beginning to grok Glass. It's certainly not a technology or tool that you pick up in a day or even a week. Glass gives you opportunities to do things differently, but in a subtle manner. You have to think about solving a particular problem from another direction instead of the linear desktop computer methods we typically apply.Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Day 32
A Light Day of Glass
A busy morning with a seminar on geolocation with Twitter. An animated discussion of "Tweeting from Justin Beiber's Heart" and "Where's @Wally?" was quite enlightening. But, alas, it was in the "no phone" zone of the so-called Limited Area. Definitely not a place for Glass.Interestingly, next Monday the pilot program for permitting personally-owned electronic devices in the Limited Areas will begin. One of the stipulations is that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth must be disabled -- but not cellular radios. Glass without either is pretty helpless.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Day 31
Next Generation Safeguards
Not much time for Glass today--to much time spent banging my head against the keyboard. However, right after lunch I gave a tour of our display area to a group of young professionals interested in nuclear safeguards. I wore Glass as a talking point and it attracted quite a bit of attention.Monday, March 10, 2014
Day 30
Inchoate Thoughts
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Day 29
Sunday Synopsis
With cooperative weather, it was a fine morning to transition to daylight saving time. That "spring ahead" thing always messes me up. We took Mom to the Olive Garden for lunch and then set her up with her new mini-exercise bicycle. Below is a quick snap of the bouquet from Trader Joe's on her dining table. After a quick trip to the grocers, it was time for an afternoon of relaxation.Saturday, March 8, 2014
Day 28
Birthdays
It was a day of cooking, getting ready for McGoey and Toni's birthday dinner. On the menu, a multicultural affair with a Greek salad and Italian spaghetti with meat sauce. I took several short videos during cooking and prep work. Handsfree is definitely the way to go when cooking.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Day 27
Close-up Photography with Glass
Here's a series I took of some peach blossoms. The first was taken from about 6" away. Despite the large and centrally placed target, Glass could only focus as close as the branch behind, perhaps 9" away. The open flowers are about 1" in diameter.This second pic is from a little further back, about 9". No problem with focus and the wide-angle lens provides crazy deep depth of field. Unfortunately, the flowers of interest are already shrinking too far to show much detail.
Taken from about 12", this picture again shows excellent depth of field but not enough detail for the small target.
At 15" the peach blossoms are much too small to be a point of interest and we begin to see some washing out from the bright sky to the left.