Mental Interface

New Blog.

thaed — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:08:00 +0000

Not that anyone reads Mental Interface anymore, but I’m co-authoring a blog now with ksuflash about Makerbots in Ohio. Check it out.

Makerbot

thaed — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:31:55 +0000

I’ve talked about being a serial hobbyist here before. These days, I do art and 3d printing. I figured I would share a pic of my basement plastic factory.

On the Internet, Death is not forever.

thaed — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:38:26 +0000

Oh hai, it’s your old buddy Thaed, back from the dead. I had to come back here to delete the link to my moribund gamer podcast as I let the URL go and a furry site picked it up. How embarrassing.

In other news, Friday Night Party Line is back and being run by my friend and very skillful Sonic. He’s doing it about once a month and I actually missed a show. It feels pretty cool to collaborate with folks on something I started and watch it grow and morph into something else.

I may start to casually write here again. I’ve been so absorbed in Makerbots in the last 6 months, this might give me an outlet to discuss them. We’ll see.

Death of an alter-ego?

thaed — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:12:07 +0000

This blog has gone through some dead times before, but nothing like recently. Most blogs don’t last. This one I wrapped around my internet pseudonym and went with for years. That alter-ego also produced two podcasts and had lots of fun on many internet forums.

Where is he now?

Last spring, a family member of mine had some heath problems that triggered a rather intense period of self evaluation. As a result, I drastically changed how I spend my time. I began to pursue new hobbies and interests and pretty much abandoned poor old Thaed and his blog and his one remaining podcast.

On days like today where I have bits of time not otherwise allocated I wonder if I couldn’t go back. I doubt it. Too much has changed. I do miss many of my internet friends that I don’t get to talk to anymore because of FNPL’s dormancy. Still, I doubt it will come back anytime soon.

So maybe this is the last blog post for Thaed or maybe not, but if you’re reading this, you must at least have wondered what happened. Now you know.

FNPL #41

thaed — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:43:49 +0000

Direct download: FNPL_41.mp3

Tonight’s hosts: Rym, Scott, David, Jason, Alex, Luke and Thaed. Thanks to Sonic for coming aboard as our new editor. Here are the topics:

–Neutrinos, radioactive decay and the Earth’s core.
–Steampunk band Abney Park and the nature of this movement today.
Bolt some smelly brass on an ipod and call it steampunk?
–Ask the economist.

We had technical problems tonight. The outtakes are almost as long as the show.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Email Thaed at thaed@cox.net
Follow Thaed on Twitter.

The puppy and the slipper.

thaed — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:55:26 +0000

What’s this?

It’s Daddy’s slipper!

Daddy has bought me a dozen colorful chew toys, but nothing tastes better than his slippers. However, Daddy would prefer that I not chew his slippers.

What? It’s my nature!

Friday Night Party Line #40.

thaed — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:35:12 +0000

This was recorded on 2/13/2009 and features David, Kelly, Jason & Thaed.

–Economic down-turn and Open Source. Will it help or hurt?

–(From David) “The big things don’t love you back. They take and take, and never give in return. They’ll drain your blood, your soul, and never let you go.” The Postman by David Brin.

–If your lifestyle uses a lot of gas and electricity, but you can afford it, should you change your lifestyle to conserve energy? Say you like driving Hummers, your house costs a fortune to heat and you run a hot tub year round. But you have the money, so it has no impact on you financially? Is this wrong?

–In his book “Brain Rules” John Medina advocates putting treadmills in the classroom because exercise improves mental acuity. He believes ancient humans walked 12 miles a day and we should too. Is this
workable?

–Contests held to improve technology dates back to contests in England to see who could design the best locomotive. Now, we have DARPA prizes, the X-Prize and a host of others. Should there be a prize for every single societal problem? Should we have a cure malaria prize? A stop homelessness prize?

–(From Jason) Big corporations are using viral media like “leaked videos” (which are actually produced) like the Kobe Bryant kiddie pool dunk video from Nike and the “fake” music videos which pretend to be indie but are actually backed by a major record label. Are major commercial and advertising studios intimidated by the amateur video & audio movement?

–Ask the economist.Direct download: FNPL_40_final.mp3

Of hiatus and the broken brain.

thaed — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:38:19 +0000

In the many weeks that it has been that I have written here, real life has wholly absorbed my time. All creative energies have been spent keeping my meatspace presence a going concern. I often think about the blog and podcast but never find time and energy to work on them. FNPL 40 is in the can, but unedited.

The fact that I am writing these words gives me some hope that the tide is turning. But I have no idea if this is true. Time will tell.

Friday Night Party Line #39.

thaed — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:38:48 +0000

It’s been out for several days, but I never posted it here because I’m ungodly lazy.

Kelly rejoins the cast including Scott, Rym, Luke and Thaed. Here are the topics:

–”I let it run overnight” is a fun google search. What things things do you like to let run overnight and with what results? What would you like to be able to let run overnight?

–What about a computer game for misers and jerks? It would allow you to amass huge amounts of wealth, palaces and AI bots to order around. You start out by being born into royalty and deal with the intrigue of
Louis the XIV. Or something. Or just a sandbox where you can horde, order and abuse at will. AI slaves! Millions of them. That’s it. If we can’t have robot slaves, we can have AI slaves. Would it sell?

–In a cage match between Naomi Klein and Ann Coulter, who would win?

–How the economic crisis is affecting podcasting.

Sites where you can find more information about Scott and Rym:

http://www.frontrowcrew.com

Subscribe via iTunes.

Email Thaed at thaed@cox.net
Follow Thaed on Twitter.

Direct download: fnpl_39_final.mp3

Thinking the car will stop.

thaed — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:46:06 +0000

Today, as I backed my van out of a parking space, a guy and his two kids ran right behind me. Since I was being very careful, I did not hit them. Just a few weeks earlier a guy in a parking lot did the same thing. I didn’t hit him either.

My question is this: why do people tempt fate with vehicles that are backing up? When I’m walking near someone backing up, I always assume the person cannot see me and I stay the hell away. More often than not, the people who are backing up cannot see pedestrians or are perhaps not being as careful as they should be.

Part of defensive driving is believing that everyone around you is an idiot. I just wish it did not have to be true all the time. As much as I used to like video games, I really would rather not play a driving game with 6000 lbs. of steel and real flesh and bone.