Blood's Blog

This year, I finally had the time to visit Oreilly’s Maker Faire in San Mateo. What a treat! There is hope for us all yet. Some of my favorites included the following self-correcting robot:

more to come (I’m about to get on a plane) …

So today I took the plunge and upgraded to Wordpress 3.0 Beta. Normally, I would wait, but the new features and the new default theme (Twenty Ten) intrigued me enough to throw caution to the wind.

Key features include:

1. a default theme that lends itself to child theme development
2. a menu system that allows you to mix categories and pages
3. better custom post types
4. a merged WP/WPMU code base, which allows managing a network of sites (multisite) without a separate WPMU installation
5. and a variety of code improvements and bug fixes

You can see a complete list of new features here.

Here is what I’ve learned so far during the install:

1. disable all plugins (just to be safe)
2. WooThemes would not work out of the box, so it is best if you first revert to the default theme (Kubrick). The site worked fine, but the theme caused an error in the admin section.

Experimenting with the new Menu system (based on the Woo Themes framework) is a delight!

1. very cool feature!
2. selecting pages and categories is simple
3. creating nested menus is as simple as dragging one item on top of the other
4. ordering menu items is a little tricky, just because the drag-and-drop Ajax control requires a steady hand

Problems

• The admin link manager appears to have a bug. I will return to this when I have more time.

What is your experience with Wordpress 3.0?

Today I had the privilege of attending the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco. While the presentations have all been interesting, Tim O’Reilly gave an inspired talk on the future of open source. He then promptly posted his presentation on slideshare.

Many, many years ago, I studied Arabic which I had dreamed of learning since being a teenager. In the past decade, I have forgotten most if not all of what I once knew. Yesterday, I purchased a bilingual reader called “Modern Arabic Short Stories”, and started reading. My strategy included copying down words and phrases of which I am unsure. To my chagrin, I discovered that my Arabic script is horrid (my English penmanship is not exactly something to write home about either). At the end of each paragraph, I pull out my trusty Hans Wehr and look up the words. Arabic is fascinating, because of the multi-faceted levels of meaning.

For 2010, I have resolved to re-learn Arabic, and to study Arabic calligraphy along the way. For a very informative introduction to Arabic calligraphy please visit Calligraphy Qalam

While living in Santa Monica for a few years, I practiced Yoga and Tai Chi almost every day. My daily inspiration came from my teacher Master Zi, aka Master Nzazi Malonga. If you ever happen to be in Santa Monica and are looking for a good workout, swing by Shakti’s and try a Yoga Naga class! You will be amazed at how intense a Yoga session can be – this is not for the faint of heart.

If you are in the mood for a more contemplative experience, try one of the Tai Chi classes. All of the teachers are excellent, but if you can only do one class, take one of Master Zi’s classes.

For more information, goto shaktiselements.com

In 1833, Salvador de Vives, a Spaniard who emigrated from Venezuela to Puerto Rico, purchased an 87-acre farm in the hills north of Ponce. Hacienda Buena Vista, as it came to be known, sits in a subtropical forest near the Caños River. The hacienda soon became a major producer of coffee, as well as corn, bananas, pineapple, oranges, and cacao. Salvador’s son and grandson installed a Barker’s mill powered by a nearby 60-foot waterfall, making Hacienda Buena Vista the first farm in Latin America to generate its own electric power by means of a water mill.

This Barker turbine was built by the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, N.Y.  It can produce about 6 hp at 22 rpm. This is the only known example of a functional industrial Barker hydraulic turbine, the earliest practical reaction turbine design. The mill and turbine have been restored with major support from the Smithsonian Institute, and once again powers the coffee pulper, pergamino de-huller & corn milling machines. Many turbines appear to have been melted down during the civil war, so it is possible that other Barker turbines existed at one point, but no document has surfaced so far to point towards another example.
A Barker’s mill or Scottish turbine is a hydraulic machine on the principle of what is known as the hydraulic tourniquet. Water pours down an upright vessel free to rotate about a vertical axis, and then jets from nozzles at the ends of the arms. This causes the arm-and-shaft assembly to rotate. The brass nozzles are adjustable to balance the water flow to each side.

Barker’s turbine was invented as a laboratory curiosity at the end of the 17th century. It was later improved upon, leading to the Scotch turbines widely used throughout Europe and America. The discovery of this pre- Scotch turbine in Ponce led historians on a decade-long search for its origins. The turbine follows improvements made by James Whitelaw in 1841 England and 1843 America, often treated as the first true metal turbine waterwheel. This turbine, then, is considered a “missing link” in the evolution of turbines.
Hacienda Buena Vista is located about 10mi/16.1km north of Ponce.

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Avery’s Hero Steam Turbine

For a detailed engineering description of the turbine, please refer to the following link:  Barker Turbine/Hacienda Buena Vista Brochure

European robotics labs are collaborating to develop a humanoid robot by copying the human body’s inner structures: bones, joints, muscles, and tendons. The ECCEROBOT project has three goals:

1. to design and build a robot using anthropomimetic principles;
2. to characterise its dynamics and control it;
3. to exploit its human-like characteristics to produce some human-like cognitive features.

The researchers used thermoplastic polymer, elastic cords, and other soft, flexible materials to build the torso, arms, and hands.

Anthropomimetic robots, i.e. robots that mimic the human form are not new, but mimicking the internal structures using flexible materials is a new direction in robotics.

The Unimate - the first industrial robot (1961).

We have certainly come a long way!

Hmm, not sure I want our Robots to develop cognitive skills … I’m reminded of Maria, the “Maschinenmensch” or human machine in Metropolis, who is sent to sow discord among men. BTW, if you have never seen Metropolis, you can rent it from Netflix. It is an amazing movie, all the more so, since it was released in 1927.

Maria is getting instructions from her master.

For a great history of robotics visit my friend’s James website solely dedicated to robotics at megagiants.com.

My mother Erika  just published her first book. It is called “Now You Are 60 or More: So What!”. She describes ways to stay young in mind and spirit. As she states in the foreword:

No matter what age you are now, you can adopt a new way of thinking which enables you to help yourself and others live healthy and happy lives with great longevity.

My mother experienced her childhood in the horrors of World War II. As a ten year old, she helped “find” food for the family. Towards the end of the war, she survived several aerial bombardments, one of which destroyed the family house. A heartless American pilot straffed her while she was trying to find left-over potatoes in a field. Her teenage years were spent under German re-construction.

My mother had ambitions of becoming a concert pianist and studied music at the Heidelberg Music Conservatory. Life had different plans for her, and in the 1950’s, she emmigrated to the United States.

My mother has already lived a long and interesting life, and has acquired a measure of wisdom that she imparts in this, her first book. I will push her to write the other books that still lay dormant within her.

You can purchase her book here.

Thomas Blood – A Proud Son

As of October 1st of 2008, Nevada businesses must encrypt personal information of a customer for any electronic transmission. A simple, inexpensive solution to meeting this legal mandate is to sign up for Webloq’s private email (Full Disclosure: I am the VP of Engineering for Webloq).

The law defines personal information as first name or first initial plus last name in combination with either a Social Security number, driver’s license, ID card, credit/debit card or account number, along with any security code or password that would permit access to a person’s financial accounts.

Similarly, in Massachusetts, state regulators issued rules that require entities that store personal information on residents to encrypt that data on laptops and other portable devices. The requirements took effect on Jan. 1, 2009.

As identity theft data breaches continue to make headlines, more and more states will attempt to solve this multi-billion dollar problem with legislation. After California adopted its data breach disclosure law in 2003, more than 40 states implemented their own variation of data breach disclosure laws. The same thing will occur with personal data encryption laws. Several states, including California are preparing to implement similar laws in the near future.

Larger companies are better poised to implement protective measures in order to comply with these laws. They already have security experts in house, and typically have a security infrastructure in place. Their biggest burden will be training, not implementation.

Smaller businesses on the other hand lack the expertise and the systems needed to comply with these laws. If you own a small business and want to protect your customer’s personal information when sending email, Webloq has the solution for you!

In high school, I read Goethe’s Faust for the first time. It used to be required reading in German high schools. My mother’s generation had to memorize large sections. While I greatly enjoyed reading Faust, I was never quite sure why this book is such a big deal in German education. The most memorable character in Faust is clearly Mephistopheles. I thought I would share a few points on this devious and fascinating character.

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles (abbr. Mephisto) is the main character in Goethe’s Faust (other than Faust of course). In the Middle Ages, Mephisto was known as a demon who could be called upon for help, or who could be magically summoned as a “Paredros” (spiritus familiaris).

The etymology of the term is unclear, but includes the following possibilities:

1. Most likely, it is derived from Hebrew by combining the words “mephir” (Destroyer, Spoiler) and tophel (Liar).
2. The older variant “Mephostophiles” could be interpreted as “the one who does not love light/Faust”, by combining “me” (not) with “philes” (lover) of “phosto” (light or Faust).
3. Mephistophiles could also derive from “mephistis” (harmful gases emanating from the earth) and Greek “philos” (love), i.e. the “stench lover”

All Hallow's Eve Celebration

The first publication concerning the Faustian myth was printed in 1587. This book, called the Praxis Magia Faustiana, also made reference to Mephistis, the Italian goddess of sulfurous emanations. Mephistic gases were defined as gaseous substances that had a harmful or deadly effect on inhalation.

As the antagonist in Johann Wolfgang Goethes tragedy „Faust“ (Urfaust, Faust I, Faust II) Mephisto wagers a bet with God. He states that he will successfully entice Doktor Heinrich Faust to deviate from the straight and narrow path. Later in the story, Mephisto succeeds and Faust enters into a pact after experiencing a moment of such beauty that he wants to cling to that moment forever.

This representation of Mephisto bears little resemblance to the medieval imagination of the devil. Goethe’s Mephisto represents the principle of negation. Goethe has Mephisto reflect:

“Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint! Und das mit Recht, denn alles, was entsteht, ist wert, daß es zugrunde geht; Drum besser wär’s, daß nichts entstünde. So ist denn alles, was ihr Sünde, Zerstörung, kurz, das Böse nennt, mein eigentliches Element.“

“I am the Spirit that negates.
And rightly so, for all that comes to be,
Deserves to perish wretchedly.”

This version of the devil represents a materialistic view of life.

Illustration by Goethe himself

During the prolog, Mephisto identifies himself as an element of the world, in other words, he is part of God’s creation. As part of creation, he is tied into God’s plan, which consists of the constant ebb and flow, and includes the creation of things as well as their destruction. Mephisto, representing the principle of negation, is essential to the functioning of the world. He can never reach his goal, the destruction or negation of the entire creation, since he is really a tool wielded by God. And although he is completely aware of his role, he pursues his task with complete dedication. He is the most interesting character in Goethe’s Faust.

It is never quite clear what drives him onwards. Nevertheless, he strives to triumph in a contest that has long been decided.

Another interpretation holds that Mephisto represents the externalization of Fausts’ subconscious. In this view, he  is the destructive quality of Faust.

For a thorough review of Faust (in German), check out wikipedia.de.