Month: January 2014

Consumer Thermal Imaging

this an awkward implementation, but i welcome the addition of new sensors. being able to find and fix those spots where you’re leaking heat is very empowering.

FLIR Systems launched the FLIR ONE, the first consumer-oriented thermal imaging system for a smartphone.

2015-01-06: Given the embarrassing quality of most houses in the us, a bit of public leak shaming would be great.

Drive-by heat mapping from MIT spinoff Essess can quickly track energy leaks.

The threat of clowns

i’ll be honest here, posting this only because of the lulz.

The ACLU has taken up the case of the Juggalos. As you may have heard, back in 2011, the FBI bizarrely classified the fans of the music group, The Insane Clown Posse, who refer to themselves as the Juggalos, as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang… rapidly expanding into many US communities.”

Fake it till you make it

Okay that entire paragraph was a lie. Did you believe me? If so, why? Was it because I looked like a kid programming whiz? When that photo was taken, I didn’t even know how to touch-type. My parents were just like, “Quick, pose in front of our new computer!” (Look closely. My fingers aren’t even in the right position.) My parents were both humanities majors, and there wasn’t a single programming book in my house.

This is fascinating. Asian kid uses his history of “looking like he knows what he is doing” to explain how he was able to fake it till he made it.

Ancient mentally ill community

Geel strikes the visitor as a quiet, tidy but otherwise unremarkable Belgian market town. Yet its story is unique. For more than 700 years its inhabitants have taken the mentally ill and disabled into their homes as guests or ‘boarders’. At times, these guests have numbered in the 1000s, and arrived from all over Europe. There are several 100 in residence today, sharing their lives with their host families for years, decades or even a lifetime.