Mar/100
Silverlight 3, LINQ, and Bing! Oh, my! [1 of 2]
In my last post I talked about Silver Shorts and showed off my example Bing Image search application.
For this post and the next I want to go over the code that I created for doing a Bing image query, to demonstrate just how powerful and concise Silverlight 3 C# code can be. To truly appreciate this, I suggest checking out the code, which totals about 225 lines for both the Image Search utility AND the Test Application.
To get started, let’s enumerate the requirements I came up with for the project:
- Image Search
- Bing Image query based on textual search terms
- Transform XML results into custom classes
- Test Application
- Image Search based on UI input
- Display results on the UI
We’ll refer back to these requirements as we build the code to make sure we stay on track.
Mar/100
Project Silver Shorts
Last week I decided to install the Visual Studio 2010 RC for the purposes of messing around with C#, Silverlight 3, and all the new WPF goodness that came with it. I only intended to dabble for a day or so, but ended up having my entire week consumed in what seemed like a moment.
If you have Silverlight installed, you can view the end result of my first experiment after the page break. It is a simple Bing image searcher that displays thumbnails of the results on a canvas.
What is Project Silver Shorts?
More than anything Silver Shorts is an idea, a codename for a collection of demos in C#, most of which have yet to be written, targeting Silverlight 3, that are intended to be Short. As I stumble and bumble my way around .NET, finding new and interesting things to do with it, I will make my experiments available with full source code on GitHub (skip to the bottom if all you care about is code.)
For the developers in the audience, let’s take a look at a simple LINQ query I have fabricated to summarize the goals of Silver Shorts while simultaneously showing off how neat LINQ is.
var blogPosts =
from exp in user.Experiences()
where exp.IsAwesome
select new BlogPost()
{
Title = exp.Concept,
Content = exp.Details,
CodeUrl = exp.GitUrl;
};
To be painfully and obnoxiously clear, this code example is not part of the actual demo program, it is only here to look pretty and be a conversation piece.
Feb/102
Valentinius J Daysworthy, Kidnapper of realistic expectations, Devourer of self-esteems par excellence, at your service.
I think Love is a wonderful thing that should be celebrated, and to that end I’d like to wish all the lovers out there a great day with their significant others.
Confusing Love and Happiness
I take issue today with the institution of Valentines Day, which masquerades as a supporter of love, happiness, and all things good about personal relationships, concealing an insidious second purpose just beneath the surface. VDay, with the help of our Advertising and Media, manages to juxtapose happiness and love for the purposes of making the argument that a persons happiness and fulfillment have a dependent relationship to love or, errm, relationships.
Nov/090
Holy Mars Orbiter, Batman!
In August of 2005 NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, In March of 2006 it arrived at Mars and began to study the terrain and atmosphere in great detail. Over the last 4 years the MRO has gathered more data on Mars than the sum of all other missions to Mars combined[2].
Today let’s take a look at some of the amazing pictures it has returned. All of the amazing detail of the images you see on this page are provided by HiRISE which is one of 6 instruments carried on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter…
Barchan Dunes in Chasma Boreale
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (link)
HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona Tucson and has the most powerful telescopic camera ever flown to another planet at its disposal. As of October 8th, 2009 the HiRISE project has released into the public domain almost 1.2million images, totaling just under 38Terabytes of data[3].
Sand Dunes
Nov/090
Yo-Yo Ma : Appassionato
It’s not often that I feel compelled to write and about music, but every once in a while something stands out as being so worthy of praise that it would almost be a crime not to. After months of listening and consideration, I believe that Yo-Yo Ma’s Appassionato is just one such thing.
In a collection of recordings spanning almost 3 decades, Ma has put together a fantastic story about his passion for music. Each track guides you effortlessly into a new chapter, all magnificently decorated with the nuance and detail that you might expect from a well written book. From the lighthearted introduction of “Going to School” by John Williams, to the provocative and enduring conclusion of “Gabriel’s Oboe” by Ennio Morricone; Ma’s careful selection of recordings tells the story of his love for music that my words cannot do justice.
You may preview all the tracks on Amazon’s page. Share and enjoy.
Nov/090
Kandel on Memory Storage
In response to a blog post I wrote recently, a friend kindly pointed out that I seemed to have overlooked the work of Dr. Eric Kandel and others with respect to molecular changes that occur in neurons during learning. In 2000 Eric Kandel was awarded the Nobel Prize along with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard for their work detailing such molecular changes. As it turns out because of their work, we actually have a pretty fantastic understanding about how things are committed to short and long-term memory, as well as the general way in which synaptic connections relate to the storage of things in memory.
Nobel Lecture 2000
My friend also provided a link to the lecture that Kandel gave while he was in Stockholm accepting the Nobel Prize. I must admit that very little of the talk made complete sense to me, partly because the camera man chose not to show the screen while Kandel was using his laser pointer to go through the diagrams, and partly because I’m not a molecular biologist. A few very cool insights did come out of watching the lecture, that are interesting enough to share…
Sep/090
Feynman on Physics: Gates Brilliant Philanthropy?
I recently stumbled upon a project at Microsoft Research called “Tuva” which is an enhanced video player that is aimed at providing a rich informational video experience. It features video searching, full transcripts, interactive extras, an indexed time-line, and bookmarking capabilities.
By visiting the Project Tuva website you can view in their entirety Dr. Richard Feynman’s “Messenger Series” lectures on physics at Cornell university in 1964.
Here’s a quick over-view of the knowledge Feynman will be spitting at you in glorious Black and white video.
The Messenger Series Lectures
- Law of Gravitation – An Example of Physical Law
- The Relation of Mathematics and Physics
- The Great Conservation Principles
- Symmetry in Physical Law
- The Distinction of Past and Future
- Probability and Uncertainty – The Quantum Mechanical view of Nature
- Seeking New Laws
Each lecture is approximately 55 minutes and is guaranteed to expand your mind, or make you laugh. Regardless, it’s a good way to kill an hour… or seven.
Sep/090
Well fuck you too, decoherence.
I recently finished reading a really fantastic book by Charles Seife called Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, From our Brains to Black Holes that talks about classical and quantum physics in the context of Information Theory.
The badassery of this book aside, that’s not what I’m here to talk about; I’ve got a bone to pick with the theory of quantum decoherence. As any good power-nerd reading up on quantum theory I was particularly interested in the wacky things that can happen at the quantum level of things such as superposed objects, and entangled objects that appear to communicate at faster than the speed of light.
As it turns out quantum decoherence is like being waken up in the middle of a great dream about flying over a city-scape at night, only to realize that your alarm is telling you to get off your ass and embrace the real-world. It says that I can’t remain unobserved (in a quantum state) for any measurable period of time because I’m so big. Weak.
Sep/090
Practical Introspection: Observing Your Thoughts
Introspective Goals: Observe how thoughts arise in the mind
Time Commitment: 5-10 minutes
I would like to cover a simple and time-flexible focus exercise presented by the Dalai Lama.
If practiced continually one could reasonably expect to be able to focus more intently on things, or think critically for longer periods of time without distraction. It is because of these benefits that I consider this to be practical introspection.
I think it’s important to note that even though this exercise is put forth by the Dalai Lama, it is just a mental exercise to help cultivate better focus that does not depend on Buddhism or any religious practice to be useful.
Aug/090
Make your own practice kusari-fundo
Over the weekend I made some practice kusari-fundo (weighted short chain) on the advice of my sensei. You can find a more complete description of what kusari-fundo are over at wikipedia; basically it is a versatile, close range weapon of the ninja. It can be used in a number of ways from being thrown and wrapped around a limb, to being used to manipulate an arm or strangle an attacker.
Actual kusari-fundo combined with the unwieldy nature of learning how to control it can easily lead to serious injury, so this braided-nylon and kong-toy version is preferable.
Practice fundo are crucial because weighted chains have a tendency to break bones
I thought it would be cool to document the process and then share it. The pictures here show a longer resultant fundo set than I ended up being satisfied with. I shortened them a few times to get the length approximately from my sternum to the palm of my hand, when my arm is extended out from my side at a 90 degree angle.