Ed Catmul quote

I heard this quote today, and it really sits well with me:

"Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur."

I so wish things worked more like this. Rather than being in a constant "let's not do anything with risk" mode, it would switch to a "let's push the envelope, and prepare for when it rips" mode.

This was from Ed Catmul (the president of Pixar), in a web article called "How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity". You can read the article here.

Gakken Stirling Engine = Failure :(

My boy and I spent about an hour putting together the Stirling Engine kit (see post from August 8th). And, after much ado and fanfare, it did... nothing. There's not a lot too it, and everything seems to be assembled correctly. Even sitting on a cup of very hot water, with icecubes on top of it, it simply doesn't run. A bit disappointing! I'll keep looking over it and see if I made some mistake :-S

Death Star over San Francisco

A co-worker sent me this link. Awesome video someone put together of various Starwars tems showing up over San Francisco. Since I live here, it really strikes home ;)

Original Link

The Art of Paul Bonner

I recently picked up this book off Amazon.com. I love his style: 'Realistic Cartoon' (my own words). Great fantasy, monsters, and action. He has this ability to cram huge things into small spaces, with piles of activity. The book is really nice: Hardback, a large range of his art. If you're in any way into fantasy art, this is worth a gander.

http://www.paulbonner.net
http://www.titanbooks.com

It's all about Python...

Haven't had any Processing updates lately, mainly because I've transitioned into Python for a bit: Been steadily updating my Python wiki. While Processing makes it so easy to do graphics, Python doesn't seem to have that built in by default (but I'm a noob, so maybe I'm just missing something). However, through a package called Pygame, and a wrapper for it called Livewires, it seems to make this stuff much easier. I'm just about to have my first graphical pizza falling through space, thanks to the wonderful book, Python Programming For The Absolute Beginner. If you're looking to find a resource that easily introduces one to Python, I'd recommend it!

Gakken Stirling Engine!

Just received my issue of Gakken #10 in the mail from Japan (took about two months :-( ). In it, they have a kit that lets you make a Stirling Engine that can run of the heat of my hand. You can check out a link to the project on MAKE blog here.

When I get the project finished I'll post up pics and vid, but I was too excited to not talk about it...