Tag Archives: Photography

Turkey Creek Trail – Hike

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This trail can be found on the right just as you round a bend and cross over a narrow bridge on City Park Road. The trailhead parking is before the ranger booth for Emma Long Metropolitan Park. The hike consists of several creek crossings, and a climb to the top of a small ridge. The area is currently leash free, so expect to encounter lots of wet dogs roaming the trail. I tried – and mostly succeeded – to keep out of the creek while hopping from rock to rock. I got to see the sunset from the ridge top and then had a dark hike while trying to find my way out. I didn’t get eaten by monsters, so all is good. 🙂

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Lyve

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I am testing a free App called Lyve on three of my devices so far – iPad 3, Samsung Galaxy S4, and iPod Touch. There are different sets of pictures on each device, and Lyve has connected to each via the magical interwebs to pull them all into one view sorted by photo date. I’m adding some screenshots so you can get the idea of how it all looks. The first screenshot is the home page when you open the App with my most recent photos, the second is me selecting photos from my visit to Zion National Park back in September 2013, and the third is me selecting one of my favorite photos to send in an e-mail with full resolution. So far, I am pleased with how this App pulls everything together.

If you research their products on their website, you will also see a $300 device that will collect your photos and store them on a 2TB hard drive as long as it is connected to the wireless internet. I’m not sure about spending that kind of dough, but I am researching it in case part of my tax refund needs to be spent on technologies. I need a simple, organized, flawless, inexpensive, automated backup process for my photos, and I haven’t fallen in love with any of the cloud options out there. I could envision having one device at home and one device at work so you could show off all your super cool photography abilities to your groovy coworkers.

If anyone from the Lyve Team wants to provide me with a free trial device, I would be willing to give it a go for you (shameless plug for my highly marketable skills at testing and breaking techie stuff). 🙂

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Robocup Soccer Exhibition

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One of my most anticipated events at the Artificial Intelligence Open House was to witness the Robocup Soccer Exhibition. One of the teams was from The University of Texas – The Austin Villa Robot Soccer Team. The goal is to “build fully autonomous cooperative multi-robot systems that perform well in dynamic and adversarial environments.” How much fun it was to watch these little guys roam the soccer field, chase the ball down, tumble around and get back up on their own, pass the ball, and score goals. The robots are all a Standard Platform (identical except for programming and jersey color) and “Aldebaran Nao” robots. They receive no programming assistance while on the field, but must find the ball and play soccer on their own. Too much fun!

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Hyatt Regency Austin

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I had a fun opportunity to visit the Hyatt Regency this afternoon for a conference on Artificial Intelligence. The host organization was the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). I sat in on a talk by Moshe Vardi from Rice University who spoke on the topic, “If Machines are Capable of Almost Any Work Humans can Do, What will Humans Do?” Thought provoking…

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Walnut Creek Hike and Bike Trail

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At sunset, it was time to work off my overconsumption of meat pies, and go for a long walk along the Walnut Creek Hike and Bike Trail. The section I walked had sights like a golf course, Walnut Creek, flooded trail sections, bridge underpasses, graffiti, winter trees, bamboo, dried brush, and plenty of bikers, hikers and dogs. It was a pleasant walk, and I will have to explore this trail further when I have the opportunity.

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Australia Day – Pie Eating Contest

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The highlight of the day was Boomerang’s and their food truck full of meat pies. I had a couple of Southwest Chicken pies to support their cause. I should have entered the Pie Eating Contest to get a free one on the sly. 🙂

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