The volume is low, so you need to crank it up. You can download our demo source code and slides here

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• www.piiq.com
• twitter.com/JoshHighland
• Contest ends July 1, 2010

In my quest to embrace all things geek, I’m surprised that is has taken me so long to fall in love with this staple of geekdom. I am of course talking about the Rubiks cube.

I never had a rubiks cube growing up, sure I played with them but never at any length of time, or the intention of solving one.

The company that I currently work for had a developers conference and had some rubiks cubes with the company logo printed on them. After the conference, some of the left over cubes made their way into the hands of @BoringGeek, @LMajano, and myself. Nothing could have been crueler then handing some engineers a puzzle like a rubiks cube. I’m not going to lie, I physically lost sleep trying to solve the cube, but I had fun doing it.

I eventually broke down and started doing research on the rubiks cube and how to solve it. The more I learned about the cube, the more interested in it I became. I realized that solving the cube required pattern recognition and the implementation of algorithms through a series of motions. It was at that point in my mind that my computer science mindset kicked in and I started to make the cube do what I wanted instead of being surprised by what happened. I was in control of feeding the variables into the function and the function would produce a predictable and consistent result.

I can now solve the cube consistently, and typically around 3 minutes, a far cry from the speed cubing champions of the world, but I’m still proud of myself and continue to have fun solving the cube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have entered into a relationship with a new piece of high tech equipment, Drobo. Drobo is a self proclaimed “Data Robot”. In technical terms its a ASD (Attached storage device) running a custom version of RAID 5. When coupled with a DroboShare, it becomes a NAS (network attached storage) device.

In non tech terms, its an external harddrive that is expandable (up to 16 terabytes!) and can keep your data secure. The droboshare allows your computers to connect to it over your home network.

In the past I have blogged about how I love backups and how having good backups have saved my ass. The Drobo is the next evolution in my backup strategy.

I have recently moved away from my Windows Vista desktop and started to use my new Mac Book Pro as my main computer system. I eventually want to retire all the desktops on my network and run only laptops. I wanted to find a solution that was robust, expandable and allowed all of y computers to share a pool of data. After doing some research on popular NAS setups, I decided to go with Drobo.

One of the things that I liked about Drobo was how mindlessly easy it is to add more hard drives to the system. It’s so easy that I shot a video of myself adding a terabyte of storage in less then 30 seconds.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Right now I’m just testing the Drobo / DroboShare out. Once I get acquainted with it I’m sure there will be more blog posts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Things I was right about:

• Apple will announce a tablet device
• new version of the iPhone OS, 3.2.2
• iPad will run on the iPhone OS
• iPad will run iPhone applications
• The iPad will have a 10 inch screen (9.7 inches is close enough)
• 16, 32, 64 gig versions
• Verizon will not be involved

Things I was wrong about:

• There will be a new iPhone
• The new iPhone will have a new camera. The iPad doesnt have any cameras!

I really suggest that you read this book. I’ve been leveraging social media for years but this book has recharged me and changed the way that I think about several things. It’s a great read.

Order Crush It from Amazon.com for $10!

I went vegetarian in 1999, 10 years ago. In that time I have basically become vegan for all intensive purposes, but I have never labeled myself anything other then a strict vegetarian. I chose to stop eating meat as a symbol of my allegiance with animal rights, and as an economic protest against the factory farming industry.

Just because I don’t eat meat, it doesn’t mean that I’m a Hippy. Hippies are pacifists, I enjoy fighting and I support direct action. Direct action is not protesting, it’s actually doing something about the problem, physically going out and getting involved. The A.L.F. (Animal Liberation Front), E.L.F (Earth Liberation Front) and Sea Shepherds are organizations that you may have heard about in the news. Often these groups are referred to as Eco-Terrorists by those who don’t agree with their actions.

Recently the Sea Shepherd’s have been in the public spotlight with the reality television series, “Whale Wars“. The series chronicles the Sea Shepard’s as they travel into Antarctic waters to do battle with Japanese whalers. Some of the Sea Shepherds actions include tangling whaling boats propellers with cords and rope to immortalize them in the water, throwing stink bombs onto whalers decks, and ramming whaling ships with their own. The show has received criticism from both sides of the debate on commercial whaling, but regardless of the stance, it has raised awareness of what is taking place in the southern ocean, and that there are people who really are willing to risk their life’s to make a change. Even if you aren’t a fan of animal rights, it’s hard to watch a whale that’s running away, get a giant metal spike slammed through it’s body and slowly bleed to death. Because of video like this being shown on “Whale Wars”, the Sea Shepherds are getting a lot of momentum and support behind them.

Last Saturday, in Riverside California there was an art show / fund raiser to support Sea Shepperd. I was expecting there to be some people there, but I was completely blown away by the volume of people that turned out to support the cause. It was great to see what a little positive media exposure could do for a group of outlaw “eco-terrorists”. I wish I had some money to drop on some of the awesome art work that was on display.

I first became aware of Sea Shepherd in the 90′s through the Hardcore music scene and a band Ignite. The singer, Zoli, was very active with the group and wrote a few songs about direct action

In Defense – “Education without action does nothing, Bulldozers broken down, destruction takes the day off, the tank is filled with dirt. Land locked and monkeywrenched…”.

I was happy to see that Zoli was at the event. I got to catch up with him for a moment. Hanging out with him unlocked a flood of memories that I had locked away.

The highlight of the evening was listening to the founder of Sea Shepherd, Captain Paul Watson, speak. He was on stage for about 30 minutes and spoke very frankly about the groups intentions and what they are doing to ramp up their efforts to defend the creatures of the sea. It was inspiring. I’m really looking forward to the next season of Whale Wars.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think its fitting to end this blog post with a portion of a song from one of my favorite bands, “Earth Crisis”

Ultramilitance

Legal channels have been exhausted.
Uncruel alternatives rejected.
Awareness created and ignored.
Direct action is the last recourse.
Ultramilitance, Ultramilitants.

Salvation of innocents.
Intensified resistance.
Flooded by sabotage, disabled whaling ships sink beneath the waves.
Strikes against roving murderers.
Through destruction, innocents persists…

…NOW THIS WAR HAS TWO SIDES!