Lighthead.net

I went to Maryland to visit with family during the eclipse weekend and while there was only a partial eclipse there, I found myself enjoying it more than I thought. The maximum coverage was around 80% and there was some cloud cover but that ended up helping with taking pictures more directly as seen below

Something I noticed that's interesting is that in the lens flares, the eclipse is "mirrored". I'm not sure what causes this but I'm hoping the explanation is interesting. I'll update this if I find out.

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Hard to believe but this site is now 15 years old today! It originated sort of a place for random stuff. A lot of it Sonic related and whatever came across my mind 15 years ago. To left is the original logo for this place.

Even though this place has undergone a lot of transformations the last 15 years, a few things have NEVER changed.

• The font color
• This text at bottom: The Domain of Dr Lighthead, Gore, and Robotar, is the RSupremor in which is where you appear to be right now. All base operations take place here.
• Picture Wars - Content on the page has changed but it still remains on as a link on the main site

Smart watches are still just getting started.

Android Wear has been around now for over 6 months. I got my hand on the LG Watch that was on sale around Christmas time. An app called "Facer" allowed me to recreate my favorite watch face from Pebble. (It was love weather which has conditional weather backgrounds)

While driving down to see my family in Maryland, I get a text from my dad asking how far I am. Just a tap and "Ok Google, send message to dad: About an hour" a reply text message is sent fast and hands free, entirely from my watch.

I've had the Pebble Watch for about 6 months now and almost every day while at work, someone inquiries about it.

"Is that a smart watch?"

It is very evident that smart watches are next big nut to crack. I read online that, "Oh, no one wears watches anymore. They check their phone instead." The problem with that, is there are tons of niche cases where pulling out your phone to glance at notifications is very frowned upon or even not allowed. The ease of use to quickly see who's calling you, reading text messages, or even emails is empowering and I think the future. The watch is a great notification platform. Pulling out your phone to check emails can be disruptive and a hassle within niche scenarios. (At a restaurant, getting a haircut, working retail... to name a few)

Smart watches are just getting started.

I like to build websites.

I recently got my first client and he does landscaping locally. So now with spring now starting, it made sense that he wanted to let the world know he's out there. He knew me well enough (from at work) that he canceled the person he was originally going to have build the site once he learned I could build one for him at likely a fraction he would have paid.

Fast forward to now and you see the product as it is today: Rotterdam Landscaping

This is fun!

With the introduction of the iPad, we were shown a glimpse of a post pc era, a term that is now being tossed around all the time since Steve Jobs said it. Does this mean that we'll all be using nothing but iPad, Android, and even Windows 8 tablets in the near future? I think it does look this way increasingly as Mark Zuckerberg recently said that more traffic is coming from mobile than the classic desktop, but that doesn't mean tablets and laptops and even desktops can't coexist.

I own a Nexus 7 and a Galaxy Nexus. I decided to get a bluetooth keyboard for the Nexus 7 which doubles as a case, matching its size. Both fit in my back pocket snugly together. A picture of this setup is to the right. Could this be a laptop replacement? Not yet and most likely not for most people, however, the portability of it plays a huge role for me. Looking things up on it is more convenient and pleasant than using a phone especially if you plan to show someone else. It might end up replacing my laptop sooner than I thought.

I live in a snowy area. Road conditions can get bad really quick. I've noticed that Google Maps' live traffic information is a gateway to gauge road conditions. Green lines would mean likely plowed areas while yellow and red lines mean cars are slowing down because of poor conditions. I suppose there's a chance it could be actual traffic but when you know the weather is bad, it's far more likely to show yellow and red lines because of road conditions.

I eagerly await the day when web apps published with HTML5 with the combination of 4G connectivity become indistinguishable to native apps. We are already starting to see this. The mobile Facebook app on Android uses HTML5 but they are backing down off it because HTML5 can't quite integrate within your phone like a native app can.

Meanwhile take the Google Plus app. It's more pleasant to open the app rather than browse to the site on the web. The same is true with Facebook on iOS. This is scary because it's discouraging people to use the web and more and more companies will follow suit thinking they need to make an app when just a web site could serve as their "app" just fine. Hopefully HTML5 will address all this in the near future.

Here we have this site's biggest update its ever had. I've converted it to a more portfolio type of site, removing a lot of the previous content that no longer made much sense to keep around. It's not all gone however. You can find it at archive.lighthead.net

So about that Picture Wars.. I'm keeping it around. I want to get into app development and ambitiously develop an app for it.