Joe Ganley [http://ganley.org/]

Writing code since 1979

I have been a professional software engineer for over 10 years. I have written many kinds of software, but my particular strengths are interactive graphics applications, compilers and interpreters, and algorithms.

I also enjoy writing, woodworking, and home improvement. Also this.

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Thursday, December 11, 2003

Ah, a trip down memory lane. We used to get hours of entertainment out of these cheap little guns, which were (and apparently still are) called "Tracer Guns." We had an elaborate paintball-like game where if you got hit in the head or torso, then you were out, and if you got hit in a limb, then you couldn't use that limb any more. Now that I have kids of my own, it really puts this kind of play in a different perspective. Still, that was a lot of fun. Not surprisingly, these don't seem to be made in the USA any more (probably someone put their eye out and sued), but they're still made elsewhere and available from eBay.

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Thursday, December 04, 2003

We saw a movie the other day (Love, Actually, which was pretty good), and I arrived with a fresh Starbucks Eggnog Latté (it's a good thing these are only available in December, or I'd be broke and in cardiac rehab). It was a really early movie, like 1:00pm. Nonetheless, the teenaged ticket-taker said I couldn't bring the coffee in the theater. I asked if they sell coffee, and he said no. I told him that I wasn't going to buy one of their overpriced sodas whether or not he let me bring the coffee. Still no. Grrrr.

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Wednesday, December 03, 2003

I finally rode a Segway the other day. I have been, and remain, a big skeptic of its practical potential, but putting aside practicality and weighing pure geeky technolicious goodness, it's a hugely cool toy.

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A coworker and I were wondering why you couldn't make a laptop that is nothing but a small box that uses a Canesta light-projection keyboard and projects its monitor image onto a convenient flat surface. My best guess is that the projection hardware is too big; certainly the projectors we use for meetings are much too large. (Aside: The CTO and co-founder of Canesta is a former coworker of mine -- Hi, Cyrus!) Update 2-26-04: Apparently this idea is entirely possible: here it is.

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I just saw the movie The Game, which was quite good. People who enjoyed that movie should read The Magus and The Mind Game.

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