Lee.org

The most vital  message I’ve ever seen on a license plate! Hurray!

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

I worked on The Serpent Mother for Burning Man 2006. I can’t tell anymore if that was a long time ago or not. Regardless, here is a little tour…

Serpent Mother PDF Promo

Serpent Mother in Servo Magazine February 2007 PDF

Serpent Mother in IEEE Spectrum Magazine November 2006 PDF

 
The Serpent Mother in 2006. Image by Tristan Savatier.

 
Before I joined the Flaming Lotus Girls, one of their first and bestest pieces was The Seven Sisters. Image by Waldamar Horwat.

 
A closeup of Alcyon, my favorite of the Seven Sisters. A spinning ball of fire! Image by Cathy Lynch.

 
The Hand of God, another piece that predates my joining FLG. It can shoot liquid methanol under high pressure! Image by David Ellsworth.

 
The Serpent Mother. I helped build her! Image by Tristan Savatier.

 
Her tail. Image by Tristan Savatier.

 
She draws a crowd. Image by Caroline Miller (mills).

 
A big crowd. Image by Caroline Miller (mills).

 
One part I worked on was her LED underbelly. Image by Eddie Codel.

 
Propane flows through her spine like blood. Image by Caroline Miller (mills).

As I said I would, I cancelled my Godaddy.com DNS hosting because I found out about their long string of misogynistic advertisements. See my conversation with Godaddy folks about this. While they don’t run such ads any more, it is important to not encourage any company to benefit from such practices. They got big because of their negative publicity and that is not right.

Here is the Godaddy ad that broke the camel’s back.

My web hosting is through Dreamhost so I switched to Dreamhost DNS.

For Megan and my wedding, we created a nice website connected with our invitation.

(you may want to right-click to open these images in a new window because they are very large)

The wedding invitation was pretty rad. Lasercut and etched and cut in stainless steel by MyMetalBusinessCard.com, designed by our friend Sarahjane Bernhisel, owner of Bison Paper Company.

At the bottom, “Visit www.MeganAndLeeWedding.com”
Here are snapshots of the site:

Megan and I have a baby on the way in the next few weeks!

PS. A huge thanks to Shin Chang for the amazing photos!!!

Update 1-21-15: the position below has been taken. Thanks!

Do you want to do some very part time office IT support in San Francisco?

With grad school and a baby, I don’t have time to support the company I do IT support for. It’s just 2 computers, both Windows. About 5 hours per month. Much of the support can be done remotely.

Please help me find household lighting dimming that doesn’t flicker or hum! Please email or comment if you can help me.

I am sensitive to light bulb flicker (previously) including all the new LED tail lights on cars and household light bulbs and dimmers that use flickering (PWM or Pulse Width Modulation) to control their brightness.

It is a very real problem. While driving, it is extremely distracting; when I turn my head quickly, LED tail lights look like police flasher lights. And at home, a light bulb that is set to dim is soothing on my eyes except for the constant BZZZZZZ!! of the light flickering. Not fun.

Lights don’t have to flicker. They flicker because companies take shortcuts that make their lighting less expensive. In brief, instead of smoothly decreasing how much power the bulb gets, they turn the bulb on and off really quickly, fast enough so most people don’t even notice it. But I notice it. :-(. You might want to look up the concept of flicker fusion threshold for more reading.

I am willing to pay more for good lighting that doesn’t flicker. The problem is, I can’t figure out who to pay. Can you help me find household lighting dimming that doesn’t flicker or hum?

Here is a letter I wrote to Lutron (one of the biggest lighting control suppliers in the US) the other day and their (very sad) response:

I am looking to outfit my home with flicker-free and noise-free dimming lighting controls. Can you help?

I have tried using the Credenza Lamp Dimmer with an incandescent bulb and the flicker at low brightness doesn’t work for me. I have also tried using in-wall dimmers with LED lighting and both the flicker and noise of the system was bothersome. It is clear that the bulb and dimmer must be well-matched but I have yet to find a reliable way of matching them.

Here is Lutron’s response:

Application Group appsgroup@lutron.com via lee.org
Lee,
We really cannot tell you what to use. The reason for that you can get flickering or buzzing noise from any of those lamp types. And it has to do with the quality and compatibility of the dimmer with the bulbs. You really won’t know what you get till you have wired it up together. With incandescent if you have poor quality bulb you could get buzzing noise. With CFL these bulbs are typically a noisy bulb and you have to match the correct bulb with dimmer. And even with that they are still noisy. And with LEDs you really have to match up the dimmer with the bulbs and you may still get noise and flickering and that may be normal. It really is a trial and error. We have a list of CFL and LED brand and model of bulbs that we have tested and can say will work with our dimmers but that does not mean that you won’t get flickering or even buzzing noise from the dimmer or bulbs.

Sincerely,
Oscar
Lutron Tech Support
Lutron Electronics, Inc.
www.lutron.com
OM

What is your favorite daily mail?

Here’s mine:

Creators Project. New cutting edge art. I get the weekly mailer

The Daily Digg. News and stories.

SomeEcards. Humor

I saw projection mapping at an Amon Tobin concert at the Greek Theater in Berkeley in late 2012 and it was amazing. This is the next, mind blowing level! Real Time Projection Mapping on Faces!

Via Creators Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGI4oz1QnZo