Hi. My name is Alex Wiltschko.

This is my internet log.


31 July, 2010

DIY Satellite (with your smart phone)

From Wired Science, comes this interesting tidbit:

The smartphone in your pocket has about 120 times more computing power than the average satellite, which has the equivalent of a 1984-era computer inside.

Folks are apparently trying to launch cellphones into space as the brains of cheap satellites.

27 July, 2010

The Anatomy of a Credit Card Number

I've been wondering exactly how those digits on your credit card are constructed. Through an errant google search, I accidentally found the answer, with source code!.

The first digit describes the type of issuing institution (e.g., 1 for airlines, 4 for a bank, 7 for an oil company)
The next six digits describe exactly the issuer of the card. This could be your bank, or an airline. So, any credit card from chase will always have the same 6 digits.
The seventh to next to last digit is your account number, unique to your card.
The last digit is special. It's kind of verification number. The value of this number is calculated using a special algorithm using all the previous digits, just to make sure the number isn't bogus.

19 July, 2010

Cajalla Atcha Boy

18 July, 2010

Images as of late

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Peeking through and dripping down

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Impromptu crepes

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New tent!

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Low light at night

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San Francisco at dusk

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Mission Street, I believe

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The best darn machiatto we've been able to get our hands on

13 July, 2010

New iPhone app, new logo

Made a new iPhone app with a good friend of mine, and I thought I'd share the logo. I'm not a designer by trade, but by necessity. Thankfully I'd been trained in the dark arts of Adobe Illustrator by years of scientific illustration. The app's going to hopefully be out in a couple weeks, and I'll definitely shout out atcha when it's all done.

Logo

9 July, 2010

My Best Bug Yet

I'm redoing the drawing engine of oScope, and of course, while programming anything, bugs happen. Usually, it's just a beep and an error, but when you're doing graphics programming, the results can be pretty neato. Here's my best bug yet:

(download)

2 July, 2010

Gnarls Barkley performs crazy

Incredible recording, do check it out. Definitely going to be perusing more videos from this site.

2 July, 2010

Now, that's a latte

Ritual Coffee Roasters, San Francisco, CA

Photo

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