Lately I've been trying to reduce our trash output. Just generally making switches from disposable to reusable. One of the things I decided to try was using handkerchiefs instead of kleenex. I've decided that I'm never going back.

The first thought I had was that handkerchiefs might be gross, or take too much time, or something like that. I don't know anyone else who uses them. Instead though, they have saved me money (I used to go through a lot of kleenex) and they feel good!

There were two kinds two choose from, synthetic or cotton. I got some of both from Amazon to see which ones I liked best. The synthetic ones are really easy to fold and don't wrinkle at all, so they look nicer in their box. The cotton ones crumple up, which I could probably fix with ironing, but I'm too lazy for that. The cotton ones are cotton though, so they are more natural (but I couldn't find a good set of organic ones). Both sets were around a $1 per piece. It seems to be a mixed bag, so I like having some of both.

I pretty much use them just like I used paper tissues except when they are dirty I toss them on top of (or in) the washer instead of in the trash. Then, whenever I do a load of regular laundry they just get cleaned as well, so it hasn't taken any extra effort nor cost to use them. And they haven't been gross at all, especially when I just toss them inside of the washer itself. No touching of other people's handkerchiefs is necessary.

My nose also likes them because they are softer and thicker than the paper version.

I still have one box of tissues in the closet that I can pull out for guests if necessary, but you should definitely try them in your own home. They aren't just for old men anymore.

I've been lagging on the photo front lately, so I went on a sorting and uploading spree yesterday. I posted photos from Mission peak, including a few panoramas from the same spot, two San Diego hikes, and a bunch of other stuff. Here are a few of my favorites...

Random tidbits on the computer/nerd-alert front. I accidentally launched my laptop into the air last month and shattered the screen. It was good while it lasted, and it is sitting on a shelf, waiting for me to find time to replace the screen. In the meantime I picked up an Asus UL30A-X5, which runs Linux beautifully, lasts for about 10 hours on battery and is incredibly light between the 13" screen and lack of an optical drive. In order to hedge my bets and have something with a bit more speed I also built my first desktop, based loosely on one described at Ars Technica with a few minor changes (P55A-UD3 motherboard, 5750 graphics card, 400W Corsair power supply). It too runs Linux and anything I can throw at it like a champ. So I use the desktop at home and the laptop at school, using Unison to keep things in sync.

I just got Unison up and running to synchronize the data between my laptop and desktop machines. It is the closest thing to magic that any software in recent memory has come for me. Keeping data in sync between multiple computers has always seemed like a huge pain, but Unison scans my home folder on each machine (> 100k files!) in about 30 seconds, lets me review any differences and then synchronizes them. If you regularly use two computers and are tired of emailing files back and forth to yourself, you should check out Unison. In particular, read this post by Philip Guo for a well written introduction and detailed instructions (randomly, I mentioned Philip more than two years ago for another incredibly helpful post that he wrote about applying for graduate fellowships).

You could say that this year was the year of the hippie. I gravitated with increasing intensity towards all things natural and less wasteful. Everything from becoming mostly vegan at home (with the exception of cheese, which I still haven't found a great substitute for yet) to using handkerchiefs instead of kleenex and only natural cleaning products. Even Lola eats vegan dog food.

I harvested my first crops from the yard (tomatoes, onions, spinach, and peppers were the big winners) and Joey and I are still eating seasonal local produce from spud. I eat many more vegetables now, like eggplant, squash, and carrots - which I'm sure is hard to believe for those who knew me even just a few years ago.

A big change for me is that I started working 80% time at work (4 days a week, 80% of the pay). This has helped me find a better balance between work and home and I feel much more relaxed.

Overall, I feel this past year has been very productive and I've become more aware of my actions. I hit about 70% of my goals, though I didn't do as well on the few I outlined in last year's post. Here were the specific goals from last year:

• explore more 3d art projects - I completely failed at this this year. I started taking an art class, but then dropped it because it wasn't exactly what I expected.
• get a six pack - Well, the six pack isn't there! but I am in much better shape than at the start of the year. I feel pretty healthy, so I'm not going to worry too much about the fact that I didn't accomplish this. I'll still keep dreaming though.
• volunteer and donate - I wanted to start giving back and this went very well. I gave blood and volunteered at a community farm near us. Joey and I researched many charities and donated to the ones that we believed in. This was an increase of infinity percent given that the year before we didn't do anything, and I believe we made smart choices.
• keep working on the house - This goal, well, it feels like it is ever present. I know we made progress, but I still don't feel satisfied. The yard needs a lot of work, but recently Joey and I have been making a concerted effort to get this done. (Sounds like what I said last year... hopefully next year will be the winner!)
• camping/backpacking frenzy - We did indeed go on a frenzy this year, which Lola loved. I had never been backpacking before and we went three times, culminating in a week long trip. Our hikes and runs have been more regular and we've now explored all of the dog friendly open spaces close to our house. We even had a tick adventure.

Highlights from next year's resolutions:

• start an additional hobby - Time for something new! I am already very into gardening, cooking, reading, puzzle-ing, and such like that - so none of those count.
• grow more food - Since October I have been keeping track of all of the food that Joey and I purchase. I'm going to continue doing that for a year to figure out how much food we consume, and thus how much I would eventually like to grow. This year I have 96 sq ft of veggie space, so I want to harvest a lot more than I did last year - and keep track of it!
• floss more - I know this is common, but I've never made this resolution before. My trick - I'm going to allow myself to floss during the day instead of only at night.
• run a marathon or hike 30 miles in one day - To me, these are fairly equivalent in terms of effort. Hiking takes longer, and usually involves a lot more hills, but I find it a lot less boring than running. We'll see which one wins.
• volunteer and donate - I want to continue in this category, especially in terms of giving my time. I hope to contribute to several organizations this year.

This is the year of turning 26 - hope it goes well.

I've previously written about LayoutEditor, a cross-platform application for designing lithographic masks with an emphasis on MEMS. There are other, commercial programs like L-Edit that are available at Stanford but I like LayoutEditor because of its macro support. The icing on the cake of course is that LayoutEditor is free. Or at least was until recently. In late 2008 the creator of the project decided to take it commercial to make ends meet. That's great, and I'm sure the software has improved greatly since then because of the decision. And it didn't affect any of the pre-commercial users because the free versions were still available on SourceForge.

But sometime in mid-2009 all of the free versions (at least post-2007) were scrubbed from the SourceForge files page. This was a bit of a problem, because I was pretty sure at the time that I would need another fabrication run (and reticle layout) to finish my PhD. And I'm sure that I'm not the only student who would be more than happy to use old but free software if it were available.

But the free version of LayoutEditor was still available, there just weren't any direct links to it. The URL format on the new downloads page is easy to guess, so when I noticed that the SourceForge files were gone I started poking around. When I found the 20080925 version (the latest and greatest free version) I downloaded copies for a few different platforms for insurance. A neutered free version was available on the updated LayoutEditor site, but it didn't have my beloved macro feature amongst many other essential features.

I hadn't thought about it again until I came across the files while cleaning up some backups the other day. I poked around on the site again and all of the files I had previously downloaded were gone. So even if someone was desperate enough, there was no trace left of what was once free software. I want to emphasize that there are probably great features in the post-commercial versions of the application and you should support it if you can, but that doesn't change the fact that the software was once free (and sporadically open source). Which is why I decided to mirror what I have:

layout-20080925-win32 (installer)
layout-20080925-win32 (source)
layout-20080925-mac-osx
layout_20080925_xUbuntu_8.04_amd64 (DEB)

layout-20080628-win32 (installer)
layout-20080628-win32 (source)
layout_20080628_xUbuntu_8.04_i386 (DEB)
layout_20080628_xUbuntu_8.04_amd64 (DEB)
layout-20080628-Fedora_9.i386 (RPM)
layout-20080628-Fedora_9.x86_64 (RPM)

You can see in the license file that the software is free to copy and distribute, so don't be shy to mirror it elsewhere for redundancy. If you are running 32-bit Linux, I can say that the 20080925 Windows version runs great under Wine at least under Ubuntu 9.10.

So there you have it. Hopefully this is will be useful to someone out there working on a class or research project.

I was updating Lola's microchip information the other day when I ran into this baby picture that her first owners had added.

Wish they could stay small forever.

I'm so very excited.

Last week I purchased a puzzle, and not just any puzzle, but The World's Largest Puzzle! (that's commercially available) It's called Life, the Greatest Puzzle (ha) and is 24,000 pieces. To put that in some context, the puzzle is 14 feet by 5 feet - it will barely fit inside our house!

It comes in 4 separate bags so you can do the puzzle one quarter at a time, but I'm strong, and will be mixing them all up from the beginning. Soon (well in approximately 300 puzzling hours depending on how good I am) you will know someone who has completed the most fantastically ultimate puzzle of all time! ...until they come out with another one that is.

Wish me luck!

Awhile ago I volunteered to technically edit a book about building OpenSocial apps. I just received my copy in the mail and apparently my cheesy quote has been selected for the back cover:

The authors did a great job covering the various ins and outs of OpenSocial, and especially the specific MySpace quirks. If you are a new social networking application developer or even someone who just wants to write better OpenSocial Apps, then this book has what you are looking for.
–Cassandra Doll, Software Engineer, Google

Oh my. You can even check it out on Amazon.