your jealousy is understandable…

… because how awesome is my laptop now?

it’s a wave…

of bunnies!

I have long loved Kozyndan’s ’Uprisings.’ It’s a play on Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa,’ with bunnies. I got my anodized aluminum Macbook Pro, and saw someone had etched theirs in a laser cutter. I thought this was a great choice to put on mine. I bought the poster, had it scanned at a shop with a large-format scanner, pulled it into the Gimp open-source graphics package (comparable to Photoshop), and messed with it a fair amount. Then I brought it into PS1 and etched it on our laser cutter. I have to give credit to Will McShane for his assistance in showing me how to edit the image and operate the laser cutter. Both operations fall in that category of things I do rarely and are sort of complicated, so my memory doesn’t hang on to them well. It came out perfectly. Thanks so much for your help, Will.

I wanted to document the process a bit, though I neglected to take pictures.

getting and editing the image

I ordered the paper poster and had it scanned at the highest resolution I could find. At 16×22, that wasn’t that high–Fedex/Kinko’s got me a 100 DPI image. Which turned out ok.

Once I had it in my machine, I used the Gimp to make it more laser friendly. This took the most messing around and blind alleys, but Will got me going in the right direction. From there, it wasn’t quite as straightforward as what follows, but this is the bottom line.

• I opened the image in Gimp, and did Layer > Duplicate Layer;
• selecting the top layer, I used Filters > Edge Detect > Edge to pull out the bunnies visually, and Colors > Invert to get the image in black on white instead of the other way around;
• In Colors > Brightness/Contrast I turned up both–brightness to wash out the noise in the image, and contrast to keep the black outlines sharp;
• did Layers > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel, and in the layers dialog turned the opacity of the top layer down so the lower layer would show though;
• selected the lower layer and turned up the brightness and contrast on it too;
• feathered the edges… this was the part that did not come out perfectly. I selected the top layer again, did Select > All, Select > Shrink by 50 pixels, and Select > Rounded Rectangle;
• did Select > Invert, and then Select > Feather. Then I did Edit > Clear, and saw the top layer feathered. I selected the bottom layer and did Edit > Clear again.
• did Color > Desaturate in both layers to get it in grayscale;
• computed the right DPI so that the image would fit my laptop. The original was 100 DPI, and was 1669×2229 pixels. It had to fit a 9 inch vertical space, so I divided 2229 pixels by 9 inches, and got 248 DPI;
• went into Image > Scale Image, and changed the vertical DPI to 248, and Gimp computed the rest;
• exported the file to jpg, and put it on a thumb drive to put in the computer running the laser cutter.

I don’t think this is precisely the process anyone should follow to make an image laser-printer friendly. It worked with mine. Some of these steps and techniques might be useful. It might be good for you to just resize your raw image and see how it etches on a piece of cardboard or something first, just to get an idea of what it will do. Speaking of which…

To ze LAZZORZZZZ!!!!1!!1!!!

So I put the USB key in, brought up Corel Draw, and got to etching. I will not document the entire process of using the laser cutter. Different cutters, different software, different setups… if you want to learn PS1′s setup, come down to PS1 and get certified on the device. But this was basically how it went:

• I cleaned all the food/fingerprints/accumulated schmutz off my lappie;
• did a test etch on a piece of cardboard, and saw an artifact along the right edge of the image, which was easy to clean up;
• (this was Will’s moment of genius, I thought) taped another piece of cardboard to the top of my laptop, along one edge so it could flip over like a hinge. I made sure there was clearance inside the laser cutter so I could actually flip it without moving the laptop;
• positioned the laptop inside the laser cutter, as precisely as I could so the etch would fall in the right position;
• etched once with the cardboard in place. It looked perfect;
• flipped the cardboard over;
• took a deep breath;
• and etched my laptop.

And you see the results above. To be clear, I should give Will more credit–he did a few of the hands on steps there, and was helpful throughout.

Aaron Swartz lives

By saying ‘Aaron Swartz lives,’ I do not hope to establish a silly Elvis mythology about his continued secret life somewhere in the Caribbean or something. I mean that his commitment lives on: the liberation of human communication. The fire of his curiosity is the fire of our curiosity, and of human curiosity. Let us not fear its flame. Let us fan it into a raging inferno that consumes the Earth and launches us to the stars.

Aaron Swartz lives!

the Wesley Willis Tower

I am building a twitterbot that responds to tweets referring to the Wesley Willis Tower as the Sears Tower/Willis Tower with correction. It was such a great thing when the Sears Tower changed hands and they renamed it in honor of Wesley Willis, but people still get the name wrong. So I’m building this bot, and teaching myself Haskell in the process. Fun little project.

To register my program with twitter, I need a web page on the public Internet so people can see what the hell I’m doing. Thus this post. I do intend to make my code public, and contribute updates to the hs-twitter library back–it’s pretty badly out of date, and doesn’t work at all.

#wesleywillistower #wesleywillis #rockoverlondon#rockonchicago #wesleywillisfiasco #rockandrollmcdonalds #whipthellamasass #loveyoulikeamilkshake #iwhuppedbatmansass #daddyofrocknroll #bumpmyheadsayrah

back at it

So, I decided to sell generosity.org–it might be valuable, and I could use the money, and I wasn’t really using it for much. I moved the blog here: johnstoner.wordpress.com. No hassles, no upgrades, technical problems are someone else’s problem. I can just write. Which is why I wanted to blog in the first place.

Update for those who were interested in my surgery: my implants really never worked out. I could walk better–well, I could walk forward in a straight line better, if there was no crowd to navigate. I could barely walk backwards (which doesn’t sound like a big deal until it’s a struggle), and I couldn’t move in a responsive way. A friend of mine once picked me up and spun me around in a bar, and when he set me back down, I kept spinning, and almost fell over. Surprises while walking were always bad–if someone in front of me stopped suddenly, I was very unsteady. Crowds, again, bad.

I couldn’t talk well. No voice projection, poor enunciation. I got used to repeating myself a lot, but not being able to address groups was frustrating. And in job interviews, it’s been deadly. If you want to make an extrovert unhappy, take away his speech.

My whole sense of rhythm was shot. Forget dancing, it was hard to knock on a door, hammer a nail, grate cheese… I was also just generally weaker–I could ride a bike, but not fast. There’s a mental threshold of physical difficulty–some things just feel hard to do. The implants lowered that threshold, pretty substantially.

Anyway, in the last couple weeks, the batteries died. One thing that kept me from just shutting them off was my body’s response to the sudden cessation of current to my brain.  My neck would go into painful spasms. As the batteries died, they tapered off, so it wasn’t quite as bad as it had been.

Having them off is not a panacea. My neck spasms are stronger and more painful. My left foot twists more, and it’s more of a struggle to walk long distances. But I can make myself heard across a room. And my enunciation isn’t quite back to what it was, but it’s better.

I’ve discussed having the leads reimplanted in my brain with my neurologist. I feel like I’ve been through a lot without much to show for it. My thought is, I’ll look at it again when technology improves, and outcomes are more predictable. The procedure itself is a lot to go through, and it can take a long time to explore the space of possible settings, either to find the optimal setting, or that there isn’t a good setting and you need to be reimplanted. It’s still too hit-and-miss.

When I moved this site over to the wordpress servers, I looked back at my original posts. I realized I spent over twenty hours in surgery awake. I went through four surgeries. Going back in again, without much assurance of a better outcome, is a lot to ask. I’m not one to say ‘never,’ but until they can convince me the next time will go better, I’ll pass.

In the meantime, I’ll try yoga. I’ll probably go with yin yoga: lots of stretching, slow, low exertion. The hard part for me is figuring out where it goes in the design of my day. No, that’s a bunch of crap: the hard part is starting. Isn’t that always how it is?

And as for blogging, I think I’ll start again. I still have plenty to say. I love the interactivity of Facebook, but some things aren’t just for my  friends to read.

The third surgery

Went well. I’m at the hospital. Just took a vicodin. More later.

The return of John

John’s visit is always a happy occasion, now more than ever. This trip home even more so because the DBS operation signals a first step on the return to walking without a reeling gait and speaking clearly. I don’t expect the surgeon’s handiwork to restore the abilities of that young “pre-dystonia” lad. Now we know that the realization of hope is something we can enjoy with a greater amount of expectation. Something is going to happen—Something good.

When John was graduating from high school, the affects of his dystonia were apparent. This did not deter the US Marine Corp. recruiting sargeant from dogging his steps, or John from listening to him on the phone. I caught the phone call one time and asked if John had explained his health problems. With an explanation of dystonia, the Marine lost interest. John was put out though because he felt he could make a significant contribution to “The Corp.” He was only satisfied with my actions when I explained that he could not hold a rifle in the regulation way and that all Marines need to shoot. We will never return to those days.

Betty and I have known about John’s bravery since he was a ten-year-old and endured brutal practices called “air studies” and cerebral angiograms and countless needles. We followed his judgment when he let us know he no longer wanted the drugs that interfered with his life or the strange “operations” that had such little promise of success. Judging from the response to the news of the operation on the internet, everyone now agrees with his mother and I. I must admit these are characteristics necessary to make a good Marine.

We are off on a new track now. This involves new trials, new expectations and new hopes. We are thankful for the prayers that brought John safely this far and count on them to bring him through the rest of the way.

Lloyd Stoner (John’s dad)

Connor

Connor Anderson, 11 years old, gets his first DBS procedure today in New York. That’s brave. I chickened out on brain surgery when I was about his age. Not a bad idea at the time. Still, way to step up. Go get ‘em Connor.

My new palm

Posting from my new palm device! How cool!

talking to Iran

News piece in NYT today about the debate within the administration over direct talks with Iran.

I’d love to see them try to justify military action without trying direct talks. That would be funny:

“We’ve tried everything possible before taking this action…”

“Did you talk to them?”

“Well… our friends did.”

“But did you?”

“Um, no…”

The scary thought is that they might do it as a formality, just so they can avoid this conversation.

a couple links

The Ethical Traveler–I’ve been having thoughts on this exact subject for a while. Travel as international relations, presenting your own unique American face, unmediated. If I had a job or some money, I’d probably start planning a trip.

U.S. House Resolution 153–calling for a national day of prayer and fasting in this time of conflict. Warning: lots of strong Christian language, for those of you with issues about Christianity.

I like the spirit of the idea. This is the paragraph that got me:

Whereas, on March 30, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, at the bequest of the Senate, and himself recognizing the need of the Nation to humble itself before God in repentance for its national sins, proclaimed a day of fasting, prayer and humiliation;

This is an unusual use of the word “humiliation.” From Webster’s (via dictionary.com):

humiliation

\Hu*mil`i*a”tion\, n. [L. humiliatio: cf. F. humiliation.] 1. The act of humiliating or humbling; abasement of pride; mortification. –Bp. Hopkins.

…

Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

So, humiliation as instilling humility. Sounds like something we could use around here. Seems to me like a proper attitude for a nation at war, whatever your religion. Or your opinion about the war, for that matter.