Monday, October 28, 2013
MAKO: Artificial intelligence that does everything!
I found this project on kickstarter by accident and I am very glad I did. This project looks amazing and I can't wait to see how far it goes.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
My dream live music setup
My Dream Live Music Setup
- 15" Macbook Pro Retina with Ableton Live 9
- iPad 2 with Lemur
- iPad 3 ("retina display" version) with Lemur
- Ableton Launchpad S
When I perform live I don't want to just be a DJ, I want to actually perform.
More awesome music on its way :)
Stay connected:
Until next time!
-Eli
Friday, June 7, 2013
Dear Nintendo...
Dear Nintendo:
If this
happens. I will not flinch in buying a WiiU. Nor will millions of other Pokémon enthusiasts and casual gamers a like. Make it compatible with the DS (3DS, etc) and you will have your rebound as a console company.
Sincerely,
The Internet
If this
Sincerely,
The Internet
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Why the Young Generation is Having a Hard Time with Life
These are just my own observations as someone in the young generation as to why my generation is having such a hard time with life.
Our attention span is extremely short, comparable to a squirrel with ADD drinking a Monster energy drink. I think the reason behind this is because of the internet and the growing and expanding technology, such as smartphones. We literally have access to anything at our fingertips; don't know something, "Google it". You can find out pretty much anything you want to know within a couple seconds, and this is really hurting us (myself included).
Because of our short attention span, we have trouble focusing on one thing and following through with it. We'll start out on doing something that we think is really cool or want to do something that we think is really cool but then realize "Wow, this isn't as easy as everyone else makes it seem. Well, time to move onto the next thing." And this is just an unending loop, moving from one thing to another because it's too hard or takes too long to learn.
From my personal experience, making electronic music. The pros and most everyone that I've seen, make the music with extreme ease and it sounds beautiful. When I try to do it, it sounds like crap. But I've only started making music and the pros have been doing it for years and years, so why should I be discouraged when mine sounds like crap? It's because of the short attention span I was talking about. When I sit down to start making a new track, I (for some reason) think I should be able to make a Top 10 hit track in a day. When the reality is, most pros take weeks sometimes months to make a good track. There's no immediate result which makes it very discouraging.
Secondly, we are expected to act like adults when we're in high school but we're still treated like children. This is a huge problem, because it is a big conflict of interest as well as an unending and spiraling downward loop. This isn't only a problem with school but also with the popular TV shows.
Kids see other kids their age going on adventures, being super spy's, etc... which makes the kids think "Oh, they're my age and they're doing that, so why can't I?" Obviously this is unrealistic because the CIA does not hire 7 year olds. Another genre of TV shows that do this are shows like iCarly, Victorious, etc... it's giving kids an unrealistic view of how the "real world" works. The parents in most of these shows are very laid back and pretty much let the kids do whatever they want, this is to make the show more interesting.
But kids don't realize this and they think that when they get that old, they'll be able to do all that stuff too. Going back to the age expectations and how you get treated. I just turned 17 and have my first real job. I've found that getting your first job is extremely difficult. It's another unending cycle: I didn't have job experience which was why I was trying to get a job but I wasn't getting any jobs because I didn't have any job experience.
Lastly, going back to the TV shows and expectations of the youth. Until you're 18, you really can't do much and really don't have much freedom. You're restricted by the law and your parents. So with kids way under 18 doing stuff like traveling around the world on their own, being in a world famous boy band, etc... the youth expects that what they see on TV is real. And they think that they can do all that stuff at their age. And this is NOT the case at all! I know my parents are much stricter than most but even then, from what my friends tell me, their parents are just as restrictive about what they can and can't do.
The problem is that what kids are seeing on TV are like the 1%, so to speak, of the world. Where what the kids on TV are doing, maybe 1% of real kids can actually do that stuff. There aren't any shows of average kids living an average life, because that would be boring. Again, we're giving kids unrealistic expectations and setting them up for failure.
We're giving the youth of today and tomorrow unrealistic expectations to live up to while still treating them like children. If we want them to act like adults and get jobs, then we need to treat them that way. As for the TV shows, well I don't see that changing anytime soon because those are popular shows and that genre will most likely be popular for a long time to come. I also don't see people treating the youth more like adults anytime soon but will still give them high expectations to live up to. So while nothing will be done to prevent this, we need to realize this and when the youth is having a hard time be able to step in and do something to help them.
I hope this made sense, I just really needed to get this out there.
Our attention span is extremely short, comparable to a squirrel with ADD drinking a Monster energy drink. I think the reason behind this is because of the internet and the growing and expanding technology, such as smartphones. We literally have access to anything at our fingertips; don't know something, "Google it". You can find out pretty much anything you want to know within a couple seconds, and this is really hurting us (myself included).
Because of our short attention span, we have trouble focusing on one thing and following through with it. We'll start out on doing something that we think is really cool or want to do something that we think is really cool but then realize "Wow, this isn't as easy as everyone else makes it seem. Well, time to move onto the next thing." And this is just an unending loop, moving from one thing to another because it's too hard or takes too long to learn.
From my personal experience, making electronic music. The pros and most everyone that I've seen, make the music with extreme ease and it sounds beautiful. When I try to do it, it sounds like crap. But I've only started making music and the pros have been doing it for years and years, so why should I be discouraged when mine sounds like crap? It's because of the short attention span I was talking about. When I sit down to start making a new track, I (for some reason) think I should be able to make a Top 10 hit track in a day. When the reality is, most pros take weeks sometimes months to make a good track. There's no immediate result which makes it very discouraging.
Secondly, we are expected to act like adults when we're in high school but we're still treated like children. This is a huge problem, because it is a big conflict of interest as well as an unending and spiraling downward loop. This isn't only a problem with school but also with the popular TV shows.
Kids see other kids their age going on adventures, being super spy's, etc... which makes the kids think "Oh, they're my age and they're doing that, so why can't I?" Obviously this is unrealistic because the CIA does not hire 7 year olds. Another genre of TV shows that do this are shows like iCarly, Victorious, etc... it's giving kids an unrealistic view of how the "real world" works. The parents in most of these shows are very laid back and pretty much let the kids do whatever they want, this is to make the show more interesting.
But kids don't realize this and they think that when they get that old, they'll be able to do all that stuff too. Going back to the age expectations and how you get treated. I just turned 17 and have my first real job. I've found that getting your first job is extremely difficult. It's another unending cycle: I didn't have job experience which was why I was trying to get a job but I wasn't getting any jobs because I didn't have any job experience.
Lastly, going back to the TV shows and expectations of the youth. Until you're 18, you really can't do much and really don't have much freedom. You're restricted by the law and your parents. So with kids way under 18 doing stuff like traveling around the world on their own, being in a world famous boy band, etc... the youth expects that what they see on TV is real. And they think that they can do all that stuff at their age. And this is NOT the case at all! I know my parents are much stricter than most but even then, from what my friends tell me, their parents are just as restrictive about what they can and can't do.
The problem is that what kids are seeing on TV are like the 1%, so to speak, of the world. Where what the kids on TV are doing, maybe 1% of real kids can actually do that stuff. There aren't any shows of average kids living an average life, because that would be boring. Again, we're giving kids unrealistic expectations and setting them up for failure.
We're giving the youth of today and tomorrow unrealistic expectations to live up to while still treating them like children. If we want them to act like adults and get jobs, then we need to treat them that way. As for the TV shows, well I don't see that changing anytime soon because those are popular shows and that genre will most likely be popular for a long time to come. I also don't see people treating the youth more like adults anytime soon but will still give them high expectations to live up to. So while nothing will be done to prevent this, we need to realize this and when the youth is having a hard time be able to step in and do something to help them.
I hope this made sense, I just really needed to get this out there.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Raspberry Pi (RPI) Initiative
My idea of a perfect "dashboard" that is left constantly running and is just there to supply information to you so to speak.
It includes:
It includes:
- Date and Time
- 12 or 24 hr
- Calendar
- Alternates items in color and white so it's easy to see different events
- Weather
- Current
- Hourly (8hrs)
- 3 day forecast
- Popup "app" with ability to read and reply to emails as well as send new ones
- News
- Select news source and there you go
- Facebook feed
- Twitter Feed
- Grooveshark music player
- Popup "app" to login/register as well as find your music to play, make playlists, etc...
- Download button to get the song via iTunes, Amazon, or other ways. (popup options)
**Facebook, twitter, mail, calendar, and news are all interchangeable and can be placed in each others spots.**
I really hope someone designs something like this for the RPi or that I learn to code good enough to make it myself.
COST:
- Raspberry Pi - $35
- 1080p 22" Monitor - $149
- Wireless Keyboard & Mouse - $35
- HDMI cable - $6
- Case - $7
- 4 port USB hub - $8
- 8GB SD card - $12
- Power supply -$10
- Wifi Adapter - $11
TOTAL: ~$273
ELI
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Yo momma's so FAT
Your mama's so FAT she can't save files bigger than 4GB
— HAL 9000 (@HAL9000_) May 8, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
YouTube
Dear loyal & faithful YouTube subscribers and friends:
As of today I am quitting YouTube. It's very sad for me to say this, because YouTube is more than people posting cat videos; it's a community. It's a community that I've been honored to be a part of for the past 2 years. I've grown a lot since I started making YouTube videos in 2011. My skills in video making have improved tremendously but I've also grown as a person.
When I posted my first video I honestly thought it would get 1M views in a couple days or a month at the least. I think it had around 40 views the last time I checked. I thought I was going to become "YouTube famous" within a couple weeks or months, a year at the latest. Two years later, barely 115 subscribers and almost 25K total video views. But even with that few amount of subscribers and views it allowed me to interact with my viewers and other smaller YouTuber's like myself. I really felt apart of something.
However, YouTube is not for me. I do like make videos but believe it or not, it can take a lot out of you. I am taking 3 college classes right now along with 1 high school class and it's demanding. I also have a girlfriend who I want to spend as much time as possible with, as well as my other friends. As you can see, my time is very limited these days.
YouTube for me was never about making money, it was doing something that I really liked to do. And good thing it wasn't about the money...I've only made $12.90 from my YouTube videos. That's no where near enough to support myself, pay for college, etc.
Where from here? I posted a couple weeks ago about my "perfect" life, I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that. My life will never be 100% how I want it to be and it will never be perfect, so who cares! You have to roll with the punches of life and go with the flow. But in real life I am planning on now majoring in Computer Science and I hope to attend DevBootcamp in place of college or after college. I want to be a full time web developer. I know writing code sounds like an extremely boring thing to do as a job, but I love it. I truly love it and want to make a living from doing it. I want to create apps and programs to not only make life easier and more fun but to enhance it. I have a lot of ideas that I want to make so I want to get started off working for a company as one of their developers then eventually start my own company.
No more videos then? Of course not! I don't want to completely quit YouTube, but it won't be my main priority anymore. So I guess I'm not technically "quitting" YouTube but whateva! ;) I do want to post maybe an "update" video on what I'm doing and working on every once and a while because again, YouTube is more than just a spot to post videos; it's a community!
In closing, thank you to all of you who have supported me these past years. Philip Defranco gave me my first big boost of subscribers by featuring my video in one of his movie club things, so a big thanks to him. Thanks to Featureman for all the support lately. A huge shout out to my friends Tyler and Brenden who were in some of my videos and they have their own skating channels so check them out and subscribe! Also thanks to everyone over at Elite Collabers, you guys were great and I had a fun time making videos with you! Lastly thank you to all my subscribers and anyone else who I'm forgetting to mention, you guys rock!
As of today I am quitting YouTube. It's very sad for me to say this, because YouTube is more than people posting cat videos; it's a community. It's a community that I've been honored to be a part of for the past 2 years. I've grown a lot since I started making YouTube videos in 2011. My skills in video making have improved tremendously but I've also grown as a person.
When I posted my first video I honestly thought it would get 1M views in a couple days or a month at the least. I think it had around 40 views the last time I checked. I thought I was going to become "YouTube famous" within a couple weeks or months, a year at the latest. Two years later, barely 115 subscribers and almost 25K total video views. But even with that few amount of subscribers and views it allowed me to interact with my viewers and other smaller YouTuber's like myself. I really felt apart of something.
However, YouTube is not for me. I do like make videos but believe it or not, it can take a lot out of you. I am taking 3 college classes right now along with 1 high school class and it's demanding. I also have a girlfriend who I want to spend as much time as possible with, as well as my other friends. As you can see, my time is very limited these days.
YouTube for me was never about making money, it was doing something that I really liked to do. And good thing it wasn't about the money...I've only made $12.90 from my YouTube videos. That's no where near enough to support myself, pay for college, etc.
Where from here? I posted a couple weeks ago about my "perfect" life, I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that. My life will never be 100% how I want it to be and it will never be perfect, so who cares! You have to roll with the punches of life and go with the flow. But in real life I am planning on now majoring in Computer Science and I hope to attend DevBootcamp in place of college or after college. I want to be a full time web developer. I know writing code sounds like an extremely boring thing to do as a job, but I love it. I truly love it and want to make a living from doing it. I want to create apps and programs to not only make life easier and more fun but to enhance it. I have a lot of ideas that I want to make so I want to get started off working for a company as one of their developers then eventually start my own company.
No more videos then? Of course not! I don't want to completely quit YouTube, but it won't be my main priority anymore. So I guess I'm not technically "quitting" YouTube but whateva! ;) I do want to post maybe an "update" video on what I'm doing and working on every once and a while because again, YouTube is more than just a spot to post videos; it's a community!
In closing, thank you to all of you who have supported me these past years. Philip Defranco gave me my first big boost of subscribers by featuring my video in one of his movie club things, so a big thanks to him. Thanks to Featureman for all the support lately. A huge shout out to my friends Tyler and Brenden who were in some of my videos and they have their own skating channels so check them out and subscribe! Also thanks to everyone over at Elite Collabers, you guys were great and I had a fun time making videos with you! Lastly thank you to all my subscribers and anyone else who I'm forgetting to mention, you guys rock!
Until we meet again, thanks and keep on, keeping on!
-Eli
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Fight For Internet Freedom!
I've shown support for internet freedom before, but the need for more support is greater than ever! Visit freepress for tons of great information to get started and also check out & sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. Also check out this CISPA petition, and contact your representatives, senators, everyone and tell them how you feel!
Lastly, show your support by putting up some of these posters courtesy of Freepress Flicker.
Here's 8.5x11 JPG image for the poster:
Here's a link to a 8.5x11 PDF of the poster via Mediafire.
Enjoy and spread the word!
-Eli
Lastly, show your support by putting up some of these posters courtesy of Freepress Flicker.
Here's 8.5x11 JPG image for the poster:
Enjoy and spread the word!
-Eli
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi. Quite possibly the most simple yet powerful computer ever made. It doesn't have much for specs: 256MB of RAM, CPU, and GPU, HDMI port, 2 USB ports, RCA port, Ethernet port, and an SD card slot.
Even though it doesn't have much for specs, it was made this way on purpose. This little (45g) computer was made for coding and programming.
People have made this little guy do some pretty cool things. Some people have used it for robotics, send to the edge of space, and so much more!
I want to push the Raspberry Pi to its limits and beyond!
My Idea
I want to use the Raspberry Pi and other open source software to basically create the perfect operating system and personal assistant.
I want to use a RPi along with:
- Microsoft Kinect
- For speech recognition and motion recognition
- 55" Computer Monitor
- This will be the final purchase and feature of this build. It's also touchscreen as another way to input information.
- HD DVR Security System
- Mainly using this for the cameras. I will use open source facial recognition along with the cameras to alert me when someone is at the door and if their face is recognized it will tell me who is at the door.
- i'm Watch
- This runs on a modified version of the Android operating system, so I will modify it most likely by just making an app where it will give me any alerts I setup.
- Weather Station
- Obviously you need weather, so I found some open source software along with a personal weather station to give me relevant weather information.
- Automated Lighting
- I'm still working out how this will work, but basically the computer will turn on the lights when I get out of bed in the morning and turn them off when I go to sleep.
Besides these other pieces of hardware and software, this is what I want the operating system to be like:
- Simple yet powerful
- Intuitive
- Personal Assistant
- I want to develop the most advanced personal assistant in existence. Big goal...yeah but I think I can do it
- It needs to be able to learn and "think"
- Understand and execute voice commands (i.e. "I want to watch a harlem shake video on YouTube" or "Play my favorite Pandora radio station")
- Distro of linux
- Obviously since linux is open source, that's where I'm going to be building from. To start off, I will be using the Raspbian distro but once I start getting into the "real" programming of the operating system, I will be working from open source linux
All the software I will be using to create this "operating system" will be open source and I hope it works. I don't know when I will start making this crazy awesome system, but I hope to start realitively soon...especially because a RPi is only $35!
For more information on the Raspberry Pi check out their website! http://www.raspberrypi.org/
-Eli
Monday, February 18, 2013
Life
Life is fucking weird. I mean seriously, think about it. Why are we alive? What is our purpose? We as humans don't really have a purpose when you think about it. Even if we explore the ends of the Universe and know all there is to know, what then? If there is other life forms in our universe, which there probably is, what will we do when we meet them? There's a very familiar trend when foreigners go to a new land, they take it over and colonize it. So will we be the ones to take over another planet or solar system? Or will we be the ones being colonized by beings from space.
What is sight? Really though, how the fuck can we see stuff? Yes we have eyes that process light and our environment around us which then gives our brains an "image" and we "see" it. Did you know that you actually see everything upside down? Your brain processes the upside down image and puts it right side up so it looks "normal".
What about sound? Our ears translate sound "waves" into information to give to our brain which allows us to "hear". But what are we actually hearing? We've found that other species of animals can hear different frequencies of sound, so are we as humans really hearing the whole "picture"?
Taste is an interesting one. Why does some food taste good to some people but terrible to others? Sometimes we call it an "acquired" taste, where after you eat a certain food for a long enough time, you will eventually enjoy it. But why does food taste the way we think it does? Well obviously it is made out of certain chemicals and materials but why do those taste the way they do? Did our bodies just all of a sudden start telling us what food tasted like...but what does it actually taste like?
Touch. We are always touching something. But not technically. I mean you most likely have clothes on, but you don't realize that feeling of the clothes touching your skin, because you've gotten used to it. But again, technically you've never touched anything. On an atomic level, only our electrons are touching the electrons of other objects. So yes, you are "touching" things but also not really when looking at it on an atomic level.
We are aware that we are alive, whatever that means. But what does it mean to be alive? I mean, think about it...we wake up every morning and just live our lives. But why are we alive? And why can we think and have emotions which aren't really anything but nerve impulses reacting to situations. When you think about it, we're a lot like computers. They have I/O impulses which make them run, a very simple concept yet computers let us do some of the most advanced things on the planet. We also are run by similar I/O impulses which give our brains information, theses are also surprisingly electrical nerve impulses. Again very similar to computers.
I'm not suggesting anything *cough* matrix *cough*, but seriously...I just wanted to get my thoughts and ideas out in the open. Feel free to comment and share with whomever.
-Eli
TL;DR Life is fucking weird.
What is sight? Really though, how the fuck can we see stuff? Yes we have eyes that process light and our environment around us which then gives our brains an "image" and we "see" it. Did you know that you actually see everything upside down? Your brain processes the upside down image and puts it right side up so it looks "normal".
What about sound? Our ears translate sound "waves" into information to give to our brain which allows us to "hear". But what are we actually hearing? We've found that other species of animals can hear different frequencies of sound, so are we as humans really hearing the whole "picture"?
Taste is an interesting one. Why does some food taste good to some people but terrible to others? Sometimes we call it an "acquired" taste, where after you eat a certain food for a long enough time, you will eventually enjoy it. But why does food taste the way we think it does? Well obviously it is made out of certain chemicals and materials but why do those taste the way they do? Did our bodies just all of a sudden start telling us what food tasted like...but what does it actually taste like?
Touch. We are always touching something. But not technically. I mean you most likely have clothes on, but you don't realize that feeling of the clothes touching your skin, because you've gotten used to it. But again, technically you've never touched anything. On an atomic level, only our electrons are touching the electrons of other objects. So yes, you are "touching" things but also not really when looking at it on an atomic level.
We are aware that we are alive, whatever that means. But what does it mean to be alive? I mean, think about it...we wake up every morning and just live our lives. But why are we alive? And why can we think and have emotions which aren't really anything but nerve impulses reacting to situations. When you think about it, we're a lot like computers. They have I/O impulses which make them run, a very simple concept yet computers let us do some of the most advanced things on the planet. We also are run by similar I/O impulses which give our brains information, theses are also surprisingly electrical nerve impulses. Again very similar to computers.
I'm not suggesting anything *cough* matrix *cough*, but seriously...I just wanted to get my thoughts and ideas out in the open. Feel free to comment and share with whomever.
-Eli
TL;DR Life is fucking weird.
Friday, February 1, 2013
I WON #FREEshirtFRIDAY!!!
So yeah...this happened today!! EPIC!!!
Congratulations @kutarimeikitato! You win #FREEshirtFRIDAY!
— District Lines (@district_lines) February 1, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Video/Audio Wishlists!
I know it's past Christmas time but here are 2 of my wishlists.
Video:
http://amzn.com/w/3EV2DELV75DU
Audio:
http://amzn.com/w/U06D995KM9P7
-eli
Video:
http://amzn.com/w/3EV2DELV75DU
Audio:
http://amzn.com/w/U06D995KM9P7
-eli
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