JestinStoffel.com

This is a spin-off incarnation of the Giant Robotic Labyrinth project for Science City, being showcased at the Missouri State Fair:

Gort from the Cowtown Computer Congress made this short video walkthough of our hackerspace:

Here's a video showcasing the latest project I've been working on at work:

About a year ago I made a post about the need for an open source CAD engine. Since that time, my need for one has grown, yet the code for the project has been mostly neglected. That's how I tend to be with my home projects; I start them often but finish them rarely. Anyways, this is one project that I would like to see through to the end if at all possible. But I need help, and am not ashamed to ask for it.

As much as I hate to admit it, the world of computing is moving to the clouds. For those unfamiliar with the term "cloud computing", think of online applications like GMail, Google Earth, Google Docs, and other types of software that we used to run on our computers, but we now run from the internet (BTW, Google sure is becoming a leader in this trend, wouldn't you say?). If you are still confused, don't worry, you are not alone. Like clouds themselves, the difference between regular websites and cloud applications is hazy.

Lately there have been some back room discussions at the CCCKC Hackerspace concerning our identity. The confusion is whether or not we are hurting the group by being as focuses as we are on the field of information security. The argument is that our ties to the security world scare away would be members/partners because they immediately think "hackers, bad!". Many people in the group would like to keep the infosec stuff separate from the maker stuff.

I have a confession to make. I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I understand that this is no longer a very large confession, but I sometimes feel a little ashamed. It's probably because I spent years literally judging the books by their covers, thinking that there was no possible way that literature with such a corny premise could be worth my time to read. This is also before I discovered audio books, and found that I have a lot more time for reading than I was aware of.

I consider myself a late-adopter of social media, for the most part. I never liked MySpace, I still find Facebook annoying at best (and invasive at worst), and I have yet to find a reasonable use for LinkedIn. Then I found Twitter, and my attitude started to change. Twitter (the largest of the new microblogging fad) restricts posts to 140 character, has a nice API that allows for a lot of client applications (I hate to use my web browser for social media stuff), and makes it relatively easy to ignore anyone you really don't care about.

This site has mostly been a place for my friends and family to come and see what I have been up to, and not a site that I would ever want to grow into anything larger. With that in mind, I've always allowed authenticated users to post their own blogs, and do any sort of non-administrator stuff. While very few times has such permissions ever been taken advantage of, recently they have flat out abused.

I have to use Windows at work, which is a good thing, seeing as I develop software for Windows. There's a lot of stuff annoys me with it, but today I'm annoyed with the Start Menu.