Spinning Socks in the Cloud

One of the fun things about working at Google is that you get to work with smart and creative people. The photo below was created with Cloud Spin, a demo project that shows how to use Google Cloud Platform to build services for mobile apps.

The folks running the demo at the GDG conference were bemused when I showed up with my sock and a ball of yarn.

This is my representation of juggling a craft-filled life.

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It would have been even more fun if I’d had several unfinished projects to juggle, but I had to work with what I had on hand.

The way the technology works is that you have a set of mobile phones arranged in a half-circle. You jump, and each phone takes a wee bit of video. The app controlling the phones inserts an audio “beep” as a marker when you jump. Then the phones upload the videos to code running in the cloud, which extracts the frame corresponding to the audio marker from each video and compiles it into a single animated GIF.

 

 

The team that created this demo did it on a nearly nonexistent budget, in three weeks. I edited the blog posts they wrote about the project. If you’re interested in the technical details and/or building your own version check them out:

Cloud Spin Part 1: 180-degree animations on Google Cloud Platform

Cloud Spin, Part 2: Building mobile apps to orchestrate video recording

Cloud Spin, Part 3: processing video using Google Cloud Platform service

And yes, seeing this photo does make me want to eat better and get more serious about exercising regularly. But you know what, if I wait until I’m thin to do fun things, that might be a long time… and I’d miss out on adventures in the meantime.

P.S. I have totally fallen down on my NaWriDaMo pledge. Epic fail. I blame the wool fumes at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival.

Day of Glamour

Bobbie Climer's WebsiteYesterday was a day of glamour. I woke up, bathed, re-colored the fuschia-orange stripe in my hair, painted my nails. This is something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before, spent an entire day just on looking good. Even on my wedding day I was more worried about getting my lines straight than what I looked like.

What brought this about? A day of photography with Bobbie Climer. Bobbie’s a friend who I’ve known off-and-on for about fifteen years. Like so many women I admire, she’s trying to carve out a career doing what she loves. Continue reading