Brandy's Blog

Installing Bluetooth Radio

2011-01-26T19:07:00.000-08:00

Learn about my installation of the Pioneer DEH-7300BT Bluetooth® enabled Stereo System into a 2004 Honda Civic. This video outlines the tools I used for installation. Important steps include:

Removing the old stereo
Re-wiring the wiring harness
Replacing the stereo frame
Placing the microphone

Robot in Action

2010-12-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

My Parallax Boe-Bot kit finally came in the mail. It came with a text book and technical support.

The process of conceiving my Boe-Bot was as follows:

Connected the "Board of Education" to a power source and to my computer using a serial port. The green light indicated the"Board of Education" was successfully powered. There was no soldering necessary.
Created code in PBasic and sent the code to the BS3 stamp using a serial port.
Connected resistors and LEDs to the breadboard.
Tested the "Board of Education" by verifying that the LEDs blinked according to my code.
Assembled the Boe-Bot body.
Configured the breadboard by adding a speaker, whisker detectors, resistors, jumper cables and LEDs.
Developed several projects of code and sent them to my Boe-Bot.

Here you can see my Boe-Bot in action:

The next thing I want to do with my Boe-Bot is to add more advanced sensing so that she can navigate more effectively.

Search Engine Strategies

2009-08-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

Key Take Search Engine Strategies:

Use new Twitter & blogging techniques - make tweets re-tweetable, have blog categories, blogs should have 2-3 pics,
Lists are good for blogs & social media because people might be inspired to add to them and link back to you
Out-links and In-links are both good for blogs because they establish you as an authority
Future of search - people want real time results ie. in the moment traffic report & people are becoming lazy searchers ie. They want information consolidated and processed.
Charlene Li - "People Centered Search"
"No Magic, Just Method"
Web Position Gold & LeadLander - Great tools for tracking key words and visitors
B2B patterns and "Digital Natives" - Email is old
New SEO Approaches - Front Loading KeyWords in title tags and descriptions, duplicate content is no good. Good relevant content. Make it easy for search engines
We should start paying attention to Bing
Mobile optimizing for the iPhone & blackberries
Make sure to put attributes and descriptions in meta data for YouTube - optimize for YouTube and Facebook Search Engines too
Refresh content ie. a new graphic/ad every week - could be as simple as refreshing the colors.

Video Production

2009-06-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

Three close friends of mine are going to Nepal to shoot a documentary film called Other Nature, a feature length documentary on the advancement of human rights. They are capturing and Nepali-based grassroots organizations who push for equal rights in Nepal. Other Nature is being produced by Dancing Star Films and is accepting donations through the the San Francisco Film Society.

Also produced by Dancing Star Films is Coming in from the Cold, a thirteen minute short that follows two immigrants in San Francisco whose lives join temporarily. The cultural background of each character is revealed in a way that a mainstream film could never compete - it's so rich in perspective, down to earth, and very real. The choice of soundtrack and the creative shots are breathtaking. It's no wonder her short was screened in three international film festivals!

In exchange for helping her with her website, the producer walked me through her video editing software, Apple's Final Cut Pro and gave me a short lesson on the basics. It's exciting to learn new software and ways to get messages out. I'm currently trying to learn Adobe Premiere, which I thought would be as straight forward as Final Cut Pro, but it's not. Hopefully when she gets back, she'll show me something about Premiere.

Mobile Clouds

2009-05-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

While on a plane to the East Coast I discover that blogging from my cell phone, which has a slow and inconsistent connection is not the easiest task. As my neighbors start nudging me to turn it off I wonder what the true risks are of using a portable device while taxiing.

Luckily, I'm able to reconnect at my layover in Chicago. The purpose of this trip is to team in creating tools using SalesForce. I'm excited for the chance to explore this CRM tool intimately. In the months that I've been teaching myself how to develop applications in Salesforce I've learned to appreciate not having to worry about servers, upgrades or databases. Force.com is the platform, and Apex is the programming language used to create dynamic VisualForce pages. Eclipse is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that can be used to form SOQL queries and migrate code. SOQL statements can then be plugged in to controllers/classes to help display specific information or sets of information according to the code in the VisualForce pages. In short, SalesForce Sites make it easy to create dynamic pages without having to worry too much about what is going on behind the scenes.

It's time to board my flight. I have no doubt that one day posting from the clouds will be easy.

UCSC Extension Java Class

2008-11-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

Java Programming Comprehensive is three month long intensive course meant for experienced programmers. While it is very challenging, the good thing is that it makes web scripting languages seem easy. Early lectures reviewed passing variables by reference & value. In short Java passes variables by value. I have also learned that in Java, drivers can be used to interact with a database. SQL can be embedded within the Java to spit out information. These are my key takeaways:

http://www.brandydettmer.com/java/windchill.html

RightNow Summit

2008-10-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

This summit that I'm enjoying is packed with workshops about social media, email campaigns, wikis, and customer relations management.

Marketing Training

2008-07-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm attending a marketing training in Essex, Massachusetts where I'm learning about semiconductors, social media and marketing. One of the speakers inspired me to create a twitter account and to check out digg.

Painted Art

2007-12-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

These are a collection of oil paintings created between 2005-2009.

UCSC Extension Web Project

2007-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Cindy's site is the product of the three week course. Originally inspired by both a Dreamweaver template and a physicians website, this project helped me learn how to structure CSS (cascading style sheets) for quick edits. Cindy's main goals were to bring in more clients by having a visibility on the web, and for her site to act as a business card.

Website Re-design

2007-06-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of what I will be doing now that it's June:
I will begin to re-create my website
in Flash, http://brandydettmer.com/flash

Interview with Anousheh Ansari

2007-04-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Anousheh Ansari shared some her her time with me while visiting Hangar 211 at NASA Ames during Yuri's Night. This is what I learned:

As as child she dreamed of space travel and she is currently the first privately funded female astronaut as well as the first Astronaut of Iranian descent. She immigrated to the United States and spoke no English when she arrived as a teenager. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering from George Mason University, and her Masters in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University. She is the founder and chairman of Prodea Systems.

My sense is that Anousheh is an idealist on the forefront of a movement toward social justice. She works with non-profit organizations such as ASHOKA, PARSA and the XPRize foundation to empower communities in the middle east and Central Asia. Anousheh is an advocate for women and children and in her own words, believes "in a world without borders."

Artist Speaker Series

2007-04-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

NASA Comes to Boeger
Wendy leads participants in an activity in which they transform realistic images into strong abstract art pieces by identifying and emphasizing horizon lines as well as strong diagonals in black and white photographs. Her presentation, rich with graphic images included talk of her work with Kepler space mission at NASA as well as the future of space exploration.

Graffiti Empowerment
Guest speaker Scape Martinez dives into the rich history of graffiti art and shows a model of his newly approved project, the exterior of Roosevelt Community Center. His latest book, The Art and Technique of Graffiti can be found on Amazon or at http://scapemartinez.com/

Growing Strong Voices
Jo-An comes shares her spoken word and sets the stage for a community mural project.

Students visit non-profit and create a mural in the youth room.

NASA Work Space

2007-02-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

This is my desk at NASA.