Inventor's Life

A new video showcasing the DJI Mavic Mini and the GoPro Series 9. I had a blast with the kids in the backyard as we played catch, flew the drone, and overall enjoyed a nice Nebraska Spring day. 

I've come to realize that I haven't updated this blog in well over 3 years. At this point, I'm not even sure if you can still consider this a blog or if it is now lost to the annuls of the internet. Either way, my lack of updates has left me a bit on the sad side. I've always enjoyed writing for this site and at one time was surprised to see that anyone cared enough to view the results. So, without being so dour as to explain why I'm interested in bringing back the blog; let me get into an update on what I've been up to for the last few years. Trust me, it's a lot. Family:  Since the last time that I was able to write for this blog, I had left my home state of Nebraska to travel to upstate New York and visit Renslear Polytechnic Institute to study for a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well. Our crappy roach-infested apartment was not a good time. There's something about having to eat soup from a pot with a...

I was looking on YouTube for some good lectures on mechanics of materials and I stumbled upon this gem. This video gave me a significantly higher respect for the spring industry in less than ten minutes. Order their own alloys to spec. Check. Cold/hot form springs up to 55 mm. Check In house heat treatment and strain hardening. Check In house testing and quality. Check In house paint and coating. Check. Awesome ties to F1 and Rally racing. Check!

During my time in the educational system I have often questioned what it took to become so proficient at a skill to become a master, a leader of accomplishment. It's a simple question with complicated answers. For example, if I want to become a great pianist, am I just born with these aptitudes or over time, practice, and frustrations; does it just happen?

Always loved the view of the rain storms from his loft in the city. They calmed him. They were always a small grace in a world grown too big, too strained. It was a fortunate circumstance that he was able to acquire his home. High enough in the metropolis to still be able to enjoy the daylight, and the night for that matter. He was an investigator; the kind of guy that never sought work, or trouble for that matter, but he always managed to remain busy. His name was Jon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~Jacob Greenburg ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

  Inspiration... Hmmm.. Inspiration ... !!!! It's something like that. Unfortunately these things are unpredictable...

My Master's Thesis: Aha!! Completion! Honestly, for a second there I didn't think that this was going to get done. Started sweating bullets for that last week or so of the writing. however, there was a strange sense of calm and determination that overcame me during this stressful time. I believe the biggest credit should go to my wife. Without her patience and support it couldn't have happened. Seriously, I was a bit of a jerk (by bit, I mean a lot.) and despite a few little spats here and there, we managed to keep cool heads. She kept me on task, no matter the cost. Furthermore, my parents. Through there support I was able to gain my second wind and keep fighting.  But seriously, this entire endeavor would not have been possible without the support of my advisers, friends, lab mates, close family, distant family, and absolute strangers. The absolute strangers are the clerks at the coffee shop that give you a high five. It's amazing what small gestu...

Jellies! In honor of my graduation from UNL my wife and parents had decided a trip to the Omaha Zoo. (as seen below) Now I love trips to the zoo and luckily the one here is considered to be one of the best in the nation! So I'm quite the lucky fella. View Larger Map Of course with any en devour involving the potentially natural, scientific, or educational opportunity can spark my interest. This time is no different! We saw animals, plants, many a sight to behold. But of course the real gem of the trip is the aquarium.  A tasty specimen. (courtesy: Wife.) So, In honor of the trip I decided I would write a few small features on my research and thoughts about the things I found at the Zoo. Today, we will discuss one of the most intriguing; Jelly Fish. .... Catch more after the break at the link below!

Stress and Reaction. That "AHHH" feeling. From a purely mechanical standpoint stress can be defined as, "Pressure or tension exerted on a material object: "the distribution of stress is uniform across the bar."[1] This is an important definition to me as an engineer and scientist because it allows insight into the language that I understand. However, it is important as a person to be personal; Thus, a less rigid, more biological approach to its definition is desired. [Catch more after the break]

So during the rush of trying to finish my most recent accomplishment (Yay! Master of Science!!) I went for a bit of a nature hike. This is the same hike that was featured in my previous post here . More to the point, this hike was such a stress relief for me and aided so very much in clearing my head. In fact I probably wouldn't have gotten much done if I had not take a break to go on one or two of these at the height of my stress. I also have been helping my wife with some photo editing with Gimp  a freeware version of the popular photo suite. Since I originally snapped the above photo in her name, I decided it was a good place to learn and show her how to work her project. So here's the result. A gorgeous flower I found in this massive world. If anyone knows it's species I would love to hear from you. Cheers!

We decided to have a small fire pit with the weather being so wonderful tonight. For a while there I thought the weather would never get better.  Good thing I was proved wrong! Cheers.

Okay, so this is probably not of any interest other than a good bit of muttering nothing and a spot of fun. here it goes.... Abstraction , [ab*strac*tion]; n. a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance. ORIGIN: abstract, latin abstractus, "drawn away" Confirmation , [con*fir*ma*tion]; n. additional proof that something was believed (some fact or hypothesis or theory) is correct. ORIGIN: latin con- (with) + firmo, "to firm or strengthen" What's the difference between the two ideas? Now, I've had some downtime so don't hate; but, occasionally I do like to ramble, as I'm sure your all aware. These ramblings extend beyond my normal oral rhetoric and into something more akin to a, "thought experiment." So I ask again, "what is the difference?" I believe it to be one leads to another (abstraction to confirmation), but this cannot happen without the second being there (confirmation to abstraction). To me ...

So with the most recent addition to my "cloud" services, I've decided it's time to talk a little about this. For those of you who are uninitiated into the world of "the cloud" I'll give a brief introduction. You see, this idea is nothing new really, email services can almost be considered a cloud service. But basically, it's akin to a virtual hard drive of sorts. It's a place for you to store, manage, backup, and share digital information. While there are many services out now like Google Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive, my favorite has been  https://www.dropbox.com/  . This service is the first one I was introduced to and features a slew of features that the others don't seem to have as readily. For instance, not only is it managed on their servers, but it keeps a copy on my computer as well. And of course it wouldn't be of any use if it didn't sync between the two automatically, which it does. Anyways, these services a...

So my wife and I are having a garage sell with one of our neighbors, who knew we'd be each other's best customers. Anyways, she happened to have these nice shoe laces and that I happen to be in need of.  So I sat he'd up a few of my favorite colors and decided these will look great with a white pair already on my k-swiss sneaks. The shoes have seen better days of course; but with a quick polish and a bit of elbow grease,  I had them as fresh as a warm pastry. Check 'em out! I decided on the blue first. Why? Why not?! I even geek's out a bit and did a quick search on various lace patterns. Nothing like the revival  of an old pair. Cheers.

It's always a sad day when one has to let go of their books. A sad but sometimes necessary action. Turns out that, along with being collections of knowledge, these things are heavy! It also happens to be that heavy things are not conducive to moving across the country. Therefore, a purge was necessary. Sad day. Not to be a complete pessimist this post I do have some great news! Come August 13th my wife and I will be moving to NY to continue with my education in pursuit of a PhD. Yup, I passed my oral exam/defense and will finish polishing my thesis soon.  Master of Science. I like the feel. Cheers!

Mmm.. static goodness. Life's pretty good when you're not moving; but, what happens when you do? The dynamic case! Of course always being dynamic can be difficult: I'd rather keep my equations derivative free if possible. So what's a person to do? Derive Quasi-static Loading! As far as I can tell it hasn't been done yet , not even sure of its value. Makes a nice slide show of derivations though. Cheers.

Actually this is a good update. I'm now proud to say I've finished the "rough draft" of Chapter 4: methods. This chapter was a jaw dropping 20+ pages of mathematical set, analysis, and simulations. It features several illustrations of free body diagrams, DH parameters, and frame space models. Not to mention that it covers topics of 3 different robotic systems. And a cherry on top! It has a beautiful set of equations with expansions and n degree generalizations. Something like that, I'm proud, get off my back! Cheers. 

So today isn't such a bad day,  just a hectic one. I'm a bit worried and I know that I should be working nonstop on my thesis; but, I've got to have the chance to eat and refresh my mind. Btw, I now have roughly twenty-four hours until a preliminary copy of my masters thesis is due. It's OK though, no really, it's okay. My take on the situation is from one of my favorite novels "T he Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy " and that is "don't panic." That and 42. Speaking of numbers and mathematics, I believe I've finally cracked the formula for my theory of quasi-static loading! It only took a few years and a giant looming deadline but I think I did it! The solution turned out to actually be a hybrid theory of statics and kinematics that can be simplified to a series of summation and a single 6x6 matrix. Now just for that pesky writing... Cheers!