Random Thoughts on Tech, Software, AI/ML, and Other

Rethinking Commissions: The Need for Reform in U.S. Real Estate

Here’s how it typically works today: in a real estate transaction, you, as the seller, pay commissions to both your agent and the buyer’s agent. As an example, for a $500,000 house, each agent usually takes about 3%, which totals $30,000 deducted from…

Is Twitter Blue a Cure for Social Entropy?

So, I subscribed to Twitter Blue. The goal (or wish) is that “investing” $8/month in Twitter will help fund it and make it better. Twitter used to be a place to follow and share, and learn from like-minded people. But I am growing…

Three rules to keep in mind when dealing with organizations and its people

There are three constants when dealing with organizations and its people. And there are three rules or laws that can describe these constants. Keeping these mind have helped me throughout my career. At the top-level we’ve Conway’s Law and the fact that Organizations…

Is blogging dead?

It has been a long time since I have written something in this blog, on random thoughts on tech and software, and other. Today I use LinkedIn for professional, and Twitter for the rest. There is plethora of other social networks that I…

Amat Victoria Curam

Tech and software projects are complex by nature. And with this complexity comes Chaos. Between Order and Chaos we find the Edge of Chaos (or Edge of Order depending how you see things). The good news is that Chaos in tech and software, and in…

Cool Austin Company: LIFT Aircraft

Me being a total air/spacecraft geek (and an ex-Space Shuttle avionics software engineer), it is very cool to see the Austin company called LIFT Aircraft. Founded by Matt Chasen, a well-known Austinite serial entrepreneur, and investor, the company is building a super cool…

The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 Main Engine, SLS and Reusability

As of this writing, there are 16 Space Shuttle reusable RS-25 main engines (built by Aerojet Rocketdyne) that are remaining from the Space Shuttle program. The RS-25 are awesome main engines designed in the 1970s, and were used in 135 Space Shuttle missions.…

Notes on Amazon DeepLens Setup

(Note: This is a post from Sept 3, 2018 that I had lost and am recovering for archiving purposes) The setup of the DeepLens took me a number of tries. I believe that perhaps, it was a self-inflicted issue when I unintentionally exited the setup…

Kranzberg’s Laws (and unintended consequences)

Dr. Melvin Kranzberg is known for his laws of technology. Circa 1985, Dr. Kranzberg wrote his six laws: Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. Invention is the mother of necessity. Technology comes in packages, big and small. Although technology…

2020 Return to Human Flight – Crew Dragon Demo-2

As the Crew Dragon splashes down back to Earth, it is all excitement to see the successful return to human flight. Congrats to SpaceX, NASA, and the US of America. Congratulations to astronauts Doug G. Hurley and Bob L. Behnken, and the whole…