Clint Dickson

testing

2007-04-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1194930/L.jpg

Gliffy at STIRR Mixer

2006-07-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

My business partner Chris and I demo'ed Gliffy at the STIRR mixer last night. This was a great way for us to get real time live feedback from people about our product, as well as introduce ourselves to other people in the Web 2.0 industry and potential investors/partners. Overall, the feedback was great and people were really impressed with Gliffy.

Chris also gave a 60 second presentation to the group of around 200 attendees and did a great job. They also had Channel 5 news, KPIX, interview Chris as well as take a few camera shots of Gliffy. You should be able to catch us on the news next week between Tuesday and Thursday on the 11:00 spot. Pretty cool!

Here are some pics of the mixer:

http://flickr.com/photos/hotfromsiliconvalley/sets/72157594197662401/

We highly recommend the STIRR mixer to other technology entrepeneurs.

Deadwood Season 3 starts this Sunday

2006-06-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen Deadwood before, start watching the first two season's now. Hands down one of the best series ever, if not THE BEST Western series ever.

The language and graphic nature of the show can be pretty gritty, but it only makes it seem more real. Ian McShane is one hell of an actor.

A friend was telling me of the real town of Deadwood in the Black Hills.. they have a lot of the original locations still there, like Wild Bill's grave. Gives me a reason to go thru South Dakota some day.

Season 3 starts Sunday, and since I've got HBO now, please don't call me between 9pm and 10pm on Sunday for the next 12 weeks.

Thievery Corporation on July 20th

2006-06-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

Get your tickets here:
https://wsdweb2.wsdsecure.com/secure/ape/buytickets/index.cfm?cID=587

Gliffy Public Beta is live.

2006-05-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

Chris and I finally moved Gliffy out of Closed Beta. Thanks to everyone who gave us valuable feedback. Check out http://www.gliffy.com, and login. If you don't have a login, you can now register for free.

We're excited to get our official PR release out soon and then really see the public reaction. Hopefully, people will love it.

BattleStar Gallactica spin-off in the works

2006-04-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Its called 'Caprica', and takes place 50 years before the BStar Gallactica series. It's to focus on two families, the Adama's and the Greystone's. It will lead up to the creation of the first Cylon... hopefully Model Number Eight :)

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-scifi-galacticaprequel,0,6083698.story?coll=zap-news-headlines

Playa = cute

2006-04-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a picture of our new pug Playa.. she's a handful of cuteness.

Designing a Wine Rack

2006-04-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

So we've got a lot of wine sitting in boxes right now after our last visit to the Livermore Wine Country. This has further filled the fire for me to get on the ball and build a wine rack/cellar, and make use of this table saw in our garage.

I've started to draw up a preliminary design in Gliffy. You can enlarge the image by clicking on it. The cool thing is I can collaborate this design with my friend who is an industrial designer. He's going to help me draw it up in an actual solids modeling program, plus he has better tool-time chops than myself, so he can make comments or edits. Anyways, you can check on our progress with the design by refreshing the image anytime.

Playa the Pug

2006-04-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

We adopted a new Pug puppy, and her name is Playa (plah-yah). Welcome to the family!

awwwwww

Review: The Ranch Golf Club, San Jose

2006-03-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

When you go to play the Ranch Golf Club in San Jose, make sure you bring 3 things with you:

1) Your camera.
2) Your A Game.
3) Your duffel bag full of golf balls.

You'll want your camera because this course has the most stunning views of any course in the Bay Area. And to try to describe the vertical drops some of your tee shots will make to someone is hard to explain in words. Props to the course designers for placing this course in some relatively rugged terrain.

You'll want your A game because this is probably the most challenging course in the Bay Area. The blue tees have a slope of 147, and the black tees have a slope of 152...yes, thats 152. Lets just say, if your game isn't on (like mine wasn't that day), its hard to relax because accuracy is not a luxury, its at a necessity.

You'll want a duffel bag of balls because there are many opportunities to lose your little white friends. Trouble abounds, and many of the areas available to hit your wayward shots are environmentally protected grounds, so no searching is allowed.

Hole #12, by A. Bradley

BUT, even though I shot my worst score in years, this course is one I will be returning too. Why? Well, it's a diamond in the rough with regards to public courses in the Silicon Valley. It reminds you of no course you've ever played (except for maybe Wolf Creek in Mesquite Nevada), and definitely not one you'd find in San Jose. On some holes you'll have spectacular views of downtown San Jose and on others you can see the San Francisco skyline on a clear day.

The course is target golf at its prime. I took driver out only on 4 holes. Many calculations were required on the tee to figure out your yardage given the elevation changes, the wind, and the numerous hazards. It's very much a thinking-golfers course. The greens do role very true and are some of the best conditioned public greens around. One more thing, carts are required on this course.. and at about half way thru, you'll really understand why.. I think it took us literally 5 minutes to drive between holes 11 and 12.

Hole #14 and #16, by A. Bradley

The first hole to highlight is number 9. A devilish par 5. Although it seems short at 528 yds, every shot requires accuracy. You start off with a tee shot over a long ravine, and if you take driver, you'll have a 15 yd wide landing area. Plus, there's no going for the water protected green in 2 unless you can hit a high towering Tiger-esque 4 iron cut with laser-like precision. And just when you think the fun stops when you get to the green, you'll have an extreme two-tiered demon to contend with.

My favorite hole on the course was number 10. If you have fear of heights, beware, as the elevation difference from tee to green seems higher than the length of this 343yd par 4. A mid-iron off the tee is the smart play, but one could easily reach the green with a 3 wood, although errant shots will pay deeply. The green is protected by yellow stakes, red stakes, water, bunkers, landmines, sharks, you name it!

Overall, the Ranch is an exciting course, and one that will humble your game for sure... in the true words of the Terminator, "I'll be back".

Url Rewrite Filter

2006-03-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

Found a cool tool today that allows you to easily rewrite your URLs from your J2EE compliant application server, similar to Apache's mod_rewrite. Its URL Rewrite Filter.

The configuration is contained in its own XML file and allows you to rewrite a URL and either redirect or forward to a new URL as an example. The parameters are in Perl5 style regular expressions or wildcard expressions.

Of course its great for URL abstraction and tidyness. You can even easily rewrite url's based on the client Browser type.

Woo Hoo! New Clubs!

2006-03-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

Finally, the moment has arrived. I got new clubs (irons, 3 - pw). After playing with the same knock-offs for over 7 years, I finally broke down.

I bought the Taylor Made RAC LT's. I tried the Mizuno MP-60's and 32's, equivalent Titleist and Cleveland's and the Nike Slingshot. I wanted to also try the Bridgestone J30 and the Nike Pro Combo's, but they were not available. But the Taylor Made clubs really stuck out and felt comfortable. Plus their topline just looks the best. The shafts are steel and Taylor Made branded, but a lot lighter than the Dynamic Gold's which I immediately liked, being that i played graphite shafts before. The Taylor Made's also came in cheaper than the others, especially the Titleist.

I was able to take them out for a spin yesterday for the first time at Harding Park. Although my swing wasn't altogether there, when i did strike it well, they felt so good. I probably hit one of my sweetest feeling 3 irons ever, about 220.

One other thing, i bought the clubs at a small shop in Belmont called Golf Town. Don't be fooled from its small appearance on the outside however, this place is very well stocked. And the owner, Nancy, was very friendly and helpful. Its dangerously close to my house, however, so I'll be making many more investments there.

OpenLaszlo and Gliffy

2006-03-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

We presented Gliffy to over a hundred developers last night at Laszlo System's "Pizza, Beer and AJAX" event in San Francisco. We got some great positive feedback from our presentation and product demo. Check out the Gliffy Blog.

There were some other excellent presentations including one by Pandora's CTO on their use of OpenLaszlo.

Props goes out to the Laszlo crew for putting on a great event. Its great to work with OpenLaszlo for more than a kick-ass platform to develop on, but it also provides for a great community.

Golf Tasks and Goals for 2006

2006-03-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

For those of you following my golf career intensely, I've published the following diagram below showing my tasks and goals for 2006. I think its doable, however, in order to reach a five handicap by year's end, i might need to practice more than once a week.

John Daly could be an Astronaut!

2006-02-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

I just read this : http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ft_060227_exp13_golf.html

Turns out a Russian astronaut is bringing a six iron and a golfball and hitting the ball from the International Space Station. Its part publicity stunt, part money waster.

"The ball is equipped with transmitters that will enable golfers to follow its flight around the world at the company's Web site, www.e21golf.com. Video from the shot also will be used in a television commercial."

They even built a special platform for the tee shot, and they're worried about the guy hooking it into the space station. In a spacesuit. Reminds me of trying to hit my first tee shot on a below freezing morning at Presidio with 4 jackets on.

OTEC

2006-02-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

Back when i was studying Mechanical Engineering in college, one of the cool projects I did was on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or OTEC. It's the concept of taking the temperature gradients at different levels of depth in the ocean to create energy (a power cycle). We used the island of Moorea near Tahiti as a study, and designed an OTEC system that would basically power the whole island. It was an interesting project partly because my partners dad actually lived on the island, and gave us some good data (we were this | | close to actually going there, damn). In the end though, the size of the system ended up being very huge and cost prohibitive. But this was 11 years ago, and things I'm sure things have changed, like more efficient materials and costs, but I'm too busy studying code now. BTW, I did a another cool diagram in Gliffy showing OTEC (click to get full image):

Gliffy is cool.

2006-02-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

As part of QA'ing our online diagramming application, Gliffy, for our next release, I drew an image of Yosemite Valley. Not bad for a wannabe struggling artist. The really cool thing is, if I change the image in the application, the one you see here will automatically update.. its LIVING!

Review: Pasatiempo Golf Club

2006-02-05T22:39:00.000-08:00

I was born and raised in the southern part of Santa Clara valley. Ever since I started playing golf almost 10 years ago, whenever I drove to Santa Cruz on highway 17 and passed by Pasatiempo, I would say to myself 'i gotta play that course sometime'. I finally did this last Saturday.

View from the clubhouse of Hole 9, Par 5, 489 yds (photo by Dennis Yang)

The course at Pasatiempo Golf Club is a gem. Although the price is a little steep, it is definitely a course you should play once in your golfing lifetime. There is definitely a lot of lore that surrounds this course, being that it was designed by Alister MacKenzie (in fact he owned a house on the course itself). Mr. MacKenzie also designed Augusta National and Cypress Point. Golf Digest rates Pasatiempo as one of the top 3 courses you can play in California, and is ranked #31 in “Golf Digest’s 2005 America’s Greatest Public Courses.”

Pasatiempo offers two unique experiences going out and coming in. The first 9 is more about a few very long holes, but more straightforward in the way they are played. On your first hole, you start on a long 460yd par 4. Although with a nicely elevated tee box, if you weren't hitting your driver well on the range beforehand, this first test could be very difficult. The second hole is 440 yds, also favoring the long hitter. One of my favorite holes was the 3rd, par 3, at 217 yds, all up hill and was into the wind that day for us. From the tee it looked gorgeuos with all of the surrounding bunkers artistically placed. Figuring it was playing more like 250 yds, I was able to rip a 3 wood into the left rough and got up and down with a really delicate chip shot. Walking away with a 3 on that hole was felt like a great birdie.

Hole 3, 217 yd par 3

The front nine of Pasatiempo felt like a great classic course. It looked pleasant to the eye, and seemed fairly straightforward. The back nine was a completely different course in our eye. On the back nine, you are greeted with a large ravine to carry your drive over, and then a fairly deep well protected green. And then #11, probably the most difficult hole on the course, was an uphill par 4 with a long ravine to carry on your second shot to a very protected green with OB on the left and the ravine on the right. A perfeectly place drive and one of the best long irons of your life is a requirement on this hol. Overall, the back nine was quite different than the front in that you were better off knowing where to hit it, especially off the tee, to leave yourself a good angle on the approach. It was a challenge and showed even more character to this great course.

The bunkers at Pasatiempo had a unique look to them. They blended in very naturally, and many of the lips were forgivingly low. The greens were on the slow side, which is common for the type of grass used on greens in the Monterey Area.

Finally, the staff at Pasatiempo were very friendly, and the bar makes a really good Bloody Mary. The course also has a driving range (no grass tees).

Citimove.com and 5 Star Movers

2006-01-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

We just got done moving into our new home in San Mateo from San Francisco. And although its been a lot of work, the move went very well, thanks to Citimove.com and 5 Star Movers.

Citimove.com is a website where you can fill out information on your move and then let movers bid on you. Its free, simple to use, and you can get as detailed as you want. One of the movers that bid on us was Five Star Moving Service. They came in with the lowest bid (by quite a good margin) and it was offered as a flat fee (so no time and materials expense would be incurrred by me).

On the day of the move, the fellas at Five Star Movers kicked butt. They worked hard and were very friendly and flexible. All of our stuff got to our new place in perfect order. They even had to drop our couch out of our 2nd story side window, and fit the large items around the tight corners very elegantly. Highly recommended.

Review: Whirlwind Golf Club, Arizona

2006-01-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

I want to start writing more reviews of those golf courses I play and visit. So to start off, I got to play Whirlwind Golf Course in Chandler, Arizona last week http://www.whirlwindgolf.com. Whirlwind has two 18 hole championship courses. The first is the Cattail course and the second is the Devils Claw course.

I played the Cattail course in the morning. This course is where they held the Nationwide Tour's Gila River Classic. I did not play from the tips which was a healthy 7218 yds, but instead from the Gold tees which were still over 6700 yds.

Cattail

The course itself is relatively flat, but there are many undulations in the fairways and quite a few bunkers placed in the right spots. The greens were very well manacured but not too speedy. Reading the greens was not an easy task, since the breaks were subtle, thus there was many a lipout to be had that day. If you play, take your time to walk all the way around the hole before putting. This course definitely placed a premium on accuracy off the tee. From many tee boxes, the view of your landing zone would be rather blind and seem to be squeezed off by either bunkers or trees. There were a few doglegs, however, where you could cut off quite a few yards if you knew the exact spot to cut the corner. I could see playing this course a few times and significantly reducing my score. Number 14, a 389 ys par 4, was a fun hole that required a long iron off the tee and then an accurate short iron over water to an elevated green. My favorite hole was number 15, the 136 yd. par 3. This had an elevated tee onto a shallow yet extremely wide green. The shot took you over a wild deep canyon and with the pin tucked on the far right, literally 12 feet from the precipice, it made for a dicier shot than its distance implied.

A little tired after playing a 4 hour round on Cattail, I proceeded to play the Devil's Claw course, which was only $55 for a replay, a great deal. This time I played from the tips which was 7029 yds.

Devil's Claw

This course was fairly similar to Cattail with the rolling fairways, but the landing areas were a lot more ample than Cattail. However, the greens on Devil's Claw were a bit more difficult with not only some subtle slopes, but also some significant multi-tiered greens. Missing the greens also were a bit more penalizing, as many of the greenside bunkers were large and deep. The prettiest hole of both the courses was number 7. This was a short 160 par 3, with a creek complete with waterfalls to the right of the green, and deep bunkers to the left.

With both courses, hitting your ball into the desert is worse than you'd think. With most desert courses in the area, if you hit into the desert you'll have a pretty good opportunity to hit it out safely. However, here there is a sticky dry bush that lines most of the fairways that swallows any balls that get near it, leaving you with an unplayable lie 90% of the time. So beware.

The facilities at Whirlwind are top notch. The clubhouse fits into the scenery well and offers a great shopping experience (with free gift wrapping during the holidays!). The Sheraton resort there got rave reviews from my playing partners who were stating there as well.

Overall, I highly recommend the Whirlwind Golf Club if you are ever in the Phoenix area.

Tiger turns 30 today

2005-12-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

Is the best yet to come? Most professional golfers hit their prime after they turn 30, so the odds are for it. My prediction for the next 10 years is that he'll break some serious records (Jack's 18 majors) and also break some charitable records. This guy will do more for others than any other athlete. What about the following 10 years? Some say he might get into politics... President Tiger?

Either way, I'm sure its going to be an exciting next 10 years on the PGA Tour. Looking forward to it.

Getting rid of those holiday wine stains

2005-12-29T10:53:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, there's nothing better to remind you of the holidaze than the wine stains left on your favorite party gear. Well, after searching the internet on how to get rid of those stains, i found an easy solution that worked very well..

Soaking the stain in Boiled water. Now this worked well on my cotton/polyester white shirt and it was simple. I probably wouldnt try it on something that had runny colors however.

Some other things i found while going online were to use Lemon Juice, or even white wine. The most hardcore solution was to use a mixture of Dove dish soap and Hydrogen Peroxide.

TIME rates Battlestar Gallactica #1 show for 2005

2005-12-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

Finally, the critics get one right.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1141640,00.html

Although i'd like to see Arrested Development on the list too. Anyways, looking forward to the rest of BG season 2 beginning January 6th!

PXN8

2005-12-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

Just ran into this from a blog posting...

PXN8 http://www.pxn8.com/ is a pretty innovative online image editing tool.. its an AJAX interface, and has Flickr integration.. although its a little clunky on my Firefox browser, its cool to know you can to some quick tweaks of your camera photos from anywhere w/o needing photoshop. i won't be surprised if these guys get picked up soon.

Gliffy Closed Beta is Live!

2005-11-17T18:57:00.000-08:00

Phew.. you can go to http://www.gliffy.com. Again, if you'd like to get in on our next beta release, contact info@gliffy.com.

Next chapter...