brad garland

I’ve always struggled with the ability to capture a moment, a college class, a presentation, a meeting. There is often no pattern, reasoning, or order behind note-taking abilities. Mind mapping, bullet points, verbatim, argh! Anyway, point being, I have always had a hard time trying to find just the right way to take notes. By paper, iPhone, or Laptop.

Paper was always tops for flexibility but not very searchable or sharable. So I conformed to the computer and the closest thing I could find was Evernote. Unstructured text documents and it required the keyboard be used despite my need for more of a ‘mind mapping’ process. But recently, I think I may have found the holy grail (at least for me). It’s called the Pulse SmartPen made by Livescribe. It’s part pen/microphone/camera/storage device that allows it all to come together for me. Watch my demo/review of what I’m talking about but all I can say for now is so far, so good.



Oh, and for those interested in the church sermon and sketchnotes I did today, see below.

Had a few people ask how to do a good online demonstration when showing your product off. I’m not talking presentation skills but more the technical details to have it feel and look clean. I told them I’d put together a quick little screencast showing my setup, in a Mac world, on how to do it. So here’s what I do, nothing super complicated but small steps add up to alot!

Posted from brad garland’s stream

Posted from brad garland’s stream

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Listen on posterous

My view

Posted via email from brad garland’s stream

A day at the pool from Brad Garland on Vimeo.

For those of you that understand this, great and enjoy. For those of you who don’t, no worries, its not that important anyway. Just felt that this is a place that talks about things that has happened in my life and what this config enables me to do took up a lot of time a decade ago. Virtual high five to first comment that guesses what game this is from. :)


// generated by bradgarland, me.cfg
// If commented out (//) then assume an alias is overwriting it below.
// This comes from a range of of different config files but mainly intended for CTF play.

bind TAB "inven"
bind ENTER "invuse"
bind ESCAPE "togglemenu"
bind SPACE "+moveup"
bind ' "invdrop"
bind * "say_team STATUS: Standing %L, with %H, %A, and %T"
bind + "sizeup"
bind , "+moveleft"
bind - "messagemode1"
bind . "+moveright"
bind / "weapnext"
bind 0 "use bfg10k"
bind 1 "use Blaster"
bind 2 "use shotgun"
bind 3 "use super shotgun"
bind 4 "use machinegun"
bind 5 "use chaingun"
bind 6 "use grenade launcher"
bind 7 "use rocket launcher"
bind 8 "use hyperblaster"
bind 9 "use railgun"
bind = "messagemode2"
bind [ "invprev"
bind \ "+mlook"
bind ] "invnext"
bind ` "toggleconsole"
bind a "+moveleft"
bind b "use rebreather"
bind c "+movedown"
bind d "+moveright"
// bind e "use grapple"
bind f "use Railgun"
bind g "use grenades"
bind h "wave 0"
bind i "id"
// bind j "wave 1"
// bind k "wave 2"
// bind l "wave 3"
bind n "say_team NO!"
bind p "use power shield"
bind q "drop tech; say_team Tech available %L"
bind r "use Rocket Launcher"
bind s "+back"
bind t "say Thank you."
bind u "wave 4"
bind w "+forward"
bind x "score"
bind y "say_team YES!"
bind z "weapnext; echo Next Weapon"
bind ~ "toggleconsole"
bind BACKSPACE "invdrop"
bind UPARROW "+forward"
bind DOWNARROW "+back"
bind LEFTARROW "+left"
bind RIGHTARROW "+right"
bind OPTION "weaplast"
bind CTRL "+attack"
// bind SHIFT "+xammo"
bind F1 "say_team Roger."
bind F2 "say_team I'm going offense ;wave 1"
bind F3 "say_team I'm on defense"
bind F4 "menu_keys"
bind F5 "menu_startserver"
bind F6 "echo Quick Saving...; wait; save quick"
bind F9 "say_team thanks!"
bind F10 "menu_quit"
bind F12 "screenshot"
bind INS ""
bind DEL "say_team I'm on defense"
bind PGDN "say_team Tech available %L"
bind PGUP "say_team %n follow me - I'll lead ;wave 3"
bind HOME "say_team I'll go after the flag"
bind END "say_team NEED HELP AT BASE!"
bind KP_5 "say_team Chasing enemy with flag at %L"
bind KP_ENTER "teamcolor"
bind KP_MINUS "say_team Enemy has overrun $us flag room, can't capture"
bind KP_PLUS "say_team Rushing $them base to get $us flag back"
bind MOUSE1 "+attack"
// bind MOUSE2 "weapnext"
bind MOUSE3 ""
bind PAUSE "pause"
set gl_driver "opengl32"
set g_select_empty "0"
set in_joystick "0"
set in_mouse "1"
set cl_vwep "1"
set gender_auto "1"
set gender "male"
set fov "110"
set msg "1"
set rate "25000"
set freelook "1"
set cl_stereo_separation "0.4"
set adr8 ""
set adr7 ""
set adr6 ""
set adr5 ""
set adr4 ""
set adr3 "acmectf.com:27920"
set adr2 "tastyspleen.net:27914"
set adr1 "tastyspleen.net:27912"
set adr0 "tastyspleen.net:27924"
set cd_volume "1"
set s_primary "0"
set s_mixahead "0.2"
set s_loadas8bit "0"
set s_khz "22"
set s_volume "0.900000"
set _windowed_mouse "0"
set gl_arb_multitexture "0"
set gl_overbright_gamma "0"
set gl_truform "-1"
set gl_arb_multisample "0"
set gl_anisotropic "0"
set gl_force16bit "0"
set gl_3dlabs_broken "1"
set gl_swapinterval "1"
set gl_ext_compiled_vertex_array "1"
set gl_ext_pointparameters "1"
set gl_ext_multitexture "0"
set gl_ext_palettedtexture "0"
set gl_ext_swapinterval "1"
set gl_vertex_arrays "0"
set gl_texturesolidmode "default"
set gl_texturealphamode "default"
set gl_texturemode "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST"
set gl_finish "0"
set gl_shadows "0"
set gl_mode "13"
set gl_modulate "1"
set gl_particle_att_c "0.01"
set gl_particle_att_b "0.0"
set gl_particle_att_a "0.01"
set gl_particle_size "40"
set gl_particle_max_size "40"
set gl_particle_min_size "2"
set sw_mode "4"
set sw_stipplealpha "0"
set sw_allow_modex "1"
set vid_maxrefresh "-1"
set vid_minrefresh "0"
set vid_gamma "1"
set vid_ypos "533"
set vid_xpos "801"
set vid_ref "gl"
set sv_reconnect_limit "3"
set allow_download_maps "1"
set allow_download_sounds "1"
set allow_download_models "1"
set allow_download_players "0"
set allow_download "1"
set hostname "brads_dm"
set skin "male/grunt"
set name "brad"
set lookstrafe "0"
set lookspring "1"
set m_pitch "-0.022000"
set hand "0"
set cl_run "1"
set crosshair "1"
set sensitivity "29.500000"
set vid_fullscreen "1"
set viewsize "100"


// Net Graph Toggle
bind F11 net1
alias "net1" "netgraph 1;echo Graph ON...;wait;bind F11 net2"
alias "net2" "netgraph 0;echo Graph OFF..;wait;bind F11 net1"

// Best Weapons
alias exw "use grenade launcher;use rocket launcher;echo Explosive Weapons;bind MOUSE2 nexw"
alias nexw "use shotgun;use super shotgun;use machinegun;use chaingun;use hyperblaster;echo Non Explosive Weapons;bind MOUSE2 exw"
bind MOUSE2 nexw

// Grappling Hook
alias hookselect "use grapple;echo Grapple Toggle; alias hooktoggle prevselect"
alias prevselect "weaplast; alias hooktoggle hookselect"
alias hooktoggle "hookselect"
bind e hooktoggle

// Ammo Drops
alias droprl "drop rockets"
alias dropmg "drop bullets"
alias droprg "drop slugs"
bind j droprl
bind k dropmg
bind l droprg

// BEST NON-EXPLOSIVE WEAPON
alias bwnonexplosive "bwnx"
alias bwnx "msg_in_bwnx;use Shotgun;use Super Shotgun;use Machinegun;use Chaingun;use Hyperblaster;use Railgun;msg_end_bwnx"
bind mwheeldown bwnonexplosive

// BEST EXPLOSIVE WEAPON
alias bwexplosive "bwx"
alias bwx "msg_in_bw;use Grenades;use Grenade Launcher;use Rocket Launcher;use BFG10K;msg_end_bw"
bind mwheelup bwexplosive

//SNIPER
alias +sniper "fov 20;crosshair 2;sensitivity 3;use railgun; echo Sniper View On"
alias -sniper "fov 110;crosshair 1;sensitivity 29.500000;use rocket launcher; echo Sniper View Off"
bind SHIFT +sniper

This is a vanity private post. Thought about posting up pics publicly of my new car but Jenny convinced me otherwise.

I GOT A NEW CAR! I have been considering getting rid of my 03 Dodge Ram truck for a while now but since it hit the 100K mark I was ready for something new. I knew I wanted something more car like instead of a truck because the functionality of a truck was only getting used maybe two or three times a year really. So I went luxury vehicle and got a 2006 Infiniti M35 from Carmax.

Tangent: The Carmax experience was really pretty good. They gave me $5K for my truck (which was lower than I could’ve sold it for privately but considering the hail damage work I would’ve had to do AND the bad economy we are in, the stress would’ve outweighed the additional money I would’ve gotten. Their ‘no haggle’ concept is great and I went into one knowing what I wanted to look at and we didn’t beat around the bush. The car ended up costing $25,998 and was going to finance through Carmax (at 7.75%) but made a call to Employees Credit Union where I financed my truck and they gave me a %5.5 (gotta love the CUs) so I switched to them. This is a first for me but I also got the ‘gap insurance’ and extended warranty through the CU as well (it was cheaper too) so we’ll see if it is like Dad says, “Those are about as good as the paper they’re written on.” To be continued.

Had it a week now and I really love it. It feels good to ride and really nice interior. Has cool features like bluetooth speakersphone for my iPhone 3G and a 6 disc CD changer which I figured I wouldn’t really use but once I heard the difference between the FM wireless transmitter I have and a CD with that Bose system, I was sold. So the CD player plays MP3 CD and so I’m setting up some CD’s to just stay in the car that will pretty much cover my entire library of songs.

Now, Jenny and I are ready to take it out on the town together since it isn’t a family car (no carseats in it……..yet)

Here’s some pics I took a couple days after I got it.

This shows how geeky I am, I suppose, but I enjoy finding past technological innovations to be able to make analogies to current ones. In communication terms, Twitter (or more likely “short-form communications”) looks to be playing out to be a new form of email. Many people that heard about email a couple decades ago couldn’t see the point. “Why wouldn’t I just call them or leave a message?”, they said. Now email is mission critical in just about every organization. Email didn’t start an upward trend until American Online came out and gave every consumer an email address with their service. And I still remember as a kid being excited about dialing in (2400 baud modem baby!) and hoping to hear those three company defining words, “You’ve got mail!”. YES, somebody emailed me!

So fast forward to 2009 and we have Twitter.

It’s been out for a few years but it really hasn’t taken off until now. One of the key differences that I see between AOL of old and Twitter of today is that AOL’s email was interoperable . AOL emails worked with Prodigy emails or CompuServe emails. What does Twitter work with today? Email was built with a decentralized network in mind but Twitter doesn’t appear to want to play nice. Considering their exponential growth why would they want to though, right? It’s a lot like Facebook in that way I suppose.

Twitter may end up, if not acquired first, to be the new AOL and is definitely put itself on the map for future technology historians.

Anytime I need a place for some inspiration, motivation, or creative thought I find myself over on TED.com. The TED conference is one of those conferences that I would LOVE to attend some day and aspire to be a presenter there (crossing fingers). I came across this presentation by Tim Berners-Lee (father of the Web) talking about what’s next. This presentation came just this past March in 2009. A really wonderful talk and I couldn’t agree with him more on putting your data (or I like to think of it as information) on the Web to be able to unlock other potentials that some of us haven’t even dreamed of before.