/wp

waving android

I am currently a software engineer at Google, where as a member of the Android platform team I build frameworks and user interfaces.

The blog here at is mostly historical; you can find more recent posts on .

Archive for October 13th, 2005

iMac screen used as speedlight

October 13th, 2005

The most ingenious ideas seem obvious after the fact: Apple is using the new iMac’s display to illuminate the subject when snapping pictures in the new PhotoBooth app.

Damn that’s clever. Instead of integrating a flash into the new iMac, they said “hey, the screen is a flash!” So, before it takes your picture it flashes the screen white. How about that.

Note: this is not the first time that the full illuminative potential of the iMac has been realized.

Update 10/23: Manuel writes:

The first piece of software I recall using the monitor as a lamp was “Quaid Analyzer” in the eighties. Given that it was using mainly for some midnight hacking (it was a monitor for tracing any DOS/BIOS calls, single stepping thru any code, etc) the UI had a “light bulb” option just in case you needed to check some hardcopy docs in the middle of the night.

… no comments

Rain king.

October 13th, 2005

I’ve been wondering lately why the doodle of my Scion in the rain has been cropping up all over the Internet in blog entries and forum posts. Finally, I decided to run a Google Image search for “rain”; sure enough, dsandler.org makes the front page.

Update: Collecting occurrences in the comments.

… 4 comments

Procure the cure.

October 13th, 2005

On recommendation from the distant North, here comes The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Like each of us, he knows Batman … in his heart.

… no comments
newer: older: