eriksmartt.com/blog

FYI, I have a new mobile phone number

Of course, I’m not going to post it to my blog; But if you had my previous mobile number and haven’t received a message from me yet with my new number, you might want to drop me an email or something to get my new digits. The old number (which is on my business cards) will be disabled soon.

On a related note, if you happen to be in Austin and need a T-Mobile store, I’ve been twice now to the one at 4700 Guadalupe (at the Triangle.) There’s a guy there named Andrew who’s been extremely cool — excellent service. (Good enough to mention in a blog post!)

Open position at Nokia in Austin, TX for a Python/Java developer

For all the Pythonistas, there’s a publicly-listed position open at Nokia’s Austin, TX office:

Software Engineer:

The Software Engineering position will be responsible for development of software analysis tools within an Integrated Development Environment. The candidate will be required to design/develop static analysis models within Python that provide expression parsing and design pattern matching of Symbian OS applications and various UI environments, including UIQ and Series 60. Integration of the analysis tools within a Java based integrated development environment will be required through the development of application plugins. The candidate will be working in a fast paced software development environment that is very customer focused and is able to adapt features to meet customer requirements within planned product release cycles.

A couple thoughts to help interpret the above description:

• You won’t be starting from scratch.
• “A Java based integrated development environment” means Eclipse.
• If you’re not familiar with what the Austin office does, check out the “Creating Carbide.c++ Blog.”

In case the link to the job posting doesn’t work, try starting from the Nokia Careers page, which is either: <http://careers.nokia.com/> or <http://www.nokia.com/careers>.

Take note: If you’re interested in the position, contacting me isn’t the way to go. Follow the link to the job description and click the “Apply” button. Even if you know people in the office, you need to apply online to officially become a candidate.

Austin Python User Group moving

FYI, for any Python fans in Austin… The Austin Python User Group has moved off Meetup.com and back to the scipy-hosted mailing list. Meetings will now be organized using the APUG wiki page at:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/AustinPythonUserGroup

Reminder: BarCampTexas is this weekend!

Just a quick reminder for those near Austin this weekend, BarCampTexas starts Friday night!

Texas heat and a coolant leak

Somehow I always end up working on the car during my holidays, and this past week was no exception. It’s been hovering somewhere around a million degrees in Texas for much of July, and with heat-soaked concrete and traffic jams, the temperatures can be a little harsh on our combustion-powered friends. Upon returning home on Sunday, my Subaru promptly expelled it’s coolant into a stinky mist of boiling fluid dumped onto the exhaust manifold. (Fortunately, the car had returned home unharmed before launching this little performance, since the carburetor gods have been less friendly to a few other folks I know. Over the past week, two have had their radiators blow, and one killed an engine [overheating so far as to melt some plastic bits in the engine bay and ruin the heads.])

Expecting the worst, I waited for the car to cool down, then popped the hood to have a look around. Puddles of coolant stood in every nook of the front-right corner of the engine bay, though the source of the leak eluded me. I was at least expecting to see a blown hose, but unfortunately, everything looked just fine. Since I knew that more probing was needed, I pushed the car into the garage to let it completely cool overnight.

The next morning it was time to call in reinforcements. In this case, they came in the form of a Snap-on Cooling System Tester. It’s not uncommon for a coolant leak to only happen under pressure, so a cooling system tester can be used to pressurize the system. The device is pretty simple — it’s just a hand pump, but it’s crucial for testing hoses and fittings. (Thanks for letting me borrow the tester Rob!)

The pictures below show the process:

Step 1: Pop the radiator cap from a completely cooled engine:

Step 2: Attach the right adapter…

Step 3: Attach the pump, and pump it. Watch the pressure gauge and don’t exceed the pressure your system is likely to run. In my case, I didn’t want to exceed 15 psi (~1.1 bar.)

Step 4: Watch the coolant spray out the pin-hole leak like a fountain!

As you can see in the pictures, the leak was pretty easy to find with the right tools, but would have been extremely difficult without them. Fixing it was even easier, and it gave me a nice excuse to flush the system and replace the other hoses as well (I went with higher-strength hoses for the replacements.) Also of note, you may have noticed in the pictures that I’m running a high-pressure radiator cap. (The STi cap is rated 1.3 bar.) This may have caused the blown hose, so do be aware of this when swapping caps.

If you’d like to replicate this at home, remember that automotive coolant is considered toxic once it’s been run in an engine. Always wear protective gloves when working with automotive fluids, and recycle them appropriately. (See the EPA page on Antifreeze for more on this.)

[Update]
Since this repair, the radiator lasted another year before also developing a crack and blowing coolant all over the engine bay. The stock WRX radiator features a plastic top, which was the failure point for mine. Since all the coolant hoses were replaced with high-strength lines, that plastic top may have simply been the next weakest link in an over-pressurized coolant system. Now that the car has an all-aluminum radiator, I’m curious where the next weakest link might turn up (hoping that it’s not catastrophic!)

3D modeling the Earth

Google SketchUp for OS X finally released to the public this week (as did Google Earth Beta 4 for OS X, Linux, and Windows, in case you missed it.) If you’re not familiar with SketchUp, but are at least remotely interested in 3D modeling, I suggest hoping over to the Google SketchUp Tutorials and having a peek. The first few tutorials elicit a jaw-dropping “it can’t be that easy” reaction.

On first glance, Google offering a 3D modeling program seems a bit strange. I mean, what could this possibly have to do with search, right? But the key is to look at it differently. If you’ve used Google Earth, odds are high that you’ve also tried looking a major city with the “3D Buildings” option enabled for that all too futuristic, flying-through-the-world experience. But what you notice when you do this is that there aren’t enough 3D models, and they tend to lack detail. So how do we get from flat, satellite photographs to rich 3D models of every building in the world? Well, you start by giving away a free, easy to use 3D modeling program that can import/export into Google Earth… And then you let your customers (happily) do the work for you. (Co-creation at it’s best.)

For more, see:

• How do I place a SketchUp model in Google Earth?
• Google’s 3D Warehouse

Below: an example SketchUp model (of the University of Texas tower) geo-positioned over a Google Earth map tile

Mobile Monday Austin, June 5th: Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner

Mark your calendars for this Monday, June 5th! Mobile Monday Austin (5:30pm - 8:00pm at Dell, Parmer South Campus, PS1 Texas Giant Conf Room) will feature Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner, M:Metrics Senior Sales Director David Gill, and Frog Design Senior Designer Bill Bull discussing “Browser-based mobile applications - industry and trends, the technologies and the typical challenges.” This should be a good one!

Austin Python Meetup, June 8th 2006

The next Austin Python Meetup is happening June 8th! I’ll be there talking about Python as a language for mobile application development, specifically looking at and demoing Python for S60. My presentation isn’t finished yet, so any ideas or suggestions are welcome (even if you are unable to attend.)

The meetup will be at Enthought’s office in downtown Austin. (Map and Directions)

I hope to see you there!