A week of Facebook friends

Written on February 1, 2011 by Thomas Renck

So I was curious about when the best time to post something to Facebook was. So I created a script that spoofs my browser information and logs into Facebook. Then it scrapes the number of friends I have online from the chat bar at the bottom of the screen. The script runs every 5 minutes, 24-hours a day, and stores the number of friends I have online in a database.

I used the first week of readings to create the graph above. I find it fascinating! Every day follows the same basic shape with Monday and Tuesday seeing by far the most activity. Then it steadily decreases until the least popular day, Saturday. I’m really interested to see what next week looks like, will it be similar? I have posted the page that shows the real-time data here, so check it out if you want to see more!

Square Inc. card reader keychain (DIY)

Written on January 21, 2011 by Thomas Renck

I just got my Square Inc. card reader in the mail. Basically it’s a little device that can be plugged into the bottom of an iPhone or iPod touch. It allows you to swipe credit cards through it, enabling you to accept credit card payments anywhere! I was trying to decide where I was going to stash it so that it would always be with me, it’s too big for a wallet, but it would work on my keys! However, I didn’t want it to be attached to my keys when I was using it, it needed to be releasable. After pondering how to do this I realized it’s already made to be attached and released. With that in mind I went looking for a spare female headphone jack.

I found an extra 2.5mm headphone adapter, and after a little dremel work to chop the top off, and one small hole I had a perfect quick release Square pay card reader on my keys. Took all of five minutes once I found the adapter. Now I can accept credit card payments anywhere (Lookout world!).

January Sunset

Written on January 16, 2011 by Thomas Renck

A quick little iPod HDR on a beautiful Riverside sunset.

Defy Gravity Photoshoot at CBUdesign

Written on September 16, 2010 by Thomas Renck

CBUdesign did a photo shoot this past weekend to give the students some hands-on experience in a studio setting shooting for a real client. This really was an awesome event and I’m not only glad to have been a part of it, but I’m excited for future events as well!

Here is my contribution, what do you think?

Thanks for looking!

Everyone loves succulents!

Written on September 11, 2010 by Thomas Renck

So we’ve got a great little garden out front that the Love’s did for us while Megan and I were on our honeymoon. It’s been struggling to survive in the bad dirt but some of them are doing well. I thought I would take some photos of the stuff because everyone loves photos of succulents! Although the second to last picture I think is not a succulent at all, but it looks good in this set. I like the last one the best.

CMYK Gloves

Written on September 7, 2010 by Thomas Renck

I think these gloves are really cool, so I decided to design a print advertisement for them.

Bouncing liquids photoshoot

Written on September 1, 2010 by Thomas Renck

Ian and I decided to have a little fun shooting some strange things. We set up a flat plastic plate that we could vibrate at any frequency we wanted. All we needed was an iPhone app, an amplifier, and an old subwoofer. Just lying around right? Welcome to the shop. We got some pretty interesting shots, the white fluid is just some car wax and water, and the silver stuff is mercury.

Don’t play with mercury, fair warning!

Enjoy and let me know if you think these are cool or lame!

Ammo Can Computer

Written on March 26, 2009 by Thomas Renck

Here at X-INfERNO.com we do a lot of interesting things with computers. Building computers is one of my specialties and building things in general is one of my favorite things to do. So one day when I needed a project I decided to take on building a computer into an military ammunition box.

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Extendo Bikes

Written on March 26, 2009 by Thomas Renck

Back in the day we made some crazy bikes out of other bikes. At first we did it just for fun but after it caught on we started making them so that we could ride manathons with them. I think so far we have done three marathons, first the Los Angeles Marathon in 2004, then the 2004 Long Beach Marathon, and finally the 2005 Long Beach Marathon. We had a great time at all of them but the Long Beach Marathon is way more fun course wise. So here is a quick look at the crazy X-INfERNO.com Exteno Bikes.

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