Mischief. Mayhem. Math.
I'm a software engineer living in San Francisco. I work at Twitter. In my free time I build autonomous aircraft and take photos.
You should follow me on Twitter: @timtrueman. What topics might I tweet about?
• TED • photography • Top Gear • Calvin & Hobbes • Italy
Photography
Use the arrow keys to see more photos.
Flickr is where you can find the photos I take with my Nikon D7000 and iPhone 4. I use a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.4G prime lens, a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 55-300mm ƒ/4.5-5.6G ED VR zoom lens, a Nikon circular polarizing filter II 58mm and a Tokina 11-16mm ultra-wide angle lens. I use Aperture.
Drones
Together with my friend Ryan Beall, I've released an open-source piece of inertial navigation software called Polaris. It uses accelerometers and gyros to accurately tell you in realtime your orientation (which direction am I pointed?) as well as position using dead reckoning (which is more accurate than GPS). If you think that's cool and want to check it out you don't need any hardware to give it a try; Polaris works out of the box with the wonderful simulator X-Plane.
I also hosted the DIY Drones podcast with Chris Anderson (@chr1sa), the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine.
T-minus 31 seconds and we're go for auto-sequence start…
These words have little meaning to those of us not preoccupied with sending a 2000 ton spacecraft 185 miles up into the expanse of blue that only 49 years ago was science fiction—but for the curious, those words mean everything. With 31 seconds remaining, the seven humans surrender control to the machines. They place their lives into the hands of a family of five computers. The four identical quintuplets and one odd sibling seize control of the critical functions of a spacecraft strapped to millions of pounds of fuel. They choreograph what I would argue is one of the most beautiful concerts of coordination; 250 times a second they cast their votes on what actions to take. If one of the machines were to malfunction its watchful siblings would outvote it and continue the mission without hesitation…
Continue reading: The Tale of A Family of Inertial Navigators →
Solar cars
In college I helped build and race solar cars. We're talking carbon fiber and space-grade gallium-arsenide solar cells.
Nearly everything used to build the cars was state-of-the-art; there were fighter jet joysticks, aluminum space frames, finite element analysis crash testing, custom-built 5 kilowatt-hour lithium polymer battery packs, a rearview camera because side mirrors hurt aerodynamics too much, realtime telemetry systems and LED indicators and brake lights. Top all of that technology off with a team of nearly 30 people, a top speed of approaching 90MPH and aerodynamics better than a Ferrari and you have a recipe for awesome.
| Interesting figures | Solar car | Prius |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $200k-$2.4m | $26k |
| Peak solar array power | 2 kilowatts | — |
| Energy storage (battery system) | 5 kilowatt-hours | 1.7 kilowatt-hours |
| Coefficient of drag | 0.09 or better | 0.26 |
| Curb weight | under 200 kilograms | under 1400 kilograms |
Italia
With fear and excitement I placed a finger on the red "start" button on the bottom left of the steering wheel and applied a bit of pressure. A guttural bellow roared through my spine and into my ears. Nothing could stop the grin that instantly told bystanders watching what I thought so far.
Read what it's like to drive a Ferrari 458 Italia in Maranello.
On the left is a Zonda R, the current record holder of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, an old, famous and brutal racetrack with dozens of corners over its 20.8 km (12.9 mi) length. It beat Ferrari's best lap, the previous record, by 11 seconds—an eternity in racing—with an unfathomable 6:47 run.
Discover the exclusivity from a factory that churns out only 18 cars a year.
Let's talk
You're in San Francisco. The weather is perfect and Siri tells you there's nothing on your calendar. What do you do? Answer
Someone else said it…
'Would you tell me please which way I ought to walk from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where—' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way to walk,' said the Cat.
— Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Let me tell you my secrets…
- I used to play competitive dodgeball.
- The NSA once had me at gun point; I ended up with directions to a nice place for lunch.
- In the middle of a snowy wilderness, I reached inside a deer that had been shot and killed, pulled its heart out, cut a hole in an iced-over lake, washed it out, cooked it over a fire, and then ate it. True story (just missing some context, no big deal).
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