Author: bluesanta

Blog Series Recap Part 1 (click here to read): Becoming acquainted with Dr. Lawlor’s robotics experiments at UAF. Part 2 (click here to read): Writing a C++ script to collect data from the robot and insert it into the PostreSQL database. Part 3 (click here to read): Creating a Jupyter Notebook script to display the… Continue reading Arctic Miner – Part 4

Blog Series Recap Part 1 (click here to read): How I became acquainted with Dr. Lawlor’s robotics experiments at UAF. Part 2 (click here to read): Writing a C++ script to collect data from the robot and insert it into the PostreSQL database. Visualizing the Collected Data With data propagating into our database, we can… Continue reading Arctic Miner – Part 3

A Brief Recap Previously, in Part 1 of this blog series, I explained how I was hired by Dr. Lawlor at UAF to work as an assistant on his arctic mining robot. Choosing Data Visualization Once I had a chance to catch my bearings in this new environment, we discussed what part of the project… Continue reading Arctic Miner – Part 2

For over a decade I made my living as a visual artist, primarily through illustration. I’m not looking for work as an illustrator at this time, but I would like to integrate my sense of design with my other pursuits, especially data-driven storytelling.

In March 2023 I was hired by Dr. Orion Lawlor, professor of robotics in the Computer Science Department at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks. I am one of several student research assistants. Our project is to build a robot that is capable of mining ice on the moon. This ice will then be transformed… Continue reading Arctic Miner – Part 1

The following content is a collection of API or RPC documentation I wrote for Komodo Platform and their spinoff project, AtomicDEX. The markdown formatting for this document was intricate in nature and it does not transfer to the WordPress blog post format. If you would like to see the raw markdown documentation, please view this… Continue reading AtomicDEX RPC Commands

Introduction Komodo’s decentralized exchange, AtomicDEX, allows people to trade cryptocurrency coins without a counterparty risk. The protocol is open source and trading is available for any coin that any developers choose to connect to AtomicDEX. Our service fully realizes decentralized order matching and trade clearing. The order-matching aspect relies on a peer-to-peer network to build… Continue reading An Introduction to Atomic Swaps and AtomicDEX

The “Double Spend” Problem The creation of blockchain technology stems from the early mathematical studies of encryption using computer technology. One such example is related to the information-encoding device, “Enigma,” invented by the Germans at the end of World War I. Alan Turing, a British Intelligence agent, famously beat the Enigma device by inventing the… Continue reading What is a Consensus Mechanism?

Zero-knowledge transactions rely on the Zcash parameters as put forth by the Zcash team. The Zcash parameters are a “zero-knowledge” form of technology. This is a powerful form of privacy, and arguably superior to other forms as it is effectively permanent. Relying on the Zcash parameters allows us to turn our creative resources to other… Continue reading A Word on Risks Inherent in zk-SNARK Technology

All Bitcoin-based software relies heavily on a technology called the “utxo,” short for Unspent Transaction. This technology was invented in the original Bitcoin protocol. Yet despite the technology’s age, even the most active of cryptocurrency users rarely know what utxos are or why they exist. To better understand utxos, let us first examine the language… Continue reading The UTXO: An Elusive, yet Fundamental Concept