The Mike Matas Blog

Japan & Korea

2008-05-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

2008-04-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

One of this years best TED Talks. I just finished reading her book, basically an extended version of this talk.

Flower Bud

2008-04-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

Mushrooms

2008-03-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

Obama Sidewalk Stencil

2008-02-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

Cherry Blossom

2008-02-24T17:44:00.001-08:00

Photos Taken Around Winter

2008-01-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

Taken yesterday evening from the roof of my apartment after the big storm. (click for large size)

Photos From Hawaii

2007-12-02T04:04:00.000-08:00

Yosemite Camping

2007-07-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Timelapse

2007-06-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the epic BBC documentary Planet Earth and got inspired by some of their incredible timelapse footage of plants growing. I wanted to give it a try myself so 2 weeks ago I set up an iSight and had it take a photo of some newly planted seeds every 5 minutes. Every time a new photo is taken it is automatically uploaded to my website where I have a Quartz Composer composition that takes last the 8 hours of images and stitches them together looping them back and forth. It is still going, taking photos and updating every 5 minutes. Take a look above at the QuickTime movie showing past the 2 weeks and below at the live Quartz Composer composition showing the past 8 hours.

Nature Shots

2007-05-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

Heres a couple nature shots I took over the past few weeks in Golden Gate Park and Yosemite. Enjoy.

Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip

2006-12-31T00:26:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Seattle 2006

2006-11-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Lake Tahoe Camping Trip

2006-07-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Drew, Scott and I headed over to Lake Tahoe to go car camping. Saturday morning we drove up to Grover Hot Springs and camped for 2 days hanging out around the camp, swimming in the river, and checking out the light polutionless starry night sky. Monday we drove up to South Lake Tahoe and spend another 2 days there hanging out on the beach and watching the 4th of July fireworks over the lake. It's really nice up there during the summer, totally different from when I last saw it.

TED Talks Video Podcast

2006-06-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to point out that the TED conference I have been going to for the past 2 years has started posting full length videos of the talks given at this years conference in a free video podcast. They have started off with 6 talks and will posting a new one to the podcast every week. Included in the videos already posted is a short talk Al Gore gave as a follow up to a slideshow he gave earlier in the week and many have now see in his movie "An Inconvenient Truth". I encourage everyone to subscribe to the podcast and check out a few of the talks.

Click Here to Subscribe to the Video Podcast

Birthday, Park, Brother, TV

2006-03-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

As you might have noticed I have fallen behind on my posting lately. I just tuned 20 this past week and wanted to catch up with a combined post about what I have been up to.

I am really enjoying California and the bay area. The other week I discovered Skyline Ridge, this amazing park about 20 minutes from my place. The park is at the very top of the hills separating silicon valley from the ocean. From the park you have an awesome panoramic view of the ocean, silicon valley and san fransisco. Its a really nice place to go on the weekends and relax. Here is a panoramic photo I took just before sunset a few weeks ago.

(Click for larger image)

My little brother Sam came down to visit this past weekend, we had a great time riding roller coasters at Six Flags Marine World and hanging out on the beach at Half Moon Bay. I just saw him in December but he already looks way older, man he's growing fast.

I just updated my Television set up with a new Sony Bravia 40" LCD and an Intel Mac Mini running Front Row. The color and clarity of the two combined is amazing.

Lake Tahoe Snowboarding

2006-02-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Last weekend my girlfriend and I headed up to Lake Tahoe to go snowboarding at Squaw Valley. I have been skiing since I was really young and am pretty good at it, but this time I decided to try snowboarding. I have been meaning to try it for a long time but after seeing the film First Decent I really knew it was time to give it a shot. I started off slow, learning how to turn and stop going down the super easy green circle bunny slope. After mastering that slope I decided to go ahead and hit the blue square chair. I got going pretty fast but I was totally out of control. I kept on catching the edge of my board in the snow as I rocked back and fourth and the verge of falling and my face and then my ass. This did not keep up long and I quickly fell hard on a sheet of ice. The weight of my fall was all absorbed by my right wrist bending backwards. I was pretty sure I had broken my wrist... on my second run. It hurt really bad and I could barely move it so I decided to get it checked out at the ski clinic. They took x-rays and determined it was not broken but was sprained in 2 places. The doctor gave me a wrist brace and sent me on my way. I was able to finish off the weekend wearing the brace and a new pair of wrist guards highly recommended for beginning snowbaorders. I love the simplicity of snowboarding over skiing, one board instead of 2 skis and 2 poles. Snowboarding boots are also much more comfortable than the robot like ski boots. I'd snowboard again for sure.

Whistler Lights

2005-12-22T00:20:00.000-08:00

I am up in Whistler this week with my family. Unfortunately the weather is not all that great. It has been raining all week and the mountains snow base has dropped several inches since we got here on Monday.

Above are some cool photos I took of the whistler christmas lights.
(click to download desktop sized copies.)

Lens Flare

2005-12-10T16:59:00.000-08:00

Some nice light was coming through my windows this afternoon creating some really cool lens flares in PhotoBooth. Just thought I would share. Click the image above from more images.

Fleet Week Party

2005-10-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went up to San Francisco for a Fleet Week party at Evan Williams, the founder of Blogger and Odeo, house. We went up to the roof of his 12 story building to watch the Blue Angles perform over the bay. Unfortunately I got to the party a little late and missed the Red Bull Air Race I was really looking forward to. The view was incredible and I got some really nice photos.

The view from the roof. (Click for larger image)

Point Reyes Hike

2005-10-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

This past weekend me and my girlfriend and Tim (who now also works at Apple) and his girlfriend headed over to Point Reyes, a national park about an hour north of San Francisco (a really nice drive). We went on a 4 mile hike to Arch Rock where we eat lunch and enjoyed the amazing view of the coast. Here are some photos.

The view from Arch Rock.

Mary Beth up on Arch Rock.

A cave we found on the beach.

Tim and Tre hiking along the coast.

A seagull flying above me.

New Palo Alto Apartment

2005-09-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

After a month of living in temporary corporate housing I have finally found a really nice place to live. I just moved into my new apartment in downtown Palo Alto, just 15 minutes north of Apple. I am just about 4 blocks off University Avenue, the main downtown area with tons of great restaurants, and an Apple retail store. The neighborhood is really beautiful with tree lined streets, great for taking my bike out. I really love it here.

Coldplay Concert

2005-08-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

I went to the Coldplay concert at the Shoreline amphitheater this Friday for a friends birthday. We had told her we were going to see Jack Johnson but last minute switched out the tickets and surprised her with the Coldplay concert. It really sucks they had both Jack Johnson and Coldplay playing on the same night, I would have liked to have gone and seen both.

The concert was a ton of fun, Coldplay was great and their visuals were amazing. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately our lawn seating prevented us from actually seeing the stage. It seems like they could easily re-architect the slope of the lawn so everyone could see the stage. I guess that's what you get when you build an amphitheater on top of a landfill.

New Car

2005-08-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm finally down in Cupertino living in a temporary place till I can look around and find a place where I want to live permanently. I decided to not move my old 1991 Honda Civic since it would have cost far more to move it than the car was worth, and it was on its last leg with 180,000 miles. Instead I decided to get a new car when I got down here. So yesterday I got a car I have had my eye on for a couple years, the Audi TT.

It took me forever to decide what model to get. I finally ended up going with the 2005 180 hp Coupe in Dolomite Grey with Grey interior. I was originally thinking I would get the convertible version, but after closer inspection I decided I liked the coupe much better. The coupe's curves are much more slick and and interior is much more finished.

The cars design is so simple, and timeless, it's nearly perfect and I love it.

Moving to Apple

2005-07-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

Over the next couple weeks there are going to be some major changes in my life. I am moving to down to Cupertino, CA where I will be designing user interfaces and drawing icons for Mac OS X at Apple.

Unfortunately this means I will be leaving Delicious Monster, the software company I founded with Wil Shipley about a year ago. Our first product Delicious Library has been a run away success and it has a great future ahead. I have created detailed designs for version 2.0 that Wil will be working off as he completes this incredible release. For more on Delicious Monster's future check out this lengthy interview with Wil on the drunken blog.

I am probably moving down next week into an temporary apartment where I will stay for the next month as I search a permanent place. The next couple weeks are going to be nuts.