Category Archives: Observation

Self-Driving Car?

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Really? That’s not something you see every day on a California highway …

Approaching it from behind, the rotating cylinder on the roof caught my attention. My first thought was I was looking at a Google Maps car, but as I pulled in closer, I could see the bumper sticker:

“Self-Driving Car”

In addition to the spinning cylinder on the roof, there were assemblies running to the left rear wheel. A white panel fan was following the car in its 4 o’clock position, and my first thought was the “drivers” were steering remotely. But after a while the van dropped back too far to accurately see where he car was going. So I pulled along side.

Two mid-twenties were in the front seat, just chatting back and forth. Their hands were too low to see if one of them was holding a steering wheel. More likely they were monitoring the road and some internal telemetry.

I wonder what the navigation system is – GPS is too inaccurate and spotty to be relied on completely. Even a massive map database seems impractical – Maps usually don’t include lanes or parking spaces. Unlike a stretch of IH-15 north of San Diego that had magnets embedded in the lanes for sensors to pick up, this was just a normal stretch of Highway 50.

My guess is the car would need proximity sensors to avoid other traffic that merges in and out of its way, and some sort of visual recognition to stay in lanes, and finally a huge database to know where stop signs are, what posted speeds are and so on.

Google doesn’t tell you much in their description page or YouTube video so all I can do is speculate. But I guess there are multiple vehicles – The one I saw had a license plate of 6HCM164 while the one in the YouTube video is 6HCM166.

Still, something you don’t see every day …

 

Roadtrip – Audio Musings

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One of the songs in my personal rotation is Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” There’s a YouTube video that I’ve watched and I have an MP3 copy on my Blackberry for personal listening. Earlier today, on a road-trip, the song came on the radio and I cranked the volume up a bit.

The song sounded notably different than the YouTube video – Percussion sounded better. I suppose that’s to be expected – Car stereo equipment should be better than PC speakers. But as this was a road-trip, I had time to experiment – Out came the Blackberry and its sound was piped into the car stereo system. Wow! Now the percussion popped! Seriously, drums were clear and distinct, but violin accompaniments and her voice just seemed more alive than the radio.

Disclaimer: I had ripped the CD myself, using variable bit encoding to get the MP3 as loss-less as possible. And now I was quite pleased with the audio results.

But it also gave me pause. Long ago I had agonized over the sound quality loss moving from records to digitally sampled CDs. Now it hardly matters when I watch a YouTube video through PC speakers or listen to streaming music on the internet. Sad really, that music reproduction quality is diminishing, but I savored a win in my recognition that I could still differentiate quality and appreciate it.

Then I unplugged my Blackberry and turned the radio back on. Only 400 miles to go. What to think about next?

Lessons from Bob Hoover

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At a recent aviation conference, legendary test pilot Bob Hoover was a guest speaker. He moves a little slower than he did as a test pilot but his wit and story-telling still came through. Among pilots, safety and learning are prominent themes, and Bob used the occasion to tell a story about safety and learning.

Seems years ago piston and turbine aircraft had the same size fuel hoses and a young line boy accidentally serviced his piston engine aircraft with jet fuel. This is similar to pumping diesel into a standard, combustion engine – It’ll run for a while but the the engine will die. Worse, diesel fuel can actually hurt engine components. It’s similar in airplanes.

In Bob’s case, he had enough fuel in the fuel lines to taxi out, depart and climb to almost 100 feet when the jet fuel caused his engines to quit. The airport (Brown Field outside San Diego) is surrounded with mountains which are probably the worst emergency landing locations imaginable. Bob drew on his skills and landed uphill, stalling right at touchdown, and pilot and passengers emerged with nothing more than scratches. Amazing!

Later, after he returned to the airport and found the extremely red-faced line boy. He looked at him and said “Tomorrow I’ll be back to fly and I’ll need my aircraft serviced. And when I do, I want only one person servicing my aircraft. And that person is you.”

Bob knew that of all the line boys at Brown Field, only one was guaranteed to have learned that jet fuel in a piston engine was something to be avoided.

Pomegranates, I love ‘em!

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Pomegranates, I love ‘em!

And pomegranates, I hate ‘em! Large is the number of t-shirts and other clothes permanently stained by a juicy berry. And deep are the stains in cutting boards – Even the plastic ones!

And the extraction process is a pain … until today. Today I figured out a great way to isolate the berries from the fruit’s membrane:

    1. Fill a large bowl with water.
    2. With a sharp knife, slice halfway through the pomegranate, enough to pry it apart by hand.
    3. With the pomegranate submerged in the water, gently pry the berries off the membrane with your hands.

The freed berries sink to the bottom of the bowl while the lighter membrane rises to the surface. And any berries that do squirt their juice will not do a lot of damage in the bowl of water.

Pomegranates, I love ‘em!

RIP, Bella

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Almost three years ago, CBS News profiled an elephant sanctuary outside of Nashville, and the strange relationship between a stray dog and a retired circus elephant. You can see the original report here. The story brought tears and smiles to just about everyone who watched it.

Last night, CBS News reported that the stray dog, Bella, was the victim of a coyote attack.

RIP, little buddy!

100% Drupal (sorta)

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Drupal Logo

 

Back in the beginning of the web (the 90′s), all websites were built with standard HTML (HyperText Markup Language) with some Javascript thrown in for embedded functionality. HTML programming is a huge task for any site with multiple pages, so specialized editors (Frontpage, Dreamweaver, etc.) were sold to simplify web development.

Then the open source guys went to work on a better way – They developed Content Management Systems (CMS) that required just an ftp (File Transfer Program) tool for uploading and just a browser for editing. They also broke web development down into three components, the framework, the content and the style, making consistent and easily navigable websites a snap.

The first CMS, PHP-Nuke, was primitive, but it spawned a whole new class of websites and web developers. While there are hundreds of CMS options today, the three big ones are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.

WordPress (which is what this site is built upon) is popular among bloggers, but it’s also an excellent tools for smaller websites. In fact, smallish (5 pages or so) websites can be built in 30 minutes or less using WordPress … as long as all the content is available …

For more complex sites, Joomla and Drupal overlap, and after some evaluation, I went down the Drupal path. According to the logs, my first Drupal site was started 48 weeks and five days ago. That site was a replacement for an old HTML site, it received very positive reviews, and with that the die was cast.

At the time, I managed a dozen different HTML sites, some of which were beginning to show their age, and all of which required cumbersome editors. Last night, after 48 weeks and five days, my last HTML site was shut down and replaced with a Drupal implementation.

So today I’m 0% HTML – Not quite 100% Drupal because a number of WordPress sites were added, but good enough for me. Closing down HTML sites was a win-win – Customers received new sites for free and I simplified my site maintenance and upkeep going forward.

Honestly, customers don’t really care what’s driving their website as long as they work, so I really am the bigger benefactor. As I wipe the old editors (Dreamweaver and Sharepoint) from my hard disk later tonight, I’m going to be smiling!

Farewell, Shuttle!

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STS-135 Reentry

The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde last flew on Nov 26, 2003. At the time, a pilot friend of mine remarked that this was the first time in aviation history that an aircraft was being shelved without a better, faster aircraft to take its place. Sure, Airbus was working on their A380 and Boeing was working on their 787, but neither has (or will) achieve icon status like the Concorde. The ability for a common man to transit the Atlantic in three hours was lost on that day. Even today, almost eight years later, there’s still no solid plan for commercial, supersonic travel.

Yesterday’s last Space Shuttle landing left me with similar pause – For the first time since the space program began, a manned transport was being shelved without a replacement. Yes, there are five civilian and NASA proposals, but the civilian alternatives are financially risky (What happens if/when NASA gets federal dollars and contracts?), and the NASA alternative is essentially a larger and somewhat updated Apollo module (vintage 60/70′s). None of the alternatives achieve Shuttle icon status. None of them inspire me … and I’m pretty easily inspired by space exploration.

It probably has a lot to do with being born in the 50′s. Being a boy during the Mercury and Gemini programs, and a teenager through Apollo, it was easy to be fascinated and intrigued by the technology and mystery of it all. Throw in Walter Cronkite’s distinctive and attention demanding voice – “T minus nine minutes and counting” – And who wouldn’t be excited?

All Mercury launches occurred early from Cape Canaveral. Which was even earlier for those of us on the west coast. We would rise at 3AM or 4AM to watch the black and white images on our smallish TV. Since the first four (of six) flights were three earth orbits or less, west coast viewers could watch the entire flight before leaving for work/school. Although Scott Carpenter’s 250 mile miss on splash-down did mean that we wouldn’t know he was safe until we were at school/work.

Anyway, it was the image of  STS-135 descending back into the earth’s atmosphere that really brought the message home – The shuttle program is over. That’s it. No more. Or as Walter would say “And that’s the way it is: July 21, 2011.”

Sad, really.

Riddle Time

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What is it that everyone talks about and complains about, but never does anything about?

Yes, it’s the weather.

And while the news media has done a good job of covering world- and country-wide tornadoes, floods, tsunamis (OK, that one was a bust as far as Northern California was concerned) and other natural disasters, local events haven’t received the same publicity. Like the tornadoes last week in adjacent Placer and Butte counties. Or the unbelievable amounts of snow fall throughout the winter and even just last night. Or the local flooding all around us and the rest to come – See previous sentence regarding Sierra snow packs.

Or yesterday evening’s hail storm. Yes, that was a hail storm. Click on the picture to see how thick it was.

Some of my neighbors have tarps on their roofs – That was a doozie!

Coolest Device Ever!

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Let’s say you happen to find yourself on crutches, possibly the result of a leg cast. Which is, in turn, is probably the result of an unfortunate interaction of Motorcycle tires with an icy road. Without going into all the challenges of navigation (simply getting around), there are other obstacles the limited mobility throws up at you. Foremost is the inability to carry a glass of wine into the den … or the dining room table … or anyplace else.

Honestly, wine just isn’t as much fun if you’re limited to bottle retrieval, uncorking, pouring and consuming all at the same location. I know this.

So this clever $5.99 invention, originally designed for buffet gatherings, is spectacular. Best $5.99 I ever spent!