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WEEK 11 2003

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Saturday 15 March 2003

Saturday - cloudy and rainy. There is a bit of a storm blowing through. Went over to Barnes and Noble in the afternoon but didn't actually buy anything. Read a bit of a boot about the theory of VSL, Variable Speed of Light. Basically it proposes that during different phases of the universes life the speed of light in a vacuum - Einsteins "c" - has changed.

Friday 14 March 2003

Friday - that horrible "Taos hum" is back in my house. It is a low volume, deep bass tone, almost infrasonic. My friends can't even hear it! It is maddening to have to listen to, for me, after a while it almost induces a headache.

When I go outside I can't hear it. I have even walked around the neighborhood looking, but can't see or hear anything. Like I said, maddening. Hope I don't end up like that guy on the X-Files episode...

Also coming on Sci-Fi Channel is "Riverworld". This looks to be an adaptation of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld Series, which I have read, had all of at some point, but no longer have. It's an odd series, without any really firm point or conclusion. Will it focus more on Richard Burton or Samuel Clemens I wonder? Time will tell.

Thursday 13 March 2003

Thursday - another day at work. Not a lot to talk about there. Did some security stuff on the unix boxes, disabling 'sendmail' since it isn't being used.

It looks as though "Children of Dune" might be pretty good. The made-for-tv movie of "Dune" was better than the big screen movie, hopefully this will be even better. Though the inclusion of "names" bothers me - you end up with big star packed potboilers after a while. I think it starts this Sunday.

Wednesday 12 March 2003

Wednesday - reading/studying C++, from Stroustrups book. Bleah.

Annoyed about gasoline taxes? Here is a page showing how much each state adds to the federal 18.5 cents. California is at or below the national average. I am just estimating here, I can't be bothered to actually run the numbers. As a side note, I think we should get rid of all state taxes, except the income tax. This would allow a person to easily know exactly what the tax burden imposed by the state was, rather than hard to calculate numbers.

Interesting page on the Iraq war fighting strategy, here. I know nothing about invasions, but it sounds like legit speculation. Though I doubt that any bridges will be captured intact by paratroopers or helicopter assault forces ( helitroopers? Cavalry? ) - Saddam isn't that stupid. I would suspect that the the engineering core is probably getting ready to throw bridges across - they have some remarkable stuff.

The guy mentions Market Garden - I think that was the normany invasion stuff that was written about in "A Bridge too Far". There may have been a movie too.

I've been thinking again about electric cars - since paying $2.28/gallon the other day. It seems that GM has axed the EV1 finally, despite the fact that they couldn't keep them in stock. But the truck is an ongoing pain. Every two years I have to smog it and it's always a worry that it won't pass. My look at electric vehicles last year suggested that using lead acid batteries would only get me 50-70 miles at reasonable speeds ( 55 mph or greater - hey, this is California, you could get shot for going slower...) If I was to put something similiar to a ladder rack on top, covered with solar cells, with some mechanism for tilting to get a good angle, then during the day I could partially recharge the batteries. It would cost more than having a rebuilt engine, but it's sort of cool.

Changed the oil in the car, fixed the leaky faucet in the front yard (Tim will be happy...).

Tuesday 11 March 2003

Tuesday - 28 days hath February. All of you that didn't catch my error - send me a dollar. It's the right thing to do,,,

Someone in my family is considering moving out of state. It's only natural, I guess, that us native Californians leave, now that the place has become almost unlivable due to the vast influx of outsiders. But, Nevada? Take a look at the Sparks Crime Blotter..., and then think of your children! (via Ken Layne)

March 3
2:16 a.m.: Rock Boulevard and Commerce Street. Driver arrested on suspicion of speeding and DUI. When an officer asked the woman how long it had been since her last drink, she said, "10 seconds."

I couldn't make this stuff up.

I saw a semi truck towing two trailers run a stop light today. In all fairness I should mention that he also blew his horn as he did it. Not sure if it was "oops" or "screw you". Glad I wasn't going the other way anyway. No visible stop lights on the truck. Off he goes, onto the freeway. And all this was in front of one of the local ambulance chasers' office to boot.

Monday 9 10 March 2003

Monday - worked a bit on some CFD modeling. Generally we use an Euler code, which models the complex field around aircraft in some detail. It takes a long time to run though - days or even weeks. Another method we have been trying is to use "parameter extraction", and come up with a simplified model of the flow, and allow quicker turn around of project work.

Currently we use a linear method, an AutoRegressive Moving Average, or ARMA for short. ( People mock scientists and engineers for their acronyms, but what would the alternative be? Nobody is going to say Autoregressive Moving Average more than a couple of times before getting very tired of it :-) ) Anyway, there is a new non-linear method we are going to try out. Whoo-hoo! Tastes great, less filling...

Yes, it's true, I have no life...

Sunday 8 9 March 2003

Sunday - quiet, here. Not a lot to say - I watched some bad tv, read some mediocre books, and so on. Some days are just...not too exciting.

I read the updated Shuttle Columbia Loss FAQ. Fascinating, in a macabre sort of way.

Something I've noticed recently is that when I spend a lot of time reading other peoples stuff the quality and quantity of my own posts tends to go down. There is apparently only so much attention to go around, and I can spend that attention more or less creatively on these pages or less so on the posts of someone else. Naturally, being rather lazy, I tend to just surf other peoples stuff... Or perhaps this is a error of logic, cause and effect - perhaps I spend more time surfing when I am already tired, stressed, looking for an escape and thus indisposed to write. Hard to say. Psychology stuff.

Along those lines, I read somewhere, and I can't recall where, that every single tenet of Freud had been proven wrong in the last couple of decades... Of course "proof" is a somewhat strong term to use in that field...

Picture of the Week

Photo Notes: Some people used call the Phantom fighter-bomber a 'Rhino'. Like the animal it has a certain brute strength about it. This "gate guard" is at the intersection of Lancaster Boulevard and Sierra Highway, in Lancaster. I would guess that it is the star centerpiece of the "Aerospace Walk of Fame" here.

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