Paul Jay's Ponderings

Dear Sweden

2012-01-08T16:05:00.002-06:00

Dear Sweden (or at least the people of), we need your help. You know why. The internet is at stake.

Signed,
You Pal,
An American (Not to be confused with the gov't.)

Battle Angel Alita commercial?

2011-09-02T02:06:00.002-05:00

I suspect James Cameron has almost got that movie finished (see title), and that's what the new Droid commercial promos are about. I guess they have Angelina Jolie playing Alita? At least that's what it looks like.

One of the failures of economists

2011-08-08T21:44:00.002-05:00

I'm sure everybody knows what happens when you clear cut a forest and fail to replant right? It doesn't take much more than a decade or so to see that the results are obvious.

From observation, it seems that economists have had a major failing since somewhere in the 1980's. This is the failure to connect the labor pool to the consumer pool. This is because they are one and the same. What has happened is that everybody has been so focused on cutting labor, they have a complete failure to realize that they are also cutting away at the very consumers that would buy their products. In other words, they're breaking one of the links in the cycle of capital flow. Thus without healthy flow of capital, the economy itself flounders.

You want the economy to do well as well as the businesses within it, right? Well, in order for things to not stagnate and get sick - you've got to spread the wealth around. With a focus on stockholders and a very narrow definition of profit, that's not going to happen. If you would treat the employees you get from the labor pool as an investment instead of as a disposable resource, you'd come to the realization that by considering their income as part of the profit definition that your business and your impact on the economy at large would be much better off.

But what the hell do I know about economics, this is just my observation. But if you happen to read this and agree, feel free to pass it along to an MBAs that may be out there.

Weird waking dream...

2011-07-29T08:42:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning after a weird dream, which was sort of funny.

Basically I was in some college style mathematics class, and judging on the surroundings it was a 10AM class.

What it appeared to be was a calculus class (I should know, I did get to that level in high school) but given the topic of the light discussion - I have reason to suspect it was a calculus class for physics majors. This is because instead of treating the variables just as some purely mathematical constructs, there was some air of understanding the deeper implications of what they represented. (Even high school calculus classes have equations for linear attenuation and things of that nature in their books, but there is no talk at all of what those variables represent. It's pretty funny actually.)

The funny thing that made it memorable was that none other than Ben Stein was teaching it. (Bueller? Bueller?) Yeah, that guy. But he actually wasn't boring in this case. In real life he's also an economics major, so it's not at all like he wouldn't be qualified to teach this subject. Math is math in that regard.

The sad part of the dream is that I felt like the slowest person in a class full of nerds. (And that's defining nerds in a good way.) So I came to class the least prepared. All I had was a piece of paper and one pencil. But nobody cared. Apparently because it was the first day and everybody else was too polite to say anything. (Either that or that I was there for some reason.) The bad thing was is that in the dream I was dead-tired. Ben Stein was talking about some project by a classmate at Harvard (did he go there?) and if anybody knew what it was about. Surprisingly the other students were pretty blank on this, and I was the one that knew what it was about. It had to do with Bussard-Heim fusion of methane molecules, in other words there was some process that fused the hydrogen in methane without too much worry about the carbon atoms. And then we started with some long equation about "Shumann Resonance" or something like that. It started out with R (but written in a particular way) equals E equals... (yes, the same E of E=mc^2) then a long equation involving square roots and such. And that's where I started falling asleep. And I was sort of pissed at myself for doing so in the dream. I was trying hard as hell to write that down. But I was the kind of tired where everything goes blurry. So I tilted back to keep from laying my head on the desk. But then started leaning way back and passed out.

And that's when I woke up.

Why the hell did I dream about that? It's just the weirdest stupidest thing, and in being awake it doesn't make that much sense. And I'm going to have look up the subject of discussion to see if it resembles what was being written on the chalkboard.

Weirdo dream during a nap

2011-06-27T16:57:00.001-05:00

Somehow I dreamt that I was making a ramp overpass out of dirt and rocks so that I could ride my bike up to some overpass. And as I finished the ramp, my bike was missing.

And then it was getting late, but I managed to get some help in searching for my bike from people in charge of something going on at a nearby property. Yet nobody had any luck, and then I got stuck under some cyclone fence.

And that's when I woke up.

An unresolved dream that didn't make much sense. And in a way I almost wanted to go back to sleep so I could get my bike. Which is funny, since I know where my bike is when I'm awake. Just another oddity I suppose.

Something for Physics to chew on

2011-03-21T11:14:00.003-05:00

Fizeau's experiment needs to be re-visited, but not in regard to "Aether" theory. Instead it should be considered with relativistic time. That is, the progression of time itself should be considered as non-uniform throughout space.

Think about it this way... Velocity is distance over time. The speed of light is a velocity. Now if the time part itself is not a constant, what does that say about the speed of light? C'mon, do the math.

As an observer in typical instances, you're not going to see the speed of light change one bit because you're only able to measure the speed of light relative to your own frame of reference. Right now, we don't have the technology to go to other star systems where the gravitational field causes time to progress at a different rate, nor the ability to approach relativistic speeds (in regards to an observer here on earth) where time may condense. Variable time progression can also red and blue shift light in the same way movement itself causes Doppler-shift. Think about how a record sounds when you speed it up or slow it down. You're not moving the sound source in space, but compressing or expanding the frame of time in which the sound has been heard.

Gravitational fields can bend light. Since you're not changing the physical density of empty space around a field emitter (there's nothing to change the density of), the next obvious thing to account for the Fresnel effect is to change the progression of time itself.

Thinking of this, I believe the speed of light is not a constant in this universe, but rather a coefficient. There's a subtle difference (at least for most purposes), but it's big enough to be quite important.

I do believe that the math should work out and may prove a little interesting.

Vote "Rich Whitey" for Gov? Yep!

2010-10-25T00:02:00.003-05:00

I'm usually not one to get too concerned about politics, but here it goes.

I'm voting "Rich Whitey" for governor here in Illinois. Why? Because he's up-front and least likely to lie about who he is.

Actually the real reason is that both Democrats and Republicans have abused the office, and now it's time to try something different. (The Greens don't have that huge a following yet in this country, so if they blow it in office - it might be a while for them.) I'm voting for Rich Whitney because his party seems to be the least corrupted so far.

Now for all those people voting Democrat because it seems more likely to keep the Republicans out (or vice versa), (pardon my language but) I'd like to offer a big hearty FUCK YOU!!! You're the part of the reason why it's stuck in a two party system in the U.S. with the same bullshit going on for years. Grow a pair, and instead of voting only to "block" somebody, vote for what may be a real difference!

Biloxi Shipyard could help clean the BP spill

2010-05-29T02:34:00.002-05:00

I was thinking, instead of just worrying about the cleanup after it hits, why not do something more pro-active. So I threw together some stuff I remembered from way back when I was in the Navy as a 3rd Class MM.

First of all, instead of just waiting around for the oil spill to dissipate on its own - cleanup could go faster if you started actively skimming it. There is existing technology that could be put together in a relatively crude manner on short notice that should make an effective skimmer. Everything that you'd need to do it should be available or readily obtainable at a shipyard. Biloxi is convieniently close to the problem area, so if you were to do emergency production of spill skimmers that's the place to start cranking them out.

To build a single example of a quick and dirty skimmer we need two barges, one as a platform and the other is a collection tank barge. Then you need some drums (like oil barrels), steel tubing/framing, a large generator, air compressor, some marine grade electric powered pumps, about a dozen DeLaval-type centrifugal separators, fiber felt, squeegies (can be fabbed from stiff neoprene), various schedule piping and non-collapsible hoses.

To make the surface skimmer portion, you wrap the steel drums with fiber felt with the fuzzy side out. Then you rivet the fiber felt onto the drums. Then you tack weld the drums so they rotate about an axle. This axle is attached to an armature that goes on the side of the float barge. It is setup so the drum is about half immersed below the water's surface. You then attach a motor to it so the drum rotates at a moderate pace. You then put on another armature with squeegies pressed up against the drum. Below this you put on a collection trough. You angle the trough into a collection area. In that you place a reciprocating air powered pump ("whiz-bang") and its output goes to the collection tank.

The subsurface skimmer is made by making a collector basket. It has a flat bottom with a sump pickup, and a cage around the perimeter to keep out debris. It should be kept about 3ft or so below the surface. You then pump from the collector basket to a holding tank. The holding tank feeds to your array of DeLaval centrifugal separators. One output from the separator should yield fairly clear seawater, and the other will get a lot of the oil. (These things are used for removing water from a ship's lubricating oil in a maritime application, and are fairly effective. I don't see that big a reason why they wouldn't work as good in a reverse application.) You will need somebody on the barge to operate these things and clean them out periodically, but the overall volume of water cleared of oil should make it worthwhile. A decent shipyard engineer should be able to workout the flow rates and manifolds to make this work to some degree. The concepts should be familiar enough already, it's just a matter of application.

The whole setup on the barge of course is powered by some generator, most likely a diesel. Then over the top, you put a tent over half the barge so the sun and weather doesn't get to the separators and the guys running them. But nothing too tight, there's fumes and whatnot so it should be able to ventilate.

I think that something like this could be whipped up in a week, provided enough phone calls and experienced shipyard workers got on the job. Now how many could be produced in a row and how much ocean they could skim of oil is another question, but I think unless somebody trys - that'd be hard to answer. Also if they do work to some degree, a more refined version could be built for later emergencies.

The Oily Mess

2010-05-26T00:20:00.002-05:00

The reason why the U.S. government has been quiet in regulating wells in the Gulf of Mexico is that basically it has been colluding with the companies based there. There's actually a whole lot more carrying capacity in the gulf wells than we've been letting on. (From my understanding, a person I knew that used to do wildcatting said a lot of the wells that were capped in the 1980's still had more than good output capacity.) This is so we can go about milking the oil supply out in the rest of the world while we quietly sit on a nearby reserve.

Unfortunately with the screwup that's happened, the chickens have come home to roost so to speak. Hopefully they'll get it capped, but there really needs to be more investigation into what has been going on there. The environmental cost may be more than what that oil is worth.

Chicago Traffic Light WTF?

2010-03-06T10:30:00.000-06:00

Somewhere along Clybourne Av. is a traffic light that has both the red and green lights on at the exact same time. And how is that supposed to be interpreted, compared to standard U.S. traffic light sequence? In my case I slowed down a lot, because I interpreted it as meaning "WTF?"

Toyota's on the hot seat....

2010-02-24T15:05:00.003-06:00

Watching the news, and seeing that Toyota is really being grilled by congress.

But what I want to know, is why hasn't the same been done for the banking and credit industries?

Maybe it's something to do with UAW campaign funding and a smidge of bias. (But then again, Toyota apparently does pay its U.S. workers good enough that there isn't a strong incentive to unionize there. Still, union driven companies have a thing vs. companies that don't have those restrictions, etc. And the unionized companies do have a lot of influence here.)

Also it shows the risks of impementing new high-tech systems in mass produced vehicles in safety-critical controls. If you don't have the right redundancies or failsafes in place, it can really come back to bite you in the butt. Why a company such as Toyota doesn't have that done by their engineering talent is beyond me.

Just some observations here, no big rants or anything as of yet.

Sometimes I'd like to do something epic

2010-02-10T18:19:00.002-06:00

As the title of this post says, sometimes I'd really like to do something epic. Not that my past was entirely boring, but that I've always been the one to play the supporting role or perhaps one of those mere extras in the background. (And not that I entirely minded being off the radar, sometimes it was quite on purpose. You have some degree of freedom that the spotlight grabbers never get.) So as it stands right now, I wonder wtf is the purpose of existance is? In spite of how infintesimal a spot upon a tiny blue spot circling a yellow dot I may be, there was some energy involved in generating this consciousness - so it must have some purpose. But what the hell is it? Why would the universe even require or allow such a process to occur within a chaotic system?

Maybe my destiny in life is to run over some random squirrel with my car, such that he never spawns the kin that leads to a race of space warlords long after humanity is gone. Of course that sounds entirely stupid, but the universe is funny like that and it seems like I'll never know.

But then again, perhaps my role is to ever so slightly nudge the path of humanity by influencing mass consciousness over the internet with my pointless ramblings. And considering the number of people that do the same, this idea seems ridiculous too.

Now if only I knew the answer...

And no, it's not a religious thing either. There doesn't seem to be any substantial proof of something more. My philosphy is that this is all there is, try to make the best of it. I figure people that heard some unknown voice in their head in telling them what to do would be given some pills nowadays, but that way in the past people were stupid enough to go along with those ideas at one point. And then the political types and manipulators dogpiled upon that foundation to make religions what they are today.

Goat Teleportation?

2010-01-19T14:34:00.004-06:00

Rumor has it that Google has been secretly developing some method for goat teleportation. Knowing Google, I suppose they actually found an app for that.

And frankly, I don't blame them.

Wii networking w/ Netgear WGR614

2009-12-27T08:21:00.003-06:00

This morning I was going nuts trying to get the wireless to connect to a new X-mas present.

Anyhow, I had both WEP security and device restricted mode set on the router. So I was going crazy trying to figure out why the Wii wouldn't connect after getting the WEP keys on the Wii and the Wii's MAC address on the router's allowed devices list. Seemed like everything was in order, and tried both automatic and manual settings.

So what does it turn out to be? They really aren't just joking when they say unplug and replugin the router. Apparently the router doesn't seem to refresh all settings unless you hard reset the thing. (So it was running into a brick wall because it wasn't recognizing the new allowed MAC until the restart.)

Just so you know. My 2-cents here.

This would be my message to ET

2009-12-16T20:05:00.005-06:00

I'm sure various people involved in science and humanities discuss what message and information to send into space. I've looked at some of the sent and proposed messages, and frankly I think they're trying to hard. Unless you understand the context of the message, it's not going to have much more relevancy than mud soup. And throw in noise and other stuff, and the soup becomes muddier still.

As for my message, it's a hell of a lot simpler. And for anyone that sees it, it will be obvious once they bother to really look at it. Because it will be inherently artificial (of a pattern that isn't normally known to occur naturally) and that it will display some inkling of knowledge in mathematical constructs. So what is my message? It would be nothing more than counting to 100 in base 2. That's right, counting to 100 and repeating in binary. If you can use adjacent frequency pulses as the numeric placeholders, it seems that it would be possible to put a lot of directed energy behind them without too heavy of an average power demand. Also it doesn't need to be too fancy since the signal is only 8-bit, since we only need to count to 100 for our purposes. As for the bitrate? What's the longest dwell time needed to drive the signal to peak power on the transmitter? (I'm not sure on this, but I suspect it's pretty quick.) So the signal is pretty efficient in comparison to a constant and modulated carrier signal. And because the pulses are synchronous and ordered in a binary count, their artificial nature should stick out to anyone who analyzes them like a sore thumb. As for why counting to 100? Base 10 mathematics has pretty much been the basis for our scientific understanding of mathematics, which strongly influnces the rest of our understanding of science. So what is 10 squared? Exactly...

Ok, that significance might not be the most obvious to another society. But it would be a starting point in regards to setting up the foundation for a return signal and possible communication. Any similar binary counter over a series of adjacent pulsed carrier frequencies should be obvious, regardless of the arbitrary timescale chosen.

Now imagine each place holder as being a carrier frequency, with each digit being that carrier turned on. And of course that frequency is determined by it's placeholder value in the sequence. That seems obvious enough. And binary counting produces a nice branching fractal if represented as a grid. Even using the normal 1's and 0's it's still got a nice pattern to it.

00000000
00000001
00000010
00000011
00000100
00000101
00000110

Etc...

At first one will most likely see repeating signal sources represented by the lower placeholder on the right, and at first hand may dismiss them for natural cyclic signals like pulsars. But if a bit more patience is taken, and all frequencies from a given source are analyzed. Then you notice the syncronicity and repeat rates for each digit. And then binary counting really sticks out, especially if it repeats at some chosen value that isn't a base 2^x and breaks the pattern when restarting.

And here's another site that shows the pattern.

Edit---
Added a pic of what to send, or what to look for. At least this is how I'd do it.

Just testing something

2009-11-26T14:59:00.003-06:00

Seeing if Archive.org's sound will embed in my blog here. Not that it matters a whole lot, but just testing to see if it works like I think it might...

Stenographic file sharing?

2009-11-01T05:32:00.003-06:00

I was bored, and thinking about how stenography is typically used to embed mostly textual data in an image by shifting the RGB value of pixels in a given image. Then the idea hit that if you apply similar methods to video, with the amount bandwidth that allows for noise or as an overhead for schemes that use less compression - you could cryptographically embed entire software and data files within a video. And not only that, but if done properly the videos would play as normal videos in media players with common codecs. In extreme cases it would appear as a noisy or badly compressed video, but none the less it would appear as a video. And nobody would be certain as to what's actually embedded unless they had the schema and the appropriate cryptographic key. And if you wanted to further muddle things, by running another compression or codec layer - the contained data could easily be lost as well.

So if you wanted to make miscellaneous media data or software available, you could be distributing it via an hourlong home-made video documentary on housecats. Most people on P2P would consider it a mundane thing to share. And some people may even delight in the content of that video itself, and therefore help propagate it over P2P on your behalf. But those in the know and with the right key given, would be able to extract your playlist or game ROM collection or whatever. Also some video data schemes may even have enough layered data, such that you could have multiple cryptographic keys for entirely different embedded datasets. If you could figure out enough about hashing, it might even be possible to make false-lead video files that appear the same and have similar names - but garbage embedded in them. (As for how difficult this is, I don't know.) So there would a secondary way to cover tracks as well.

Pretty interesting idea, and I have no reason to see why this wouldn't be technically feasable. Somebody clever out there just has to figure out the embedding alogrithm and package it in an app that makes the entire process no more diffult than zipping files.

Fixing the double-click problem

2009-10-27T10:24:00.002-05:00

I think I may have finally found a solution for fixing the unwanted double-click problem I've been having with my Logitech LX310 mouse: electrical contact cleaner. Yeah, I opened up my mouse and sprayed just a drizzle of that stuff on the micro-switches for the buttons. In other words, it's really really annoying when your mouse does an extra click when you don't want it to.

And yes, I was careful not to lose any of the screws or the little teflon feet that peel off above two of the screws.

I remember contact cleaner being the $5 wonder fix for a $99 console window controller in my car, so why not for a $30 mouse? So far so good. Maybe I'll do a follow up to see if it holds.

VideoLan's latest update is nice

2009-10-10T08:11:00.002-05:00

I don't claim to see any major differences in how it appears or menus, but sometimes the fixes they do that go unseen improve the software quite a bit. I'm not sure what it is that they changed (buffering, making the code more efficient, etc.) but now I can actually use Firefox while playing music on VideoLan with a lot less hiccups or stuttering. That was one minor annoyance that seems to be fixed, but that one thing makes the software a lot more polished as a media player that's compatible with multi-tasking.

So now I can tap into shoutcasts or my music library while browsing. Small thing in the scheme of things, but much appreciated.

Thumbs up, VLC team!

If there's another GTA...

2009-09-29T01:15:00.002-05:00

I think it would be cool if it had a European setting. Just saying. Miami, L.A., and New York have all been done. Might be neat to see something in Paris or Moscow for a change. Maybe even Berlin? And I don't care if the dialog would require subs at times. I just think that something seedy, yet non-american may have an appeal to it.

Vista Update causing BSOD?

2009-09-27T17:55:00.002-05:00

It seems my moms e-Machine computer has been getting BSOD problems lately. And it's really annoying, since the thing has been fairly stable until this point. The only thing I could think of was the Windows Update for Vista that came in on 9/22/2009. After that point, that's where the crashiness started being a problem. I'm doing a rollback as of now, so now I have to figure out how to disable updates if that indeed is the problem.

Dunno what MS is doing, but they need to field test some stuff more often before they release it. It's not good if updates break more things than they fix. (Although that wouldn't be a first, their SP3 update for XP breaks a lot of wireless because of a retarded change to wlanapi.dll. I know I'm calling them out on that one.)

Google has yet another UFO themed thing...

2009-09-15T23:47:00.001-05:00

It was on the search today, in case anyone may have missed it. This time, it was crop circles.

Anyhow, time to que the X-Files theme music.

(And if anyone had a database that would be interesting for E.T.s to peruse, Google would be the place to go to. Dunno how they'd get in touch, unless UFO's are making a habit of leeching onto random Wifi networks.)

The real unexplained phenomena

2009-09-05T16:18:00.002-05:00

Google has a thing on their search specific to today about unexplained phenomena.

The real unexplained phenomena, is why, despite all my attempts at finding work, am I brushed off and ignored? My degree is valid, my software and computer skills are there, and I believe my ethic is alright. (I'm willing to do a fair amount of work for a fair amount of pay.)

Seems fitting for Labor Day... What labor? Really?

So what's the deal? Anyone?

The Awesomeness of Dreams...

2009-09-05T14:42:00.005-05:00

...just simply shows how much my reality sucks. But for some strange reason I had a dream that I woke up from that was really cool, and I actually remembered it. Maybe it was a bit immature in content, but I actually had some fun. I'll give a loose summary though just because it's funny.

It starts out that I'm going to some store, and I'm walking from my car in the parking lot. It's one of those big box sort of stores with a garden center. It was semi-busy that day, so I had to park far out to get there. But then I run into two people that seemed vaguely familiar. Then it hit me, they were some friends from junior high school. Like what the hell, I haven't heard from them forever. One was this chick I really liked (a crush even), and the other was this dude I knew. And then the girl saw me, and said "you remember who I am?" And she said something about being around in high school. But I knew that was a lie, and said "No. Maybe one or two classes. (After which she looked annoyed.) But hell yeah! I think I know you from Benny!" (That's the junior high, btw.) So then I was following her around trying to catch up on what's been going on. But then the dude she was with started running, and the chick revealed that she had a large shark-shaped dagger. (Or was it a bowie knife? Regardless, it was large and ridiculous.)

This is where the dream got really wierd and funny. Because I was trying to keep up and figure out what the hell was going on. While this chick apparantly wants to do something to this other dude with a shark-knife. (lol) But I wasn't in the mood to see any violence (since I considered myself a friend to both), so I was about ready to stop the girl from using the knife. And she still looked hot, so confronting her was - well you know - excuse for physical contact? (giggity) Somehow in my dream, I still couldn't run worth a damn. But then channeled something in order to keep up, and did one of anime-like energy flying deals. It wasn't anything too powerful, since I was only able to keep up and fly to about 20 ft. Which surprised her. And I was laughing and having a good time of it. But then instead of being completely amazed (but still seeming surprised I had that ability), she started doing the funny flying stuff too. So I said "you too?" like I was expecting that. Yet hers wasn't as accomplished as mine. (Or she was hiding the ability. Hard to tell really. Damn I watch too many cartoons.) And we bounced around chasing and engaging in some stupid banter I fail to recall. And yet I still was able to be the klutz, just as I was in the real past. I was trying to show off after landing on an industrial shelving unit in the gardening area. So I used the flying to do a backflip back onto the ground, and only succeeded in landing on the back of my head. But it didn't hurt in the dream, because I was still floaty due to the odd power I channeled. Thus I was laughing about it. And there was some funny comment by some old lady walking by. (Something about having powers, and that's how I use them?) Sucks that I can't remember the details, because that's what was really funny about it.

Then I woke up, because there was some loud noise outside. Which sucked, because I wanted the dream to continue. But in a way it was good (bittersweet?) because I still had a chance to remember some of it. And since I had fun in la-la land, at least I was in a semi-good mood.

So why is it that reality sucks in comparison?

I'm never quite as young as I seem to be in the dream.
I'm in a lot better health and more energetic in the dream.
I don't get to see old friends as often as I like in reality.
If I do see people I knew from way-back, most are either too busy or can't remember who the heck I am.
The really wierd shit just doesn't happen as much.
In dreams, I don't have to worry about annoying and boring mundane shit like money getting in the way. So there's more real freedom than in reality.
And I don't get the really cool energy-channeling powers like in anime or those funky old kung-fu movies.

Bioengineered fiber worms

2009-09-03T06:04:00.002-05:00

I had this crazy thought about a process that would be fun to explore. I was reading an old article on the space elevator concept, and all the difficulty with the material science involved. Making the carbon nanotubes as a composite seems difficult. But biological things don't seem to have too many troubles making nanostructures in mass quantity. So my thought of approaching the material would be to start with silkworms. They're easy enough to grow in captivity, and the process of collecting silk from them is pretty refined and well understood. The next step would be comparing the silk of the silkworm with that of various spider species. Do the full comparison of the tensile strength and see if there are any major differences. If the results are remarkable enough in the spider's favor, then try and transfer the spider silk genes to the silkworm. If you can get worms that produce easily unrolled and higher strength spider-type silk, you've got step one down. And even if you can't get step two - it may still have some remarkable materials applications. Step two would be to figure out if there are any biological processes that can produce carbon nanotubes in a consistent manner. Now imagine if you could put in the genetics to also produce these tubes right in the silk producing glands of the spider-silk silkworms? If the tubes are sizable enough and numerous enough, suddenly you have a grade-A nanomaterial that can be produced in large quantities just by breeding and cultivating silkworms. It would be an even bigger materials science breakthrough. And then one of the bigger hurdles to getting the space elevator would be solved.

Guess what Kakerot?

2009-08-28T03:13:00.002-05:00

I'm suffering from a bout of insomnia and for some reason, I had this little controversial thought come to mind. If a situation ever presented the opportunity to do a full brutal Vegeta style crotch-punch to somebody, who would that person be. (And if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a YouTube clip for reference.)

So far I could only think of three people. I guess I'm usually not one to have a grudge.

Robert Rug(rest is something Italian, but deleted.) General douche and asshole (pardon the language) that I had as an assigned dorm roommate during my brief 1 year as a student of Bradley University back in '95. This guy apparently was doing a side gig as campus gigalo (different chick every other night), but would also pull some other annoying shit without informing the roommate (me) ahead of time. Things like having people stay over or whatnot so I end up stepping on them when I get up. So they'd all be pissed and I'd be like who the f*** are you, and WTF are you doing on my floor?
Masterchief King, NFAS Orlando, 1997 or so. That's the bastard that sent me to CCU just because I couldn't handle the stress I ended up under without breaking. No real crimes like causing property damage, or getting into stupid fights, or stealing. No, my crime was failing to make a number of assigned study hours because I freaking couldn't wake up when my alarm clock went off. The fact that I couldn't run worth shit (bad knees here) is probably what started it all. Couldn't make a run during one of the physical days, so then got put on morning PT. After that, I was feeling worn out and shitty thereon. So I start forgetting stuff. And that leads to being put on extended study hours. So then I end up working what is essentially 5AM to 11:30PM days. And then I break. And then I get CCU for that. I pretty much lost any respect for any unknown authority right there. (Never dealt with him before or since that.) And the cynism it fostered helped make my decision to not re-enlist.
*Strangely enough though, the string of events after this allowed me to meet good people. I guess it helps if you can relate to unfair bullshit that's happened beyond your control.
Random people who shouldn't drive. Yeah, this is like the temporary person of the day compared to the other two who I'd gladly "Darwin" in the reproductive sense. But there are those who just fail on some concepts that would make things so much safer or easier for everyone else. Things like going way slow compared to the speed limit, going the same speed regardless (45MPH in a 20MPH or 70MPH zone), or other failures of common sense.

Two handy FireFox extensions for vids

2009-08-20T09:20:00.005-05:00

Ever go to a webpage that has videos and the video you want to watch is only available in .mov format? It really sucks if you're on a PC or Linux computer, doesn't it? Sure it's easiest way for the guy producing it on a Mac, but for the rest of us - this is a problem. On the PC, QuickTime is a crash-happy bug-laden P.O.S., and that's putting it politely. And it'll happily crash your browser every time a .mov tries to play. On the Linux side, you'll probably get some scripty thing that whinges about not having Quicktime or some related B.S. So if you're like me and you like mplayer or VLC, the handy FireFox extension known as MediaPlayerConnectivity comes to the rescue. After this exension installs, it'll bring up two screens (iirc). The first one lets you change file player associations in the browser, this one you'll want to change. The next one has some kind of play-mode detection thingy, which is probably best to leave to the default. Once plugged in, bada-bing bada-boom! No more QuickTime crashyness when watching .mov based videos on something that isn't a Mac.

The next one is an extension that overcomes a problem that may come up in the first situation. You finally get your media player of choice (in my case it's VLC) to work, and that it does fine. However, some file formats get a tad "constipated" when it comes to streaming to third party media players. So you get buffering, one sec of play, buffering, one sec of play... On and on. Annoying, isn't it? Apparently the file just doesn't want to go through smoothly. So you bring it over locally with this handy extension, DownloadHelper. (Yeah, some people may bitch that you're leeching or whatever. The way I look at it is: First of all, you're giving away the video for free already. It's not costing you anything in comparable bandwidth if I download it. Second of all, I'm not planning on rehosting your file - thus you'll still be getting your traffic and unique page views for other people wanting to see your content. Grabbing the file overcomes a technical hurdle, and your current way of providing the content just doesn't work 100%. So this is a workaround.) After grabbing a file with DownloadHelper that doesn't stream nicely, you'll be able to play it just fine 99.9% of the time without the buffering nuisance.

So there you go, a way to play browsable videos the way you want to, and in a way that actually works. Problems solved, and easy peasy. Firefox and other free software is great, isn't it?

H.R. what does it stand for?...

2009-08-19T16:36:00.004-05:00

I figure the H.R. abbreviation actually stands for "Hawking Radiator". It must be a black hole and very dense. Lots of information goes in, but nothing comes back once it enters its event horizon. I'd really like to be proven wrong, but as of now that's really one of those wait and see games.

Also my mom is friends with the mom of the "Infamous Scribbler". From reading his blog, on some some issues we may disagree. (I'm not exactly soft on the immigration subject, and I don't think the U.S. should be giving away handouts to foreign nationals until there's good evidence that their home countries give reciprocal treatment to U.S. citizens.) But I'm more amiable than not in general, and politics aren't worth getting too worked up over in most cases. If I ever hear from him I may be doing some pro-bono work to help out.

As for the Infamous Scribbler's current blog post, I actually agree with it. It relates to my original point. And this (economy?) problem is not just an Obama era thing, I've been hitting the brickwall for the last two Bush years. So I'm having a 3 year dry run after college. Which doesn't help when my loan is more than 10x what I have left. (Unless I sell my car. But then how would I get to a job if it ever comes up?) I'll consider the economy improved when I can find decent paying work that actually takes account of my educational background and allows me to take care of my debts and quit mooching.

Antigravity - What would you do?

2009-07-20T02:02:00.002-05:00

If somehow an inexpensive way to get around gravity was discovered and made public knowledge, what would you do? I have a feeling that I'd give it a shot. And if it were seemingly reliable enough, I'd try to figure out how to make a run for it. That's right, as nice as this planet seems to be, if I could gather enough resources to live in space for a while I'd give it a shot. Of course gathering those resources might be a bit more difficult, but if enough like-minded individuals could get together on such a project, not too far-out given the circumstances. Even something crude like an old propane tank with heavy glass portals added and a lot of plastic water containers on it for shielding could work. Besides it'd would just have to only hold one atmosphere, resist micrometeorites, and limit radiation to some degree. If anti-gravity could be produced at a much lower energy requirement than chemical rockets, then getting such a crude rig where you wanted it wouldn't be too big a deal. I guess having working spacesuits to make such a venture worthwhile and having guidance/navigation facilities adequate for space travel would be much bigger problems...

However, if anti-gravity did become readily available and achievable through simple means... I wonder if people really would be content to stay, or would there be quite an exodus despite how suicidal and risky it seems.

Personally, I think being one of the earlier settlers on Mars might be neat.

What's up with the news blackout?

2009-07-08T01:22:00.004-05:00

Really, I feel like I'm under a news blackout here in the U.S. If it wasn't for the internet, it certainly would be. Yes it's news that Michael Jackson died and he was a cultural icon, but damn - it is not a story that deserves full time coverage on multiple channels. I want to hear about what the hell else is going on in the world. That's the reason why I go to the news channels every now and then. The point is that I want to hear about what is NEW in the world. Capice?

I guess the main stream media people are lacking in priorities. The Michael Jackson funeral should be covered on E!, VH-1, or even MTV. They're the ones responsible for the pop-culture and entertainment related stuff. Not CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or HLN or whatever. Priorities people, priorities!

Uh oh, he told about plasma foils!

2009-07-04T10:15:00.005-05:00

Am I the only one that finds it amusing that a professor got in trouble for sharing some info about the same kind of technology that has been publicly presented on J.L.Naudin's website for a couple of years now?

But I guess that leaves me wondering about the depth and scope of the information provided. To what degree above and beyond the basics already in the public domain make it top secret?

---Edit---

I just did a double check. The professor is the same guy who wrote the plasma article in the 25th IEEE Conference on plasma Science that inspired J.L. Naudin. Apparently the technology wasn't too top secret back in 1998. So if you can get access to that article, I'd suspect a good bit of the information is public already.

Asteroids movie? Really?

2009-07-02T17:45:00.001-05:00

I read about this on slashdot, but since the comment feature is broken again... Posting here instead.

Somehow I picture the movie being a cross between Deep Impact, Armageddon, Mars Attacks, and the latest version of Land of The Lost movie. The campier the better, the only way to go wrong with an Asteroids title (considering how the game is) is to try and be serious about it. I suspect and expect a comedy movie. Pew Pew! OMG! There's still more!

June 2009 Windows Update is BAD

2009-06-17T14:02:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure what it did during that update to XP, but it's annoying as f***! My machine keeps freezing, thus requiring a hard reset. No BSOD, no error messages, and neither Alt-F4 nor CTRL-Alt-Del work to get out of the freeze. When it freezes, the computer simply fails to respond to any input.

I guess it's time for a system rollback to see if I can get back to normal.

The Lottery Approach to SETI

2009-06-12T23:56:00.002-05:00

I think a new approach should be taken with SETI in regards to broadcasting. And I call it the lottery approach. Nobody can win the lottery if nobody buys a ticket, and the way to "buy the ticket" with SETI is to get on the boat with active broadcasting. Now some people are probably saying an incredulous "What?!". But here this out, wouldn't it be neat to talk to anyone who may be out there? Or better yet, wouldn't it be nice to have the chance to know there's something else out there before something kill one of us? (There are still odds against us: exploding stars, space rocks, or our own creations.)

So I think we should help the chances for anything out there finding us, and if they were to adopt this line of thought - they would do the same. So, the chances for "somebody winning the lotto" increases as more and more buy tickets. Thus the "Lottery Approach to SETI". It need broadcasting in addition to monitoring in order to work.

Or we could sit quietly in the darkness of space, timid and afraid while trying to be quiet, and hope to not be eaten by a grue. But I don't see the point in that.

What the hell is up with N.K.?

2009-05-29T03:12:00.002-05:00

Listening to the news lately and just wondering what the hell the leadership there is thinking...

Looking at the situation now and evaluating, guess which Korea China has more in common with these days? Yeah... I doubt it's the North. (Look at Shanghai, Hongzhou, Hong Kong in comparison to Seol and Pyongyang. Now which ones have the lights on?)

Which would you rather have as a neighbor? Somebody with a working economic engine that would make a decent trade partner and bring wealth if you broker the right deals? Or a self-destructive country that doesn't effectively use its own resources, starves its own population, has a temperamental leadership, and acts as a parasite by bullying others in the region.

The smart thing for N.K. to do would be to stand down, otherwise it's likely to be on its own this time around.

What I hate about the online job search

2009-05-26T05:46:00.003-05:00

Why do they insist on listing jobs that send me to external sites where I have to fill out all the data all over again. I f'ing hate that! (And I'm sure I'm not the only one.) Anyhow, do I really need to submit my details yet again to another party? I'm sure I get enough spam already, and I don't understand why they try to sell shit to me when I need a job because I don't have any money. (At least not any that's not going to paying debt.)

Been getting some wierdass emails lately.

2009-05-01T06:21:00.002-05:00

I've been getting some wierdass emails lately. And no, not your typical spammy stuff. More like lunatic fringe wierd or "wtf???" wierd. I'm wondering if I should blog about it with commentary or leave it as nothing happened. If only I had some audience that commented on this blog, I'd weigh one way or another.

But I'll give a roundabout posting giving the gist of them, since I'm not sure if I want to be connected to them or not.

The first one appears addressed to me, but came through a secondary channel (emailed to someone I know) and then they forwarded to me. At first it seems like your typical spammy stuff, except the address doesn't sound all that typical and doesn't resolve to anything. So it appears to be a spoofed email. However there is what appears to be encrypted text on the trailer end of the message and a contact address in Panama of all places. Either it's one hell of a hoax, some kind of malformed virus/worm that didn't work, or something of legitimate strangeness.

The second email seems to be from a guy that's a bit down on his luck, and apparently found my address from some CVN-65 alumni page. (That's the Enterprise to you non-Navy folk.) He's doing a shoutout about looking for a job, but then presents some lunatic fringe stuff about why he got fired. Apparently something about making an implied threat to some people under a corporatist machine, etc. First of all, making threats is stupid, it's just another way of falling into the trap. Besides attacking any heads on a hydra is pointless, and gets you into more trouble and now makes you more likely to be a pawn. (Shall we say pwn'd?) Exposure of absurdity/foolishness/malevolence is better, or at least create non-violent chaos ala "anonymous" if you're really wanting to play "the game." (BTW, the cake is a lie.) I could have all kinds of stuff to say to that guy, there's some understanding of going off the wall (I've had crazy concepts and ideas), but not going off the deep-end. Anyhow I'm unemployed and possibly black-balled too, but without substantial proof of the black-listing there's no point in crying about it. Instead I just make a point to expose random ideas to the public domain and let others do what they may with that. No profit motive or cooersive ideology, but perhaps a belief that information should be free so that it can grow and be used by anybody. (If there's anything I'd want in the future, it's a level playing field, and perhaps a way to get off this rock alive such that all the petty squabbling assholes can be left behind.) Anyhow, I wouldn't put this right up there when asking for help finding a job. (At least not unless I'm asking a close friend, not just any acquaintance or other associate.)

Wormhole camera again...

2009-04-22T03:46:00.004-05:00

Just found out Arthur C. Clarke actually had a short story about this concept, it's called "The Light of Other Days". Sounds like a neat read, I might have to find it. But the idea came up because I'm seeing weird stuff. It's either I'm some wierd experiment subject (cue X-files music) or I'm just too sleep deprived. But why or who the hell would want to do wormhole pics of somebody insignificant as myself? (Unless it is myself, but that would still be odd.) I think I'll argue the latter option of sleep deprivation, but I still find the principle of it to be a tad intriguing.

Edit:
Turns out its a whole book, and not just a short story. I'm just wondering why I haven't heard about it earlier. I'm going to have to see if the library has that one. :)

Destructive styrofoam rifle?

2009-04-21T21:18:00.003-05:00

I was bored and came up with an idea for using NERF-style foam in an air powered equivalent to a standard firearm rifle. And thus call it a compressed air foam sabot (CAFS) rifle. Basically you get the equivalent of a Nerf bullet, cut in half along its length, and put something nasty and metal inside the two halves. Then you load that into a 4ft long rifle with a 100+ PSI pressure tank and triggered by a poppet valve. The foam would do a nice job of maintaining an airtight and snug seal needed to accelerate an air-driven projectile, and would be plenty light to easily separate from the projectile after it clears the barrel. I think the thing could be as dangerous as a regular gun if designed just right, and the materials needed would be really cheap and fairly low-tech. Makes me wonder if anyone has built something like that already. Sounds like a project for some bubba with acres to goof around on and some beer bottles, cinderblocks, old car parts, and watermelons to destroy.

What's up with Somalia again?

2009-04-10T22:28:00.002-05:00

I'm wondering where the hold up is. If the U.S. can take out suspect buildings in Pakistan, which is a nuclear armed, and mostly amicable country, and do so despite their protests, then what is preventing the same type of action in Somalia? Note that Somalia isn't nuclear armed, and doesn't have a government with any major resources, U.S. relations, or political importance. If you want to stop the piracy, make some select buildings within the country disappear. We shouldn't be letting thugs armed with AK-47s and rocket launchers be calling the shots and restricting international waters. Also why not put some pressure on neighboring countries to do something about Somalia? It's likely affecting trade to them as well if the seas aren't safe for shipping. Certainly there should be some way of striking a deal that might get Ethiopia or Kenya to stop sitting around on their hands.

Before the point of making an actual strike, I'd suggest making a few dry runs with some carrier aircraft just to show where we can reach. If anybody really wanted to scare the shit out of 'em, put a formation of B-52s low enough to be noticed on a flight over the Somali coast. Make it understood that ransoms, hostages, and looted shipping aren't going to be worth what it may cost in return.

Jinxed, blacklist, or something?

2009-04-10T19:12:00.003-05:00

Been trying to get through to old friends via email, and no replies. Its almost like how the shit job market has been for the last few years. Makes me wonder WTF is going on. It can't be from some stupid rant on the internet or whatever, could it? A random drawing that I thought was funny or freaky, but perhaps in too poor taste? (Not like I haven't seen worse out there.) Besides I'd suspect I'd get an email or some other message saying something if it's in their opinion that I really f'd up somewhere. I know I'd argue a subject if I saw some recent posting by a pal and I thought it was messed up. Treating somebody like quarantined plague or whatever is not the way to go about it.

At least I tried one friends phone and know the number still works, but the phone was breaking up. Sounded like a lot of busy stuff going on. (Hard to tell with some cell phones though.) Hopefully I'll get a call-back to see if he's just been too busy or if I really f'd up somewhere along the way. I'd like to know.

The Cessna Incursion...

2009-04-08T10:44:00.005-05:00

I'm sure enough people have heard of the incursion from Canada into the U.S. via a small Cessna aircraft. (It's been in the news alot.) But what I think is silly is how the news pushed the suicidal aspect, and were playing on the "suicide by cop" but with the Air National Guard playing the role of the cop. The way I look at it, if the guy in the aircraft were truly suicidal it would have been remarkably easy for the Cessna to nose dived into something. Instead, it wasn't really a suicide attempt but rather a probing of the state of current U.S. air defenses in regards to small slow moving aircraft. Otherwise there wouldn't have been the nice 3 point landing on a highway when he was done. He wasn't too much a direct threat (unless you count Madison), since for most of the flight he was out in bumfuk-nowhere farm-country. The real threat is the intel garnered by the incursion into U.S. controlled air space and the knowledge of how far one can go in regards to response time.

But now the tricky part is to figure out who's lackey the guy was. The background on the story sounds too fishy and doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Is this warp drive?

2009-04-05T16:29:00.004-05:00

I just had a funny idea hit me when reading some things about FTL travel. I'm still only a layman, but what few things I could put together seem like they'd make some kind of sense.

First is that E=mc^2 equation. You know, the formula that says mass and energy can be considered to some degree to be one and the same. Then you take into account that mass has inertia to it. That is you move a chunk of mass, and it provides an equal and opposite amount of resistance. But is this the case with moving a chunk of energy? Say a photon? (Photons are supposedly massless, right?) You turn on a light or a laser beam, and neither imparts a recoil.

We should know by now that it is possible to convert mass into energy. That's what nuclear science is about, right? So part of this warp propulsion involves converting mass to energy. A particle accelerator should be up to the job.

Now the tricky part is, how do you convert energy back into mass? I'm not sure of the correctness of this, but I recently read somewhere on the internet that a singularity can do this. Supposedly when a photon hits a singularity, it creates a matter and antimatter pairing that re-annihilates back into energy. But what if you had some kind of magnetic separator at the boundary layer that could skim off the animatter half? Then you should be able to re-condense the energy into equivalent mass of matter and antimatter.

Here's how I'd say a warp drive would work, in the very basic explanation. Amazingly enough, it doesn't seem all that far off from the Star Trek version of the thing. (At least in regards to having a lot of high energy plasma around and antimatter.) First you run a plasma stream through a particle accelerator. At the beginning of the accelerator, the plasma is still more mass than energy relavistic to the drive device. So it will impart an inertia impulse upon the device upon acceleration. But at the other end, it's converted to pure energy. Then you redirect the beam back around. Since it's pure energy, it imparts no inertial impulse (it may cause heating, but that's random and doesn't fully oppose the impulse from the acceleration.) Then you circle the energy beam all the way back to the matter condenser. The matter condenser consists of some apparatus that contains a micro-singularity and a magnetic skimmer. So now you should convert the energy into collections of both matter and anti-matter. Then you feed back the matter and anti-matter into the plasma circut, and repeat. (Racetrack style. For all intents and purposes, it should be a closed loop system.)

The way I see it, this looping particle accelerator with a mass-energy-mass conversion is creating a differential. And the differential is with the inertial impulse that ties into the gravitic effects of mass. Energy doesn't have this gravitic effect from what I understand. So in effect, the device is like the gravity equivalent of a heat pump. You're moving gravity to one side of the matter in the device, and imparting an impulse upon mass while expanding it into energy, and taking the energy back in with minimized losses with a mass condenser. The cleverness is that the energy doesn't cause an opposing kick of impulse on the return leg. Instead of heat being pumped around, it's space. Or at least the gravitational effect thereof.

Either what I said doesn't make much sense at all, or it's absolutely brilliant. Still even if it's plausible, it would take some crazy energy and engineering input to make work. Would the resources that could make that happen actually be available?

Chimpanzee Segway Song Spoof!

2009-03-29T05:45:00.003-05:00

I was bored and thinking of other lyrics that would fit to the exact same tune of Chimpanzee Riding on a Segway. Mostly stuff in the news, maybe serious. But imagine if they were illustrated to the song. Comedy gold!

Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show:

Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show
Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show
Bam bam buh bam bam baam
Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show
Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show
Bam buh bam bam bam
She is missing, and she's cute and white
Would Ms Nancy care, if it were a minorateeeeee? Noooo
Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show
Missing white girl on Nancy Grace Show
Bam buh bam bam bam

Old dumb people living in a flood plain:
Old dumb people living in a flood plain
Old dumb people living in a flood plain
Bam bam buh bam bam baam
Old dumb people living in a flood plain
Old dumb people living in a flood plain
They've been flooded, and it's happened before
Don't you think they'd, have moved already, back in 'eighty twooooo? Yeah?
Old dumb people living in a flood plain
Old dumb people living in a flood plain
Bam buh bam bam bam

AIG Took all our money:
AIG Took all our money
AIG Took all our money
Bam bam buh bam bam baam
AIG Took all our money
AIG Took all our money
They took the money, and gave big bonuses
Congress is mad, but they're responsible for it... Tooo.
AIG Took all our money
AIG Took all our money
Bam buh bam bam bam

Kim Jong Il launching a missile:
Kim Jong Il launching a missile
Kim Jong Il launching a missile
Bam bam buh bam bam baam
Kim Jong Il launching a missile
Kim Jong Il launching a missile
He's got a missile, and he's gonna launch it
Japan doesn't look surprised, yeah!
Kim Jong Il launching a missile
Kim Jong Il launching a missile
Bam buh bam bam bam

I must be freaking bored, but just imagine real news headlines to that tune. It'll brighten your day if everything seems glum or f'd up otherwise. Try it!

The building blocks of pyramids

2009-03-18T15:22:00.003-05:00

I was reading stuff on some website about how the blocks for the pyramids in Egypt were moved from the quarry, and it makes some sense. Basically you move the blocks by rolling them over a track consisting of half-circles. But it turns out, they're not quite circle sections but catenarys instead. And the guy on the site was going on about how they'd calculate or evaluate to go from a half-circle approximation to a catenary. The way I look at it, the guy was wasting his time. In addition to rulers and other such drafting equipment, what did the Egyptians of the time have plenty of? What forms a natural catenary when suspended between two points? Duh! They used a piece of rope as reference for making this. You get a rope such that the length is equal to the side of the block you're moving. Then you make a square guide out of wood with the sides equal to those of the block you're going to roll. Angle the square such that the corner is like a pivot, then adjust the rope such that both ends are level on each leg of the sqare and that its center just rests on the ground. Pile up some planks behind that, trace the catenary made by the rope over, and there ya go. Not much math to it. Then once you cut the planks to that shape, bind them together and make some duplicates. Lie them down with the curved part facing up, and roll your blocks over those pivots like the logical theory says...

Project EARS idea...

2009-03-08T23:07:00.003-05:00

This probably follows up an idea in an old post somewhere, but I still think it would make a rather interesting science project. So what is EARS? EARS is just an acronym I made up for Exotic Astronomical Radio Source. More or less, it's a radio astronomy equivalent to the Hubble telescope or perhaps the newly launched Kepler telescope. As to the general gist of how I picture it, EARS should be an exceptionally large reflector dish made with inflatable structures and placed in a Lagrange orbit. Perhaps it could be a multiple mission package. One or two for the inflatable dish (yes an entire payload if not two for the structural component, because when fully unfurled it should rival the Aricebo reflector in size) and another for the electronics package.

Another idea may be to send out a huge swarm of probes into an array located in that particular orbit, just depends on how well they can be kept on station relative to each other. But the effect is the same, you want a large collector without interference from the earth itself. Other than Lagrange sattelites, the remaining option would be a lunar far side observatory. But I'd suspect that dropping payloads on the moon is trickier than putting science sats in Lagrange orbit.

It's ok so far...

2009-03-07T09:10:00.004-06:00

What's the topic about? I guess it's about how I'm doing. (I'm not living from my car or a cardboard box at least. So I can be thankful for that.) I'm trying to see if I got responses from job applications, following up on random old email addresses I have floating around in my contacts lists, and listening to some cool music from Archive.org (I should make a post reviewing that sometime) on a 2nd-hand iPod Nano using Floola.

Oh yeah, yesterday I even went as far as hand delivering my resume and example graphics to a place I saw posting in a newspaper help wanted ad. (If they respond wanting an interview, I'll know how to get there too.) There are signs that the economy is as overdue to pick up as much as I'm overdue to get a job since graduating college just over two years ago. (We both need the cash flow, right?) So we'll see... At least I'm thinking I might have a shot at it.

What the heck?

2009-03-01T11:41:00.003-06:00

I woke up from a stupid-ass dream. Forgot what the main part of it was, but I was clearing out a really crappy-ass apartment when I was heading to the balcony where the stairs were. But the part that stuck in my head for no reason was some song on a nearby radio played to a banjo of all things. And I only remember that it was about "Agrathena". Never hearing of a name like that before, I went to look it up online after I woke up. And yes, at one point in time there was such a name. But no reference to a weird-ass song. Making it odd that I'd hear such a song in a lame-ass dream. So that aspect of the dream makes no sense, yet I remember it. So what the heck?

As for the cicada tinnitus from before? It went away after I laid off the Mt.Dew. I figure it was probably the right combination of excessive amounts of caffiene, high-fructose corn syrup, and sodium benzoate that did it. So I'll stick with less potent soft-drinks from now on...

Open Source Inkjet Printer!

2009-02-17T19:17:00.003-06:00

Whoever or whatever comes up with the first viable project to develop the kit with hardware and software for a reasonable to use open source inkjet printer, guess what? The world will be beating a path to your door! Trust me on this. The build quality of most consumer-grade commercially made printers can now be confirmed to suck ass. If parts break when clearing what should be a simple to remove paper-jam, then something is seriously wrong with the design. Either somebody cheaped out in the materials used, or the design is flawed and has inadequate access provided for clearing the problem. A paper jam should be user servicable. Also there is still a problem with overpriced ink...

Now I can only imagine an open-source printer with plans available. If you've got the machine shop to make it, great. But also there should be various places where you could order the kit. And I wouldn't care if it costs $300 in kit form from a good distributor. If I know what I'm getting is a fully user servicable product (if I put it together, I should darn well know how to take it apart.) that's cheap to run and made of actual sturdy components, that is money well spent. And I'm sure people wouldn't mind another premium of money on top of that for a fully assembled unit. I think if the right team got on it, HP, Epson, Canon, Lexmark, etc. would all get off their complacent and semi-negligent collective arses and finally give the people what we've been asking for.

So, is anyone up to task? An open source printer is really needed in a very complacent and user-unfriendly market. I know I want one.

Damn printer!

2009-02-17T18:22:00.004-06:00

After 2 year or so of ok service, my mom complained of a paper jam. She had already opened it in an attempt to clear the jam with no success. So I looke inside and managed to yank what paper I could from the top and from the back panel. Then I figured closing it would allow the feed mechanism to loosen the rest so I could go back in and get it. No dice! It wouldn't close. The alignment of the top was off. Badly. As it turns out, one of the hinges on the top broke. The plastic was too fragile, and my mom must have lifted it too far while expecting better access.

So if you have a Hewlet Packard 3200 All in One series, be forwarned - the lid hinges are fragile! Perhaps way too fragile, especially if an ol' lady break them without really trying.

But I'm kinda disappointed now. Other than the hinge, and a stupid interface that doesn't easily let you select the smaller photo paper (have to use a USB stick workaround), that printer wasn't too terrible. Now that we're back in the market for a new one, it's going to be difficult since I hear most of the quality these days is crap. Too bad there isn't a viable open-source printer just yet (or an all-in-one with scanner for that matter). If there was, I'd buy such a kit over the non-servicable commercial units pronto!

Tinnitus sucks

2009-02-06T01:58:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure why, but I feel like I have a ghost of a lonely Tibicen canicularis stuck between my ears. Or in other words, a particular type of dog-day cicada. I know for sure it's not one perched outside the window, since it's 10 below freezing or so on this early February day. But it's just loud enough (perception wise) to be annoying and the cicada noise is what it sounds like. I guess I need to turn on a radio or something. Also I suspect too much caffiene from having some Mt.Dew to be partially at fault. Usually I've been pretty good at laying off the stuff.

Funny Slashdot Quotes...

2009-02-04T02:17:00.002-06:00

I'm probably relatively light as far as being a technical geek goes (I can't program worth squat, if you could consider my mediocre fiddling with Action/javascript to be programming), but I still read slashdot because of the thought-provoking topics it goes into. But what I find funny are some absurd quotes, but specifically ones that are absurd and even funnier when taken out of context. I figure if I collect enough of them, I'll make a dozen illustrations to go with them. Sort of like a backwards engineered Far Side calendar, but probably not as good as what Gary Larson would have come up with.

Anyhow, here's some of the random quotes:

"No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death."

I suppose I'll trudge on, whether I'm really just a marionette or not.

Do you stand underneath the spinning blades of a nice, Green-friendly power generating windmill and eat the birds and bats that are beaten to death and fall to the ground so that some electrons can make your Wii glow and amuse you?

Also, pigs soar above the frozen wasteland that was hell.

So thanks for nothing buddy, you're about as much use as a poopy flavoured lollipop.

Jesus will forgive you, then He will adapt and evolve to deal with the perils of living in the trash can. Or being undead in the trash can.

These aren't suspension bridges, as the comparison to the George Washington bridge in the article clearly shows. They are rope bridges.

Do you really think the suits upstairs can tell the difference between Linus and Zaboomafoo the Typing Lemur?

I just need four more good ones, and I'll have what I need to make my own little wall calendar art. I can just picture two sabertooth tigers talking to each other for that first one, and if you can also see that, you can tell that random debates of countless debating geeks makes for fun material to work.

If there were a such a thing as a hot scientist award

2009-01-27T21:01:00.003-06:00

See title... Amy Mainzer of JPL would win it. But a dude like me would probably have no luck to even bother trying. But yeah, she'd definitely win the hot scientist award. I feel like one of the Pakled now... So I guess I should meander off into the shadows once again while muttering gibberish to myself.

My name made the news recently...

2009-01-14T01:41:00.003-06:00

My name made the news, but not my name specifically. Rather, it's my family's name. And when those who have the family name number just around 500 in the U.S. and about another 500 in Germany, it's more noticable than when someone does stuff under a family name of who knows how many (like Johnson, Jones, or Smith.)

I don't know of the guy as an immediate cousin and never heard of him before, but the odds are still very good that he's a distant cousin. But regardless of relation, it turns out he's a dirtbag. But a very clever dirtbag none the less. (From what stories I've heard, cleverness does run throughout the family it seems.)

So now you can read about the Schrenker name in the news... Anyhow, I hope my sister gets a Nobel in bio-engineering or genetic research sometime in the future, so at least people can hear about the name in a good way. (Or perhaps I get out of my own economic slump so I can get in on the commercial art or 3D graphics scene. It's hard to accomplish much when doors haven't opened and money's tight - at least without doing something infamous.)

My 2009 Prediction

2009-01-01T00:43:00.003-06:00

Last year at New-Years, I believe I made some crazy science prediction or something. But all that turned out was more fizzle for the shizzle than sizzle. So what is my prediction for 2009?

Here it is...

Are you ready?

My great prediction for 2009...

One that is guaranteed success...

MOAR POOP!!!

There you go. That's my big and great prediction for 2009. I predict moar poop in the upcoming year. I doubt I'll have trouble going wrong with that one. lol!

How to stop Somali Pirates...

2008-11-20T11:12:00.004-06:00

Get some bait boats. Second hand commercial freighters/tankers should do.
Staff them with merchant marine type folks for normal operations.
Have the boats declare some juicy cargo on a stopover in a country like Egypt or Morocco, or in any mideastern country if going the other way. Stay in port long enough for word to travel, etc. Do actual trade and commerce, so it blends in with normal shipping.
Register it under a smaller/newer NATO country. (Or some third world country if you can get them to agree to it.)
Somewhere on the ship, deploy a security team of SEALs/SAS/etc. Basically any NATO special ops team who could counter an attack without blinking.
Equip the security team with 50 cals and light arms sufficient for the job.
Somewhere in 50mi radius, have a follow up Navy ship or two. It should have armed Seahawk or Cobra helicopters ready to deploy on call.
Sail bait ship close enough to Somali waters.
Other tactics and procedures for maritime operation "rope-a-dope" TBD...

It should be obvious enough, and a quick way to end the problem. Also I'd suggest to moderate the resistance at first (so it's not overwhelming) such that the pirates call for their backup to take the "prize". That way there's more of their boats coming at the bait when the helicopter gunships arrive. Once the Somali pirates are in the trap, the special ops team can deploy from the freighter at full proficiency.

A smart admiral should get on this and bring it before Pentagon staffers and NATO consul so this problem can be nipped in the bud. The U.S. Navy looks kind of silly if it's patrolling the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, yet allowing this kind of pirating shit to happen nearby.

Detroit's Big 3 Wants Billions? Here's what I'd require...

2008-11-20T02:55:00.002-06:00

Ok, you want billions to keep afloat because nobody is buying during the economic crunch right now, here's what I'd require in return:

Make a car that's diesel or gasoline based flex fuel. (You already have that technology outside the U.S., so put it in there. No more excuses.)
Make it a midsize or large compact sedan. (No problems doing this, that should be your bread & butter car anyways.) And no, it should not be delegated to a luxury or performance brand. It should be reasonably priced if people are to buy it.
Make it a plug-in hybrid. You're pushing towards this anyways, fast track it into production now. The sooner the better.
Make it out of composites, this is going to be the biggy and the real leapfrog technology. I'm not talking about body panels (been done before), I'm saying the whole space frame should be made of composites. That would shave of at least 800lbs. and do the most to boost economy numbers outside of the hybrid capability. Not that you'd have to throw out your neat and expensive hydro-formed metal stamping stuff, a few parts might still require that. But that you should figure out how to make a large scale standard production car (and not just a few hand-made exotics) out of lightweight composites such as carbon fiber. If companies like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, or Northrop can figure out how to do large things like aircraft sections out of such materials, then why the hell not have Detroits big 3 make some cars out of it? Besides, it would make us an automotive technology leader again instead of some trend follower. So shaving at least 800lbs from previous models using materials technology and the retooling for that be the biggest requirement for the billions of dollars bailout.

Does that make sense?

And if you can't do that, perhaps we should have you build city busses or other municipal type vehicle at a very large discount. That would get you making something in return for the taxpayer money instead of just getting a handout. Not to mention it would also help U.S. cities that are having money problems with such things too.

The thing I hate about resume services

2008-10-18T09:55:00.002-05:00

Exactly how does one upgrade their job posting when they're using a resume service to get a job because they don't have any money? Hello? Yeah, I hate the lockout and uneven playing field. It's this aspect that makes resume services a little bullshitty because those who need the job the most are put to the back, as those who need it the least (as in they have a job already but are looking anyways) are put at the front. Why shouldn't there be a level playing field?

I think the only one that really does fair-play is Craigslist.org. But I don't think they always get the most.

Wanted: The "Whitelist" Pre-paid Cell Phone

2008-10-17T15:59:00.003-05:00

Franky if I'm paying for a phone service when I answer, the last thing I want is dead air or some stupid advert call. And apparently the FCC is unwilling to do squat about dead air calls. (I've done one complaint already)...

So, what I'd like is at least one provider stepping up to the plate to institute a technical fix. A phone that only rings on white-listed numbers.

Here's how I propose that it works:

Primary white-list: Numbers specified by the user such that they ring through no matter what. It shouldn't be hard to tag phone numbers entered into the phone's memory for this.

Temporary white-list: Store about a dozen or so recently dialed numbers, this way the phone can accept call-backs.

Then on top of the white-list incoming call features, you would have two ways of handling non-whitelisted numbers.

Grey list mode: Numbers not on the white-list go to voice mail unless they correctly dial an additional PIN in order to ring your handset. This might be good for somebody doing a bit of business or other short term relationships that might not be appropriate for white-listing.

Blacklist mode: Anything dialed not on the whitelist, GTFO. This time you need to be on the whitelist when a call doesn't go through to leave voicemail. Or you need the PIN to leave a message. Otherwise, calls to the cell phone are dropped plain and simple.

I don't think such a service would be all that hard to implement either. But I do think cell phone users would really like to have something like this. How about it?

Global Handwashing Day

2008-10-15T18:20:00.001-05:00

Apparently today (Oct 15th) is Global Handwashing Day. Nice idea (I agree that washing hands is a good thing) and it means well. But how effective will this be until there's a "Global Fresh Running Water Day" and "Free Soap and Towels Day"? Franky, the problem is there's not point in washing hands if all you have available is poo-water in the first place. Perhaps fixing the poo-water problem will make the hand-washing issue make more sense?

GM + Chrysler = Not so good idea?

2008-10-12T01:20:00.003-05:00

I heard something on the news lately about the two companies joining. Something about two big companies that are struggling combining resources. The only thing I could picture is the incompatabilites of the two different corporate heirarchys grating against each other and the result is an even less effective and more inefficient morass with a bigger risk involved. If some eggs in two different baskets start smelling a little funny, you don't get a better result by putting all the eggs in one basket with the funny smelling ones. But what do I know, I'm just some Joe Shmoe everyguy... If anything both companies probably need to get leaner and meaner in their own separate ways.

Basically the result of a Chrysler GM merger would be this:
1. There would be no more Chrysler or Dodge. The only real survivor would be Jeep, and that's because GM is likely to dump Hummer from their lineup. The other two brands have too much overlap and identity conflict with other existing GM brands. It would be like getting two more Oldsmobiles while you're trying to better refine the Saturn that replaces it.
2. Lots of layoffs. Engines and such would be consolidated. This might actually be good from the perspective of a bigger company, but would suck for those working in production. Again, you might get a V6 dualcam or hemi from the Chrysler side, but GM already has a better product for other powertrains.
3. What would the funding go to? Something as a PR dealbreaker such as the Volt really needs to be pushed out to the public. GM shot its own foot with the EV1, and the Volt is the only bandage for that PR mess on the near horizon. If it's good and viable, that's even better. But to focus on it and do it right would mean taking on anything outside of other planned projects off the table.
4. Improved brand identity means cutting out excess product. Pontiac SHOULD be sport(y) cars only, not trucks, vans, etc. Cadillac SHOULD be the top of the line in every respect. Buick should be built for comfort and not for speed. Chevy is the regular Joe cars, with a few halo models for tradition's sake. Saturn is where the experiments take place, afterall it's the obvious Oldsmobile sucessor - and Oldsmobile wasn't so great at overlapping the Buick niche. GMC is trucks and vans, no doubt about it. WTF to do with Dodge and Chrysler? Dodge overlaps GMC and Pontiac, and Chrysler is Chevy and Saturn. How do you prevent dilution under the same roof?

What I'd call for is that GM would be smarter to stay the course without eating what may be a moldy giblet. (Sorry Chrysler fans, but I'm looking at overall company health.)

Chrysler needs to pursue venture capital from elsewhere to bolster its own health and preserve brand identity as a separate company. Maybe some up and coming player with no real U.S. recognition would be better with a stake. I'd suggest looking at India or China for good offers. Yes it sounds wierd, but it would be a better fit. And for quality and timliness's sake, they would be smart to keep production in the U.S. and maybe even import from the U.S. for their own market. Incorporating Chrysler development into their own home markets and perhaps being able to push an entry model developed in their country into a Neon sucessor wouldn't be bad either. If they're iffy, perhaps they should watch how Tata handles the Jaguar brand and go from there.

Everytime you masturbate, Target makes a sale.

2008-10-06T14:25:00.003-05:00

Ok, that's a bit extreme of a title. But yeah, Target of all places now has taken an icon from a well known internet meme and is now using it as part of their in-store marketing materials. Anyhow, if you're somehow still not aware of the meme, here's a picture for your reference:

But yeah, Target stores have the Domo-Kun character everywhere around. (Maybe I'm late on this, but I don't go shopping all the time.) I think it's funny if not hilarious, because the only thing I can associate it with is that crazy internet meme.

Here's my look at some economic stupidity.

2008-09-25T22:04:00.001-05:00

If corporations really want to have an economic bailout, then there should be a really serious catch to it. I'd say that if you want your company to be insured by the government on the taxpayer dollar, than all those people in the executive tier of the company should agree to have their own personal economic holding subject to seizure if something goes terribly wrong. (Afterall, shouldn't responsibility come with the position? Apparently there isn't any at the moment, and that's why all this stuff is f'd up.) It shouldn't be the pension of those who worked to build the companies that get burned if there's a fire, but rather those strings on the golden paracutes are really what needs to be cut off. At least that's my take on it.

Apparent status of the economy...

2008-09-23T03:55:00.003-05:00

Because we should know it for what it is. Anyhow, my own little prediction for what might happen actually looks back to late 1980's Argentina. Hopefully someone should look at the lessons already learned, and try to work from there.

Of course if the situation ever gets to the point of looking really really stupidly bad, these might be handy things to have. (BTW, everything linked would definitely be useful in a limited-resource Mad Max type environment. Hopefully it never goes there.)

Obama's "Lipstick on a Pig" comment made me LoL.

2008-09-10T13:51:00.005-05:00

Anyhow, regardless of how he meant it, there's some truth behind it. Everybody's to focused on how gussied up and pretty Palin is and what nice tatas she has or what other deviant thoughts her visage inspires (For us guys at least. Yeah she is a MILF/cougar in looks, so why deny it.) But by focusing only on her physical appearance, the media seems to forget some of the crazy stuff in her political stances and background. (Abortion stance, hints of abuse of power, that kind of stuff.) Those kind of things might be ok for Alaska, where it's mostly backwoods type country. (Not like she's going to be laying down state law heavy if someone does the contrary to what she wants in Nunaavut or whatever. More likely than not the authorities would never know, and if they do, it's just too much ground to cover.) But if she tries to back-up those positions behind some of the wackier ideals on the national or world scene, I don't think simply waving those nice plump tatas in peoples faces will go that far.

Guys just need to think about her stance on the issues with the big head, not the little one.

t (x,y,z) , tj (x,y,z)j

2008-08-19T20:21:00.003-05:00

t (x, y, z) , t_j (x, y, z) _j

The way stuff in space as we know it should be defined.

t = time
x, y, z = spatial dimensions or positions
j = physical version of the imaginary number, where j^2 = -1.

So by tallying up these components of space, you get 8 dimensions.

Might have some uses if someone can figure it out. The neat thing is that if you produce a product via the j-dimensional interactions, you get a negative value standard dimension result. Combine this with applied vector products, and it might be possible to use this to produce negative values in various applications where negative values are "naturally" impossible. If this could pan out, one might be able to do some really neat things with electricity or optics. (If you figure out how to make a negative modifier for gravitational attraction, things would get really interesting.)

The j-space stuff also would tie in pretty well to older work in scalar research. Scalar nodes are pretty much like the product results of electromagnetic waves (more or less radio) propagating through j-space. The product should then appear in standard space as a negative value of the two j-space factors.

The other thing is that if something propagates or exists in j-space with out a product producing reaction, it's pretty much non-interactive with standard space. So you either have to put in a j-space emitter to interact with a j-space EM transmission and be upon the vector necessary to intercept it, or be sitting on the node point of two separate j-space EM beams. This particular aspect could be useful for communications applications.

Crazy, huh?

*note: I'm wondering if this j-space thing is what sci-fi meant by hyperspace or subspace? Applications arising from understanding how to interact with a normally unobservable dimensional set defining space would be quite profound.

Trying tennis again after 10+ years...

2008-08-11T11:19:00.003-05:00

I've had this relatively unused racket that's been sitting around since I got it back in my Navy days... But I haven't really played much since high school... Nice and cool enough, so why not - and I go and give it a shot.

Things I've learned:

I'm not quite used to the geometry of the newer style rackets. (Yeah, I started out with wooden rackets that have a narrower head and some longer reach.) So when I prang it, I really prang it. With the large head rackets, you really feel it when you're off the sweet spot.
I can still smack the hell out of the ball. On occasion, when I do get a good hit and on the sweet spot - I can knock the thing into or through the fence on the opposite court. So I still "have it" in that aspect.
My consistency needs more work. It's not as bad as I was fearing, but it's not quite as good as I want either. If I aim for a spot on the fence (where a post lines up with a tree) I should hit it. And at the desired height too. A lot of it being off probably has to do with getting used to the racket. It's akin to going to a touring bike on drops when you're used to riding a mountain bike.
I'm probably trying too hard too soon after not playing for so long. Old habits die hard, and I always enjoyed killing the ball. If done just right, it also gets this awsome popping sound. But now I'm a bit sore because of this.
Regardless of the bit of hurting I'm feeling now, I still had fun doing it. I guess that's all that matters, right?

Comparing a brain to a computer

2008-08-10T08:30:00.003-05:00

It's funny how some people make a comparison of an organic brain to a computer when making comparisons of processing power. But in a lot of cases, the over-simplification gets it entirely wrong.

The wrong way: Saying a transistor is comparable to a neuron. No! No! No! A transistor pretty much has two states I/O. And then relays back or holds one of those two states depending on what its function is. A neuron however has many many states, and relays back much more complicated information.

So what would be a better way?

A neuron in itself, is a CPU + Memory + a very nice routing management system. So a neuron isn't the equivalent of a transistor, but rather an entire computer. The neuron gets its information in an analog waveform which contains more and much subtler information than I/O. (It also gets other data via chemical means, with the chemical route being slower - it probably provides bias as to how the electronic data is handled.) Upon recieving the analog waveform, the neuron can route the information, evaluate it, store it, command a physical action, or any combination of those. Seeing how it operates in a massively parallel fashion and using weighting for evaluation, it gives up precision and accuracy for the speed and raw power of a somewhat noisy yet noise-tolerant processing cluster.

Instead of comparing a brain to a computer, instead it should be compared to a large network of computers. A mouse's brain might be a pretty good sized server farm, as where a human brain would be a nice chunk of the internet. Using this analogy would be much closer towards how the architecture of an organic brain actually works.

Life, does it have a magnetic personality?

2008-07-20T09:36:00.003-05:00

Was bored one day and going through some random stuff on YouTube. Then there was some neat links on magnetism and magnetic fluids that I followed links on, and in observing them - an interesting idea struck me. It turns out that in some cases, ferrofluids in a magnetic field take on chaotic structures that are strongly resemble organic ones. What if the blueprint for organic structures has a magnetic origin?

It's already been proven that various amino acids, some basic protien forms, and lipid structures can be formed via natural inorganic chemical processes. But they typically don't have too much organization. But what if somewhere in the primordial chemical soup way back when, there was a vein of hematite poking through the goo. In this case it's not just any particular sort of hematite, but magnetite. And at a microscopic level, the field structures interact with diamagnetic and/or polar molecules to imprint the same chaotic pattern of its field on the amino acid filled lipid bubbles that wash over it. And what if some of the magnetically imprinted lipid structures suddenly exhibit peculiar ion-instabilities over its surface that the more simple lipid bubbles didn't have? Then throw those back out into the chemical soup thanks to tidal flows or other natural fluid processes and take it from there...

Just a thought.

Side note: someone might say that the magnetic complex structures only occur at certain frequncies of magnetic oscillation. So how would that be replicated in nature? I'd say it's still possible. Put the chemical soup above a vein of magnetite that's below a ledge. Then have a waterfall or dripping water come from the ledge above. Guess how the chemical soup interacts with the magnetic field when agitated from above by the falling water? It's not a static magnetic field relative to the stuff floating around, is it?

Why does my VideoLAN shortcut keep changing?

2008-06-17T09:54:00.003-05:00

Dunno, but it gets annoying after a while. Seems that for some random mysterious reason, my shortcut goes from being a plain "videolan.exe" to some "videolan.exe plus in-line commands" that serves to set it to OpenGL mode and then closes it. When I go to my shortcut, I could care a rat's ass about changing it to OpenGL mode. I just simply want the program to open and stay open, dammit! Besides, that's a lot more convienient and useful when I go to watch some .avi or listen to .mp3s or streams.

If I can ever figure out why it does this, I think I'll make another post about it. Until then, I'm just annoyed a bit at this random stupid behavior that doesn't make much sense.

How to make a paper airplane.

2008-05-30T10:47:00.002-05:00

This is the kind of paper airplane I make when bored sometimes.
Just watch the vid.

Random thought of today...

2008-05-26T19:18:00.003-05:00

Sometimes there's discussion of dark matter and nobody knows what it is...

I'll take a guess. What if dark matter is photons? Yeah, probably seems silly to some people. But why not. If photons can be re-directed by gravity, then that would imply that they do have mass. (Albeit close to infintesimal.) If they didn't have mass, they would go straight past a gravitational object. (Of course someone would argue that space is being bent, but lets say for counter arguement that mass/inertia is how strongly something is attached to space too.) So if you were to figure out how much every single photon in transit and including those currently not being detected would add up to in mass value... I'm curious as to how that compares to value estimates for dark matter.

Strange Fermilab code letter...

2008-05-20T08:57:00.003-05:00

There's some crazy code from chickenscratch that SlashDot is currently talking about. Looks a bit interesting, but I can't quite figure it out. Somebody did get two lines of text out of the top and bottom portions, but the middle and encrypted parts of the text still boggle the mind...

Supposedly the image is a fax to Symmetry magazine of a page that Fermilab got sent in the mail. Mail is posted from Chicago... But you know what would make it even more funny, is if the postage date would coincide closely with the O'Hare UFO sighting. Now that would be funny.

Imagine if SETI could never get a signal, but "noise" in some various instrument reading particle counts in an accelerator was actually part of some transmission mechanism we don't yet know about. That would be funny, but I don't know if any aliens would be as blunt as to drop off mail through regular postage at an airport to get a message across. (Provided aliens even bother coming by this planet - if they can reach it.) As for the encryption? Crop glyphs aren't exactly in plain english either, but rather puzzle-like. Aliens coming by to drop off a hastily scribbled note to give a stronger clue would make for a funny work of fiction or such. But why not just email the thing?

Music that was lost in HDD crash...

2008-05-09T06:19:00.003-05:00

A good while back, one computer at the house got eaten by malware hitting the boot sector. It wouldn't boot anymore. I thought I got all the important non-.exe files off of it, but no. Can't find the music that was on it. Waaaah! (But at least the computer wasn't all dead, it's still useful after conversion to Ubuntu.)

I don't know how I came by it, but I swear at one point that I had a really cool version of "Possum" by Phish. It wasn't the typical concert set with all the background and crowd sounds. Nope, instead it was recorded in the small studio of some radio station. And it had great sound quality and you could really get into the aucoustic guitar bluegrassy sound. The thing is, I swear that it was in the music or audio section of Archive.org. There was some long-play interview, and then they'd just jump into jamming and playing a song. But now in trying to find that great gem of a track, it doesn't seem to be there anymore and it's driving me nuts!

Also there was a jazzy rendition of "Super Mario Brothers" that was pretty good too, but I'm not sure if that's actually Phish or not. I found something similar, but the sound wasn't as improvised as I remember the other track...

But somehow I did find the parody soundtrack of Hanson's MmmBop done in the style of James Brown. That one's hilarious! But if only I knew where the other unusual Phish tracks went...

Longest "Slow down Cowboy!"

2008-05-01T22:13:00.003-05:00

Being a perpetual AC on teh Slashdoot, I seem to get that message a lot. *shrug* Anyhow, the longest delay so far has been 1 hour 31 minutes. (I may have gotten longer before, but I usually just give it a day or even give up.)

Anyone know what the longest delay for the "Slow down Cowboy!" message is? Just how long does one really need to wait between posts?

Edit (05/02/2008): Trying again along same topic after doing some other stuff. 1 hour 41 minutes. What's up with that?

The unexpected consequences of TV change

2008-04-27T15:44:00.003-05:00

I predict as the analog broadcast stations drop from the air, the public airwaves will become much more "public". And you're probably wondering, "Just what exactly do you mean by that?" Because without any official analog based broadcast on what used to be official TV channels, there will be a big gaping hole in the recieving capability of millions of existing TV sets. And what does a blank media usually invite? Yes, free expression! (If you don't believe me, just look what happens to any large fairly blank wall in an urban setting.) So what will happen is that somewhere along the line, we will see dozens if not hundreds of pirate analog television stations move in. So who would notice? The official replacement for the analog stations is likely to be digital. Depending on their modulation, a 100W or less pirate broadcaster probably won't do much to screw up their signal. So now pretty much anyone whos neighborhood friends has old TVs has a potential audience, and you don't have to worry about screwing up the sitcom some granny watches 3 houses over - because it won't be there anymore. Maybe we'll see YouTube repeaters and funky stuff like that. And you thought people without converter boxes will be deprived. Hopefully the geeks and the ghetto hackers out there will actually make small locales of television a lot more interesting than it is now...

At least I can only imagine. The potential is there.

Nutty idea for fungal remover

2008-04-25T02:57:00.004-05:00

Dunno if this would work well or how safe it'd be, doesn't sound like it could hurt though:

1. Get some pennies, and put them in some vinegar.
2. Get some egg yolks strained from the whites. Boil them, then mash them down.
3. Mix this with the vinegar pennies. Should get some green stuff out of that.
4. Now get some bananna peels. (Shouldn't waste the banannas though.) Mash them up really good.
5. Vaseline or something like that (optional)
6. Mix the bananna peel goo with the green stuff.
7. Apply to fungal infections. DO NOT EAT OR TAKE INTERNALLY. At least I don't think that's a good idea.
8. After treating area for a while, wash it off.

Questions: Did it kill the fungus? Was it too stinky/irritating? Any other irritations caused by this?

After peak oil...

2008-04-02T00:24:00.002-05:00

Things predicted after peak oil:
1. The death of long-haul trucking. Note that this is not to be confused with the death of the trucking industry in general. It's just that long haul trucking is ineffecient, with only the few exceptions of remote locations that are only accessible by roads.
2. The rise of rail. This is the corallary to the death of long haul trucking. For freight, rail makes much more sense. Short haul trucking will still exist to distribute from rail depot locations.
3. Electric cars. Yeah they'll come. But they'll still be too expensive for the average person when starting out. But that was true for combustion powered cars when they just started out. But they will diversify eventually.
4. Hybrid rail. This means diesel-electric locomotives will be modified to run in an electric-only capability and utilize a third rail or overhead line where it is available. Something they could do now, just with some minor modification.
5. Automill agriculture production. What's an automill? Wind turbine + circular track irrigation + automated harvester + collection silo. Basically its a modern wind turbine with agricultural capability built around it. This will be a step up from electric wind turbines being highly compatable with agriculture lands. This will be a wind turbine that is essentially symbiotic to agricultrual production. Crops will be planted in circular fields around wind turbine towers. A guide rail structure will be built as a ring around the wind turbine. Affixed to the ring structure will be a scaffold rail. Think of it as a beefed up circular irrigator truss. But now instead of only irrigation - the truss also is the base platform for planting, treating, and growing crops. And it's mostly automated, thus the name "automill". And of course surplus power not used for crop production goes to the grid. Win-win for farmers.
6. Bicycles will be taken seriously again. Not just as a kids plaything, not just as a sport or hobby. But will be considered once again as a legitimate conveyance. Expect to see enclosed bikes, and bikes with lockable trunks as a feature. Enclosed trikes and quad bikes will show up in places where the weather can be less friendly at times.
7. Shipping will become expensive. The cheap goods from China will not be so cheap anymore when transportation costs are factored in. This means that even without terrifs or other economic barriers, it will once again be more economically sensible to have localized production. There will probably be some hard times before common sense bears this out though.
8. Shipping will use sails once again. Or at least some other forms of wind power. Although in rare cases, I wouldn't completely rule out nuclear powered shipping. (Provided there's some level of oversight.)
9. Telecommuting will even be more popular. The daily rat race commute wastes too much energy. If you can't get an adequate electric or can only afford a bicycle, you'll quickly realize just how stupid the long commute is. Thus the obvious solution.
10. Public transportation will be improved. This will be absolutely necessary for any metropolitan area to stay economically viable. Those that fail to address it will be much like Detroit is now.
11. Military projection and involvement in foreign affairs will be much less. It's not exactly smart to waste the fuel and resources to project military power. Instead reserves will be held for self-defense purposes.
12. People will need to be more self sufficient, and some aspects of the economy will localize. Like the long haul commute, long haul trips for purchases will become cost or energy prohibitive. Learning to do it on your own or find somebody local to provide the service will be a good idea.

There's probably more where I could go on about adapting to the situation, but that's what's on the top of my mind now.

Also note that there may be some other solutions, but I'm not sure how effective they'll be. Somebody could figure out how to make the Fischer-Troph process more efficient. A similar process has also proven to work with biomass waste (mostly effluent & sewage) instead of coal, but I'm not sure as to what the cost effectiveness is.

Oil may also replenish. Afterall, it was created by a geologic process in the first place. Heat + pressure + biomass + various minerals. More or less it's nature doing the Fischer-Troph itself. Only problem is we don't know just how long it takes for the geologic processes to produce useful hydrocarbon reserves. (It's of limited use if it takes 100 to 1000 years to refill what can be tapped out in 10.)

Not too productive lately.

2008-03-30T06:28:00.002-05:00

Not sure why, but lately my brain feels like a useless gellified globule. Go figure. So my creativity has bottomed out until something can get it going again. Could be related to the way I'm virtually anonymous and invisible when it comes to job prospects. Nobody's paying attention, so things just goes on by mostly unseen.

I suppose if the weather was nicer, this would be a good time to go hiking. Either that or see about dusting the cobwebs off the bicycle in the garage. Maybe I'll video some footage of the Amstutz, might try some compositing work later using that... Oh wait, need new batteries for the camera first. Oh wait, need money for new batteries. Oh wait, need a job for money. Bleh.

The free credit scam continues

2008-03-25T15:52:00.002-05:00

Somehow privacymatters got dad's new credit number after getting rid of the old one. I figure it's one or more of these three things:

Tracking cookie on mom's computer: these things store passwords and other data associated with various sites. Maybe the turd burglars have a way of skimming cookies whenever one of their ads is on a page and from the cookies they can gleam for new data.
One of the places she buys from online such as Red Hats or QVC is sharing their data with the bastards running the privacymatters racket.
Our banking co-op is stupid, and someone there is sharing data which they should not. Especially when the party getting the data is the one which is specifically blocked. (But perhaps they need the extensive list of all the associate companys which should be blocked from putting any fraudulent bills on the acct.

It's almost tempting to figure out where the head of the operation is. (Running all the free-credit, anti-phishing, and a slew other fraudulent services scams.) Last I heard the central office was in Tenessee, even though their sub-outfits are spread along the eastern and southern states. I'd like to find and identify the bastard personally, and share his data on whereabouts, what he looks like, etc. I bet there are many many people who would like to get their hands on the fellow if the law still fails to do its job.

Gonna try selling stuff soon.

2008-03-12T16:49:00.004-05:00

Got the DAZ3D thing signed up for, going to try my hand at selling a few models. As much as I like making freebie stuff, I'd also like to recoup a bit by having pay-for models. So look for my shopping cart model to show up soon, since that one's going to be my first try at this. Don't worry about the price, it shouldn't be much more expensive than a fast-food meal provided I have any say.

Blue-Ray wins "format war" but it's outdated NOW.

2008-03-05T18:44:00.003-06:00

Huh... All this hype about Sony's Blue Ray beating Toshiba's HD-DVD, and you come along saying they're outdated NOW? Yes. I can say that honestly.

Why?
Have you paid attention to USB sticks? A.K.A. flash drives? Seems that every two months the ones in the store are cheaper, and not only that - but with double the memory of two months ago. Guess what else? There are already USB sticks with 64GB of storage capacity. That rivals the storage density of a Blue-Ray or HD-DVD. If the pricing and capacity trends continue they'll be fairly cheap and exceed the capability of current disc based media. Other advantages of such solid state devices is they're compact, resist most types of damage mechanisms that would ruin an optical disk, and they aren't burdened with much in the way of proprietary nonsense (too many active competitors in this particular market). Only thing needed is a set top player that could easily read and play movies from a USB stick (or actually build it into a TV line). All it would take is someone like Samsung, Panasonic, or LG to step up and make such a thing, and Sony would get blindsided with "WTF?" such that it'd look like "epic fail" to be told of in internet lore for untold ages.

Just thought I'd say something while it's still fresh.

Anti-phishing site actually phishers themselves...

2008-03-03T19:06:00.004-06:00

Seems my mom has got suckered by a place that has stuff about anti-phishing and also provides a "free credit report" on their website. She went there after seeing a banner ad at who knows where. (Because she follows every stupid link her friends send her, she's old and gullible like that.) Apparently what privacymatters.com doesn't tell you is that they use the number you give for the free credit report to run up a half dozen different spurious charges on your acct. (They're all Connecticut based, wait - what business is out of Connecticut along with the other random charges? Yeah, thought so!) Sounds pretty much like a scam itself, doesn't it? Just thought I'd pass the word.

-----quick edit-----
Did some googling. Apparently my mom wasn't the only one to get hit by this scam. Being that the message dates to 2006, I wonder how many other victims there are.

Where's the satellite kill?

2008-02-21T11:05:00.002-06:00

Just wondering? All this talk about it leading up to the event, and the radio mentions that they pulled it off. But not a damn thing on the TV news. It's like they completely forgot or something. Isn't there any cool "fireworks" footage? I feel slightly gypped on this one.

And I thought of two other reasons why that job of blowing up a satellite coming down might be useful. First one is that it proves that particular missile in the inventory is not only capable of killing TBMs, but with that mod - it's ICBM kill capable. (Probably why China and Russia had their complaints.) I'd suspect the mod will make it's way through the fleet arsenal so more than 3 missiles of that type will be ICBM-capable. The second reason is what would a few tons of hydrazine do to the ozone layer? I agree with most people that the tank would rupture and not make it to the ground, but a highly reactive chemical in the upper atmosphere is probably not the best thing. Just still iffy as to how well it's going to disperse in space.

Temporal DX Observation Weirdness...

2008-01-13T23:30:00.000-06:00

If I could use some kind of temporal technology to make an effective pinhole camera into the distant past for observation, I'd be considerate enough to not use a flash. (Even if it means not being able to see anything.) It's annoying to whoever in the past is being observed. Also, do you really want to see what some historic figure does in their own privacy? Geez, have some kind of common courtesy. I'm sure someone would think it'd be neat to see Jesus, Lincoln, Tesla, Edison, or whoever - but really - there are times when they *should* be left alone. Ok?

Blip-Hero 2600

2008-01-12T02:57:00.000-06:00

Just had an idea for a game that would be pretty funny. Get two Atari 2600 paddles (the kind that have a common socket) and a Joystick. Then cue them into a 8-bit blip music soundtrack. Follow the blocky pixel art on the screen that cues the upcoming rythm/score. Joystick would have 8 different directions to follow & fire button to a rythm. The two paddles would follow frequency blocks, and modulate playing with their buttons. Keeping pace would play a cool & fun funky composition, and maybe throw in some funky sound effects on an extra track when there are score bonuses.

So essentially it'd be like an 8-bit retro spoof of Guitar Hero or Rockband. But I think it'd be fun to try if someone actually made it. (Don't see why it wouldn't be technically feasable.) Just need to use a common file format for old school blip music.

What I'd be looking for in order to find ETI.

2008-01-04T07:16:00.000-06:00

If I had the equipment and programming knowledge, this is what I'd be looking for:

A patch of noise similar to the rest of the background noise, but a noticible hair stronger in signal than the rest for a given frequency range. A little plateau of sorts in the background noise spectrum.
This noise bump is likely to exhibit some sign of doppler shift in frequency over time.
Natural white noise pops and clicks are fairly random in spread, and fairly random in timing. When looking at this particular patch of "louder white noise" - this would be part of the "Aha!" factor: this clump should exhibit an uncanny syncronicity of pops and clicks in the given spread when viewed at fine enough resolution on the time scale. That means large groupings of pulses of signal vs no signal should get all their ducks in a row on a given time beat.
Do some signal processing to filter out the synchronized pops and clicks (those that exhibit an obvious time beat pattern) from the rest.
Then look for obvious signs of digital encoding over the spread of pops and clicks.
Try to figure out if any signal clues are embedded. If it's a "hello" signal, there should be a decryption key built into the data stream somewhere.

Dunno if any actual SETI researchers are doing this, but it's neat to ponder over.

Ridiculously large expanding antenna

2007-12-22T16:47:00.001-06:00

Just some idea to throw out there for any future scientists or researchers that may ever happen upon this information... Here's a discription for a ridiculously large expanding antenna:

Make panels out of a reflective, lightweight, and highly flexible material. Something like mylar, if not actually mylar. Each panel would represent a small section of a parabolic dish reflector that could be in a standard orbit, or maybe even a lagrange point. These panels would be collapsed after construction and until their placement in orbit. Once the panels reach their destination they would be expanded back to the original form and then put into place and attached to form the dish. Expansion of the panels would involve inflatable tubes or ridges in their construction. Not much gas would be needed to provide the inflation pressure, since space is nearly a vacuum. (This type of technology is already in use by some orbiting satellites by the way, but I've got an extra feature added - which is immediately next.) The design of these panels would also anticipate the possible deformation caused by gas leak out in the future. Thus the solution to this would be to include capsules along the ridges that contain parts of a self reacting epoxy polymer. Sometime just before the panel reaches the full expansion size, the capsules are designed to break. Thus coating the inside of the inflatable ridge structures with an epoxy. That way they maintain ridigity even without the gas and hold taut the reflective membrane. It may be possible that attachment of the panels to each other could use the same epoxy technology.

But the idea is that using such structures, you could put an automated system that could assemble a radio dish that easily dwarfs the Aricebo one. Even better yet, imagine the resolving power that an array of these things could produce if ever coordinated somehow.

Another random thought - on a mostly unread blog.

2007-12-22T07:09:00.000-06:00

After reading some random stuff, this is how I think relations between anything in space could be described:

(X, Y, Z), t , (Xi, Yi, Zi), ti

Thus there are the normally observable portions of space X, Y, Z, definable at time t. But then there are the "imaginary" space components Xi, Yi, Zi and the ti for an imaginary time. The "i" component of these elements is more or less the same "i" seen in math using complex numbers. If you were to square their value, you'd see a negative real number.

I almost suspect that gravity would be the resultant of an imaginary square, since it is only observable as an attractive force. There might not be any "anti-gravity", but perhaps knowing how the relation of an imaginary space component ties into a standard one might allow you to zero out gravity or produce a strong attractor. (Still the net effect of a combined zeroing the influence of a natural attractor and production of an artificial accelerating force might look like antigravity in a practical sense.) Also this might be interesting for quantum particles that blink in and out of real space - squares of imaginary stuff would blink into negative components of real space. (Not necessarily antimatter, but it might be left handed where normally such things are right handed, etc.) Gets a little too funky for me to think of in detail, but that scratches the surface at least.

You're doing it wrong!

2007-11-19T17:28:00.000-06:00

Some things when driving irk me... Because there are people behind the wheel that shouldn't be, simply because they have no f'ing clue. Or to tell them more politely, "You're doing it wrong!"

Some examples I can think of today:
1. People who don't understand merging. There's a road that merges down to one lane. I try to follow the "let one car ahead rule" if I'm positioned far enough back where its easier to do so. (If enough people do this right - which seems to be rare, the zipper effect can actually come into play making merging actually go nicely.) So I slow down a bit to let the car over, since they're more in front. But what does the other person do? They start slowing down such that they don't clear. Hello? If that person should do anything, it's speed up a bit to give more space. About 4 seconds pass of this slowing down B.S. And the room for both lanes is starting to run out. Thus I figure the person is too damn clueless about the concept. So I'm thinking "F' it! If I get behind this person they're going to be a bit of a lamer in driving since they're already showing signs of it anyways." Thus flooring the gas to scoot ahead. I tried to start out nice, but because someone is just too dumb - I felt like I came off as a bit of an a-hole. Oh well!

2. Next are the people who don't know where to stop at an intersection. They're another annoying thing I've noticed when driving. It's not that hard to do it right. The solid line that goes across your half of the road is the "stop line". You line up your front wheels or bumper to the stop line when you stop at the intersection. The dashed lines going all the way across the intersection are crosswalks. You're not supposed to stop on those. But rather stop where you can see about a half-foot of space or so between the front of your vehicle and the crosswalk. Coincidentally, if you stop correctly at the stop line you also should clear the crosswalk properly. But what do I see? People too damn stupid to understand the difference between the two. Either it's someone stopped almost a car length behind the stop line (which can screw things up if there's a left turn lane involved.) or some jackass stopped on the crosswalk. (It's one thing to get up there if inching forward to see for a right on red, but consistently stopping on them is idiocy.) Remember if you stop on a crosswalk, you deserve to have your hood banged on in an urban environment. (You're in fact blocking the pedestrian right of way, so you're literally asking for it.)

3. People who cut corners when making turns. Just because you're making a left does not mean you should cross into the oncoming lane of the intersection. Widen that turn a bit, someone might be coming up from behind that bus there.

4. People who let other cars out of business parkways. Yeah, you might be trying to be nice. But in reality this act of what seems like kindness really makes you an asshole. (Sorry, but it's the truth!) First of all, that car you're letting out is going to be in the path of traffic. It's really bad when they're turning left and obstructing multiple lanes. The other part is that the person is coming out blind, creating a hazard. All it takes is another car coming by not noticing the gap you left and BAM! Thanks for the accident you just caused. Yeah it sucks to have to wait to get back on to the road in traffic, but there's plenty of precident and good reason why it's the car on the parkway that must yield to the traffic on the main road. Don't ever consider anyone's "act of kindness" unless you're going for a right or in a suicidal mood.

*If you haven't figured it out,I'm going with stateside rules btw. Figure it out if you're one of those backward driving island countries.

Eight dimensions...

2007-11-16T08:44:00.000-06:00

Bored and pondering something... Some article about eight dimensional space possibly giving a clue to the theory of everything. So what eight dimensional sets could possibly be used to define anything thought of...

Spatial dimensions:
1. up-down (height)
2. in-out (depth)
3. left-right (width)
4. past-future (time)
Reaction dimensions:
5. light-heavy (mass)
6. attractive-repulsive (charge?)
7. inert-energetic (heat, relative velocities, spin, etc.)
8. nonresponsive - responsive (degree of being alive or conscious?)

The thing is that these dimensions can be thought of as nodes. Each node would contain a long array of potential values. Each value could then set drive relationships affecting all values in each node. And of course each node would respond in kind to what information is coming from the other nodes. Some other qualities we think of as unique might be a combination of nodes interacting such as inertia (mass + energy), gravity (mass + charge).

Also note that some dimensions could cancel out due to interactions with other nodes (maybe there's no anti-gravity because of an energetic relationship between mass and charge that zeros it?), and in other cases initially having a dimension of 0 could make just as much sense. (Ideas or memes can occupy time and energy, but no real space.) Likewise an idea that defines something could be made tangible by applying mass towards it. (Someone may think of a car, but there's no car until someone builds it.) But that's some of the craziness that makes up this universe. Who knows?

Jet that sounds like a garbage can...

2007-11-12T20:26:00.000-06:00

If anyone can tell me what kind of jet there is that makes a sound very much akin to the noise a heavy plastic garbage bin makes when dragged along a cement driveway, I'd be grateful. (Only difference from the dragging bin is although it seems no louder to the ears, you can feel it a little - some infra-sound thing going on.) It's gotta be one of the newest ones out there, and it'd be neat to find some pics. (Or at least speculate...)

Only other thing about it is that it's fast, and it's way up there. So unless you notice the noise (and don't actually look around to see that no neigbors are dragging out their garbage first) you're not likely to see it. It's fast enough that if you didn't look up to see the forming contrail, you'd think it's one that's already up there from a previously passing airliner. So it's pretty uber, whatever it is. Either it's up where the air is too thin to make much of a sonic boom, or somebody is further ahead in attenuating shockwave noise than they're letting on.

Maybe some aircraft enthusiast ever wanders by, they could elaborate or at least mention some similar experience.

Dec 2012 an opportunity?

2007-11-09T03:28:00.000-06:00

Provided various predictions about us blowing ourselves to smithereens is wrong, November - December of 2012 could be an opportunity to save our collective asses in 2029 or 2036 (depending on how some folks look at it.) At that time, the Apophis asteroid comes pretty close. (Around 0.112 AU) I think that would be close enough to put a probe on it that could nudge it in our favor. Or at least give us a signal to better track the path. Might be food for thought if any scientist types think it's worth trying.

Take a look at http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2004+MN4&orb=1 and play around while watching the dates. See what you think.

Hey whaddya know, after some more googling this site says the same thing.

The difference between U.S. & Iran

2007-09-25T04:03:00.000-05:00

It's funny, but watching the whole Aminijad (sp?) thing, I've come to this realization:
He feels that it's safe enough to come to the U.S. and troll about despite that it's known he has a complete lack of popularity here. Or at least with the majority... And even though the gov't in the U.S. isn't exactly on good terms with his country, he's still comfortable enough with it that it'll provide the degree of diplomatic protections that are typically given foreign leader...

How many people from the U.S. leadership would really feel comfortable enough to go to Iran under the same terms? I'm not counting any... I suspect that really means something...

I guess it's also the difference between a fairly loud voiced but otherwise peacable protest he is getting from the public here. Turn it around the other way and there'd be riots, American flag burning, and hanging effigys paraded down the streets. Not to mention that there might be the risk of some gaffe or snafu potentially making the visitor held accountable and kept as a political prisoner.

I wonder if the rest of the world also sees the situation in the same way?

Idea for SETI

2007-08-14T00:43:00.000-05:00

Been a little bored lately, and ended up reading back towards the topic of SETI. Anyhow, instead of spending all the time looking for a strong analog carrier - they need to devise means of digital detection. A project to create "Digital Carrier Detection With Unknown Protocol". Limited use, but discovering that there is an actual digital signal where only noise was percieved earlier would be a big step forward. Who knows, aliens might even do a key within carrier protocol - making finding their signal much like cracking a DVD. But that can't be done until it's known that the carrier is actually there in the first place.

I suspect if there is any ETI out there with comparable tech to us, if he's using long-distance radio - he's on some form of spread spectrum. So what to do? Here's what I would propose:
1. Look for strong sources that were previously dismissed as white noise.
2. If the white noise from a common source is strongly limited to a band or band-gap-band, even better.
3. Determine if there is any synchronisity within the noise. That is if you can blow up the resolution of the noise - every little peak or valley lines up. This is likely to be the key to determining artifical behavior and observing the signal.
4. If above traits are apparent, run an ambient filter to narrow down signal to definite pops or clicks. This way all you have is a digital reference.
5. Run through methods to for digital signal analysis. Such as each frequency in the spectrum being a bit placeholder. Or perhaps as data running in parallel streams.
6. Try various methods to reverse analyze codecs. See if data exists and can be resolved into known types (audio, video, images, other misc. data types.)

Would be neat if someone bothered to analyze some strong "noise" sources to find out that the ETI has been chattering away all along. I'm sure some researchers would have a forehead slapping moment if this was indeed the case...

It'll probably be another generation before the analog addicts move on and SETI might actually have a chance to seriously do something like this. Well, that's it for today's random thought.

Educated guess at Chupacabra Taxonomy

2007-08-03T01:09:00.000-05:00

From some of the more recent and less far out descriptions of "chupacabra", I went on a hunch and guessed that it probably had a lot in common with shrews of all things. It just happens to be a shrew the size of a dog. Looking things over, it probably isn't quite a member of the Sorcidae family. But in viewing over members of that family I did find another family called Solenodontidae. And guess what? The only known surviving members of animals in this mostly extinct family can only be found in the Caribbean on the islands of Haiti/Dominican Republic and Cuba. This coincides remarkably well with the Caribbean and Central American origins of the Chupacabra. A larger unknown member of the Sonodon family would have all the traits (strange calls, musky goat-like odor, aloofness, nocturnal, hiding in burrows, scrambling gait) that match those of the latest mammalian Chupacabra descriptions. Being that Solenodons are poisonous, it would also explain its quirky hunting behavior. Prey is paralyzed by the venomous bite, and therefore doesn't put up much resistance (if any.) This critter can pretty much do whatever it wants afterwards. It may actually be a living member of a Solenodon species considered long extinct.

Escaping gravity...

2007-08-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

Out of curiosity, I wonder how many people would take off (even if temporarily) if they had access to cheap and affordable anti-gravity technology? Think about it, with the right pressure vessel (just has to hold one atmosphere differential, some welding skills and a big compressed air tank should do) and anti-grav heading for space would be a lot less harder. Still unless it was an hour jaunt or so (wheee!), there'd be the issue of working out life support, space suits, air locks. But hell, at least you really know that you could get away from all the B.S. if you wanted. Anti-grav technology if it existed, would also mean that c is no longer the speed limit (you'd get over that whole inertia thing.) So if you had the time to work it out, you could also leave the solar system. Find other planets, maybe one with breathable air and edible plants and/or critters. Now that could be fun, afterall it's the basis for a lot of sci-fi.

Broken radio streams...

2007-07-22T01:46:00.000-05:00

It used to be that I could pull in a few streaming radio stations using http:, mms:, or udp: using VideoLan client. Apparently this is possible no more, and those streams are broken. (I get an error message that streams aren't available.) I found that some of these stations now use a flash based client. Which to say the least is... ...Meh. Still I suppose it's better than buzzing or lightning static throughout the late night talk program I listen to.

If anyone knows how to figure out what stream those flash based interfaces are tapping into and route it through VLC instead of flash (which causes FireFox to memory leak quite a bit), it'd be greatly appreciated. (Don't tell anyone I tried using Flare to reverse engineer a .swf, but there wasn't much pointing to anything obvious in the ActionScript.) Until then, I might have to resort to something cheesy such as use the flash on another machine, but then stream onto my LAN with VLC so I can use VLC. (Sounds silly, but should be quite possible.)

I also suspect this non-working situation might have something to do with some legal streaming-radio retardedness here in the U.S. (My European streams seem to be ok.) Still, it needs a workaround...

Transformers: A movie by nerds for nerds...

2007-07-09T16:49:00.000-05:00

Hate to use the ol' slashdot tagline for the new Transformers flick, but it rings true.

Anyhow here's my take on it:
1. Well written. Has it's moments of comedy, some drama, and of course sci-fi. But really first and foremost it's a non-stop keep it banging action flick. Great summer film.
2. Not for the little kids. Written at a PG-13 humor level, so although gradeschoolers could watch it they might not get some of it. Rather it's target is the fans of the original G1 Transformers. Rather it's for the preteen and up crowd.
3. Big advert placement. Kudos for the General (as in General Motors) for showing off their whole linup in Autobot, Decepticon, and regular vehicular form. It was hard not to notice it as a billboard, being the badging closeup shots, the dealership spot, etc. A little bit too hard I may say. (But at least their cars are actually good now, so the extra plug might bring back the folks that walked away from their 1980s turds.) Even the Grumman and General dynamics non-civvie brands of GM played a big role.
4. Deviates from the comic book and/or TV storylines, but the characters are close and the storyline fits well. (Something about controlling the robotic race's entire means of reproduction, more or less.)
5. How it plays out? You actually get to see that Optimus is a badass (rather than only trust that past events placed him in the leadership role.) Bumblebee is not a pussy as he was in the cartoon, but actually cool this time around. (There's an even humorous take on him saying "No, I don't think so!" to his cartoon/comicbook form when we first see him.) Humans are also shown to be insect-like to them (litterally, we're squishy compared to the robotic film stars). Our insect-likeness also leaves Negatron with a serious grudge when he comes about from his confined torpor. (He was pretty much concious during the whole thing, but paralyzed.) Also I think Soundwave's new name should be scrappy. He's still cunning - no doubt about that, but unlike the cold calculating character in the cartoon he's clumsy and makes many mistakes - rather he's like a fidgety caffiene addict in robot form.

I'll try not to put anymore spoilers than that, since the movie was pretty good for what it is...
Also if your local theater is anything like the one here, bring earplugs... Or you could wait for the DVD.

Scratch made field effect tri-coil

2007-06-29T01:38:00.001-05:00

Just something I've made a while back when bored. I dub this construction the field effect tri-coil. What it does, who knows? But I think that running current throught the wires causing magnetic fields to bend in "unnatural" ways would have interesting effects. The funny thing is, the device is ridiculously simple to construct. (Nothing beyond anything Tesla could have done in half a day.) It consists of 3 interleaved wires. First one is the power wire. It's heavier guage and wound into a flattened and layered spiral ring as shown in the diagram. This wire provides the primary field and should carry the heavier current if is introduced into experimentation. The second wire is the compression or intensity wire. It's wrapped in a unique way (clearly illustrated in the diagram), presumably to break up induction in itself while compressing the field of the primary coil. The third coil (in this case it's a simple 5-point star configuration, although there may be better wrappings) is the torsion or vortex coil. The idea is to induce a rotational tension in the field.

Now for feeding power to the thing... The controls should be pretty simple/stupid, although the resulting effects might be chaotic or interesting. Each coil gets 3 input dials of its own for the power supply. First one is level. This should be a simple voltage control that influences the peak amplitude of the waveform. Second one is beat, or frequency. A beat of 0 would be a constant voltage based on level, and then it's an adjustable sinewave from there. The third one would be phase. So you can shift the waveform and alter the interaction of the harmonic beat frequency of each coil independently. Available current should be fixed at some level, because the other parameters should be plenty enough to observe for magnetic tension effects.

Here's a schematic diagram. Ultimately, if the device was useful, this schematic would be used in a manner much like the ReacTable video synthezier interface and be operated by a smart touch screen. What's neat is that you could add modifiers, and link arrays if a more complicated system used multiple tri-coils. It would allow quick flexibility and great variety of waveform mode operation in a quick to read visual format. Data could be displayed as a graphic associated with the component or as a numerical readout.

As for what it does? Untested. But it might make a really unique induction coil. It might provide some secondary field effects. Or it might not do much other than make wires hot. But hey, it's really cheap. And wouldn't it be great if it actually did something useful?