It’s been decades since I’ve had to write a BASH script to do something, so I asked one of my programmers to write one for that, that would list a directory over and over again, every 15 seconds.
This is it:
while true; do ls -l; sleep 15; done
Category Archives: Technology
130 year trend in Precipitation
While here at home, watching it rain today, I began to wonder what the rainfall trends have been over the last 100 years, and if there is any obvious correlation to the increase or decrease, when compared with the so-called ‘Climate Change’ that is so much in the news.
While poking around the net I came across we chart produced by The Aquinas Project (some sort of research group), but I found it interesting, so I’m posting it here.
What the chart shows, with annual and decade long rainfall trends overlaid is that.. compared to 120 years ago, average rainfall (at least in the search city they chose) is nearly identical.
So, this raised the question for me. Now, I’m not saying I believe that ‘Global Warming’ is happening at all. Frankly, it’s not, and honest good science proves that. BUT, what this chart shows, based on NOAA data (or so they say) that there is NO long-term effect on average rainfall.
So this makes me ask the question:
Assuming Global Warming (or Climate Change.. pick your BS lable) is real, WHO CARES!??! If it’s not affecting the most easily measured weather ‘symptom’, does it really affect humans at all? And let’s be frank here.. we like to say we’re all about nature, but in the end, it’s survival of the human race we are REALLY worried about. Sure, there are some pathological types that aren’t but, who cares about them? I don’t.
So I ask again… if we’re not even seeing more rain.. does it even matter?
I also wonder what the annual U.S. losses dues to weather related natural disasters plot would look like over a similar period (inflation adjusted of course).
Why do I ask that question? Well, because our ‘Great Savior President Obama is promising $100 BILLION dollars of our money to combat this ‘SO CALLED’ problem.
Well, if we’re loosing less than $100 BILLION a decade to natural disasters then I say STOP wasting money trying to prevent them and put that money into damage mitigation!
Notable Quotables
Here are some Notable Quoteables from yours truly:
Malignant Engineering
A design paradigm, where the product eventually takes over all resources, eventually killng the host, yet living on indefinitely.
If we try to force delivery now, of these premature ideas, the final product like most certainly suffer from serious developmental disabilities.
And of course my classic:
Laziness is the Father of Invention.
Flying fleet continues to expand
The collection of flying rockets continues to expand.
DD05
This is a semi-custom design. Based on an Estes Baby Bertha rocket kit. Extended nose cone and scale V2 fins make this look similar to the world changing V2 Ballistic Missile of WWII. Rocket was still awaiting final finish paint at time of photo. [ Full Project Writeup ]
DD06
Design is more of a repair and subsequent enhancement of an existing rocket (Estes Taser). Following water damage at the base of the body tube, I sectioned about 2″ from it, and re-affixed the poly engine and fin assembly. The top red payload section is from parts ordered online. The L.E.D. payload (for night flights) comes from Halloween skull decorations (like the white plastic skull far right). A pair of night flights proved the rocket to be a good flyer and the lights made night recovery very easy. Night rocket launches are fun!
DD07
Constructed completely from spare parts attached to a large Estes BT-55 body tube that I ordered online. The fins and nose cone came the Baby Bertha kit. Launch lug and payload section came from an Estes Payloader rocket (which was parted out for another project DD08). Engine mount was constructed from scratch based on patterns from other kits and a home-made mild steel engine retainer clip.
Video game classic.
While watching some Anime that the kids enjoy watching on Saturday mornings, a character appeared that was so similar to this great video game villan, I just HAD to find these videos. The first, being the original, the second being a rather amusing techo-mashup.
After all, what technologist would be raising his kids properly, without them knowing such uber-geeky things.
Enjoy these classics!
42 Second origin of it all
Techno Mashup Version (about 4 min.)
History:
MMS *FINALLY* Available for iPhone 3G & 3Gs users on AT&T
AT&T promised us MMS by the end of summer. Well, they clearly missed that date because it’s already fall!
BUT.. they did get it released to us, TODAY.
Some people have been reporting very slow downloads of the Carrier Updates (the iPhone itself has supported the feature since iPhone 3.1, just not for us in America stuck with AT&T). But once the update downloads and installs, you will need to reboot your iPhone to get the feature working.
What does it look like when you have iPhone MMS? Well, a new camera icon appears on your MMS page.
Click the icon, and you have the option of taking a photo or using one from your iPhone photo library. Attach to the message, type your text and viloa… welcome to 2006! It’s been so long it’s almost novel again.
Now if only AT&T would quit screwing us the really great feature they plan to block forever, ‘Tethering’. Might as well just jailbreak the phone.
More info and Images of the new Mercedes-Benz SLS
More news hitting the wire about the SLS!
This time from Road and Track:
First Official Photos: 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
Finally, the disguise has been peeled off of Mercedes‘ all-new supercar, the SLS AMG. And what can we see? Exactly what we expected: a modern successor to the legendary 300SL Gullwing, with a remarkably upright windshield. The front is pure modern Mercedes, a bit on the blocky side with large headlamp clusters, a long hood and a giant 3-pointed star. Of course there are the gullwing doors along with retro strakes on the front fenders. The short rear deck, though, is a bit more squared-off than we expected, reminding a bit (dare we say) of the old Acura CL coupe. A flush-mounted rear wing rises at speed. The driver-focused interior appears nicely done, if slightly understyled, in typical German fashion…..
Here are some specifications:
Mercedes Benz SLS |
|
|---|---|
| Displacement: |
6200 cc |
| Horsepower |
563 bhp @ 6800 RPM |
| Torque |
480 ft./lb. @ 4750 RPM |
| Transmission |
7-speed twin-clutch transaxle |
| Curb Weight: |
3600 lb. |
A gorgeous car. A true homage to the great 300 SL Gullwings. More amazing work coming from Stuttgart. I’d love to put one on my mansion.
Today’s Tidbits – Video, Google and an SLS
Sorry!
Mazda and Google give Laguna Seca the Street View Treatment
Leverkusen, 04 September 2009. The legendary Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California can now be viewed from your PC on Google Street View. Racing fans can travel the entire circuit – starting at Andretti’s Hairpin to the infamous Corkscrew Curve – from the perspective of a race car participating in the final leg of the 2008 American Le Mans Series. The tour was filmed using a spherical, multi-lens camera mounted to a vehicle, and combined with additional photographic imagery, GPS and other geo-spatial data to produce a true image of the race track at eye level.
Incredible new Mercedes Benz SLS
Finally, one amazing looking car from Mercedes-Benz. An homage to the old SL300, including gull wing doors! If only it were not 177,000 Euros.
Due to be revealed at next week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, the 300SL-inspired “Gullwing” is packing a front/mid-mounted version of the venerable 6.3-liter V8 fitted to the majority of AMG’s offerings, mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox channeling 563 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels. Weight is pegged at around 3,500 pounds, allowing the SLS to run from a rest to 60 in 3.7 seconds. Top speed is 197 mph and optional carbon ceramic discs should bring the party to a halt with supreme authority.
XBOX 360 – Red Ring of Death — Round 2 = FAIL, or did it?
Well, a good fix, but not a long term one, the firs time around.
XBOX 360 – Red Ring of Death — Round 1
So, this time I’m going to implement the X-Clamp fix, a more advanced repair of the box. Here is a video that basically covers what I am doing (this is not my video, I’m a much more exciting person than this dude).
Another relevant video. Between the two, there information is there on executing the ‘fix’ I’m attempting today:
Parts list for implementing the repair:
8 5mm .80pitch 12mm long socket head screws.
36 M5 washers
16 #10 nylon washers
1 vial of Arctic Silver CPU head sink paste
After following instructions from several sites, I used the above parts to try the X-clamp repair. After implementing the repair and hooking the XBOX back up to the TV, the 3 rings of death remain.
Looking over this ‘helpful’ Microsoft support page. Based on it’s diagnostic trouble shooting tree, it *might* be the power supply this time. Great. I guess I’ll have to go to one of those used gaming stores and see if I can get a power brick or at least plug mine into another XBOX and figure out if it’s the brick. Pathetic, overly complex, under-engineered device. Makes me wish I’d bought the PS3 or Wii instead.
I did notice that my XBOX seems to have upgraded cooling components. You’ll notice that the CPU (large block) and the GPU (two piece sink) are quite a bit larger than the ones pictured in the online guides and videos above.
Never the less, it has GPU cooling issues that resulted in the RROD (Red Ring of Death) .
After discussing this with my pal Steve in Reno, he prompted me to do a little more research on exactly which MB I have in this machine. It turns out I have the ‘latest and greatest’ MS fixes for the heat issues (well, except the ‘glue’ used on the Elite systems) implemented in my ‘Falcon’ Motherboard, as noted by Wiki page, here:
Falcon
IBM 65 nm CPU
ATI 90 nm GPU and smaller embedded DRAM chip
All Xbox 360 Premium machines and Arcade machines manufactured August 2007 introduced the new 65 nm CPU accompanied with a new cooler and still 90 nm GPU with the Zephyr cooler. The motherboard is based on Zephyr and requires fewer components (some capacitors and coils removed) for the new 65 nm CPU, resulting in lower costs.
Hemp for Victory!
Somehow the conversation at work devolved into us finding this little gem:
Hemp for Victory. 1943 Film by the US Government. It’s 10 min. long, and seems to have been sped up a bit during digitizing. According to the websie where I found this, the film was VERY difficult to locate, and a usable copy was not located until 1976!.
Here it is, hosted on YouTube… at least until someone in the US Government puts a stop to it: