Cool or Cold Fusion?

A researcher in Florida claims he is on the path to having a workable flying saucer. It works by ionizing the air around the saucer, causing air currents that provide lift. The best part is that it's all solid state, with no moving parts.

Initially I laughed it off, although apparently this is the culmination of years of government-backed research into this area of fluid dynamics. Now I'm at "I'll-believe-it-when-it-flies".

Sexy, but...

Just read a couple news articles on the launch of the new ICON amphibious aircraft. It's a good-looking plane, with nice lines and clearly a lot of auto-type industrial design having gone in to it. I just wonder if they remembered the "plane" part.

Once you get past the sexy looks, the proposed specs don't look so attractive. First, all the numbers are estimated, so should be taken with a grain of salt. Compared against the closest competitor, the Czech Aircraft Mermaid, it's about the same speed (120 mph vs. 118), both of which are slow relative to other light-sport aircraft, which can cruise at 135-140mph. That seems to be the price of the amphib.

At $140k, it's fairly pricey relative to competitors at $85-110k, and 420 lbs of load makes it effectively a one-seater, since you can't carry 2 180lb adults and reasonable fuel. The Mermaid has a load of 505 lbs, and non-amphibs are usually good for 600lbs.

The dash is a triumph of design for non-pilots. To the uninitiated, I suppose it looks futuristic but comforting in a sports-car way. To a pilot/owner, it looks like a bunch of useless plastic taking up perfectly good panel space that will have to be ripped out at the first avionics upgrade. Speaking of which, if I'm going to pay top dollar for an aircraft, it should come with top-of-the-line avionics, and not gussied-up steam gauges. Important items such as an audio panel, transponder and 2nd comm radio are absent and have no obvious home. I can only hope that the interior is a mock-up and that sanity will prevail once they start rolling down the production line.

In short, I won't be lining up to buy one, but then again I already have a plane. The styling and the automatic swing wings are attractive, and I have always liked the amphib's ability to use any water area as a runway. But ultimately the ICON seems overpriced for what you're getting.

Pretty, But Pretty Useless

It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of the current administration, but it seems like defense secretary Gates has got his priorities straight. He is seeking to curtail production of advanced fighter aircraft like the F-22 and focus on the needs of immediate conflicts, which run more to UAVs and transport aircraft.

Gates has often singled out the cutting-edge Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor as a prime example of what he deemed misplaced military priorities. "The reality is we are fighting two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the F-22 has not performed a single mission in either theater," Gates told a Senate committee in February.

Gates sacked current air force head General Mosely and his suggested replacement will be the first head of the air force in 25 years who is not a former fighter pilot.

Like most large institutions, the Air Force fights for its own aggrandizement rather than looking to the good of the whole, and is actively trying to increase the amount of porkfunding going its way. But the reality on the ground is that the Air Force is increasing irrelevant for modern conflicts -- airpower over the battlefield is most likely to come from a carrier, or from ground-support aircraft like the A-10 or attack helicopters (which the Air Force hate). Strategic bombing is passe for modern low-intensity conflicts, our nuke inventory is being gradually reduced, and cyberwarfare is much-hyped but of improbable use on an actual battlefield. So the Air Force needs to find a new mission or risk being downsized into a military version of UPS.

Would that be a bad thing? Perhaps not.

Engineer Humor

I was reading through the IEEE specification for Ethernet (thrilling stuff), when I noticed the following bit definition:

45.2.1.12.2 STFU (1.30.14)
When this bit is set to a one, the PMA/PMD sends a message to the link partner instructing it to be silent for
the silence time (see 45.2.1.12.3).

To translate that into english, there is a bit called "STFU" which informs the other end of the link to cease transmission ("stop talking"). For those not up-to-speed on their instant messaging/texting shorthand, "STFU" is short for "Shut The F*** Up".

I'm sure someone had a laugh when they snuck this one into the spec.

Muddy Water

I generally don't expect to stumble across political controversy when I'm reading my morning aviation news, but this morning read that Blackwater is apparently expanding the scope of its operations by purchasing Brazilian figher aircraft.

This implies that Blackwater is branching out from the basic security work it did previously and planning on being a full-fledged army, including air support. They already manufacture their own APCs.

Most disturbing is the almost complete lack of oversight of a group whose actions represent and reflect upon the American people. Blackwater contractors are not accountable under military law (as they are civilians), are exempt from Iraqi law (by executive order of Paul Bremer), and may not even be accountable under U.S. civilian law (proper jurisdiction, evidence may not meet U.S. evidence requirements). Qui custodiet ipsos custodes?

Moving to Canada

From the I-can't-believe-these-people-also-live-in-my-country column, a coalition of right-wing commentators and columnists forced Dunkin' Donuts to pull an online ad because it supports Islamic Terrorism features Rachel Ray wearing a scarf.

The idiots defenders of our freedom claim that Rachel is a terrorist apologist because she showed up in the commercial looking like this:For reference, a keffiyeh looks like this:


Note that the keffiyeh comes in a variety of colors and patterns; the key element seems to be that it is worn on one's head (I will confirm this after tracking down one of our local Lebanese).

I'm a little unsure as to the logic chain followed here, but I'm guessing that it goes something like:

1. Terrorists wear keffiyehs
2. A keffiyeh is a square piece of cloth
3. A scarf is a square piece of cloth
4. Therefore, anyone wearing a scarf is a terrorist

Budget Flying

I found an article discussing a new Light Sport aircraft, the X-Air. This has a list price of $47k, which makes it cheaper than your average new BMW. At this price it even includes a panel-mount radio and good engine instruments, although they don't include a transponder (required if you're going to fly anywhere near a major airport).

Obviously there are some trade-offs in making an aircraft this inexpensive, and the main one they have taken is that it is fabric-covered, and thus not as durable in the long run as an aluminum or composite aircraft. However, it has folding wings and it can fit in a trailer, so you could park it at your house instead of at the airport.

The main thing counting against it is that it's slow, with a cruise speed of only 90mph. But if you're not in a tearing hurry to get somewhere, this seems like it could be a fun aircraft.

Historical Gas Prices

Everyone knows that gas is more expensive than it used to be, but this chart shows the price of gasoline indexed to inflation. At the time the chart was made, the inflation-adjusted price had not broken the all-time high in 1918, although it also puts the average gas price at $3.08/gallon (price as I drove by the gas station this morning: $4.09 for regular).

Wikipedia also has a good article on the 1973 oil crisis (the last time gas prices were this high). A major factor at the time was that price controls were put into effect, causing the rationing and shortages. The article also mentions early on that:

Since oil demand falls little with price rises, prices had to rise dramatically to reduce demand to the new lower level of supply.

Back to the ER

Apparently I was over-due for a trip to the ER, since it's been a few years since I last paid them a visit. So fate arranged for that to happen yesterday at our work offsite.

I was playing volleyball with a few of my co-workers, but I haven't played in quite a while, and I was never really a hardcore player to begin with, so the right reflexes just aren't there. So when a fast ball starting coming straight at my upper chest, I couldn't decide whether to bump it or set it, so I kind of did a last-minute set. BAM! Instant dislocation.

With my right pinkie now in a new and interesting zig-zag shape, I quickly decided that immediate medical attention was a Good Idea. I drove myself to Kaiser, checked in, and waited about ten minutes before they called me. I was a bit surprised at how fast they moved me in -- after all, they let me sit for hours with a dislocated shoulder -- but I wasn't about to complain.

The nurse filled in the paperwork while taking my vitals, and the doctor dropped in a couple minutes later. She tested around a little bit, then looked at me and said "Do you mind if I try and straighten it?" I said sure, give it a shot. She gave one smooth pull, and there was my finger, pointing the same way it was this morning. She looked back at me and said "You just saved yourself three shots."

After that, they sent me to x-ray to see if I had chipped the bone while moving things around, then sent me on my way. I was in and out in less than an hour. I have to say I was pretty impressed.

From The Other Side

Interesting article from Der Spiegel about militants making Quassam rockets in the Gaza strip. From the article:

"The other guys are over in Egypt, shopping," he says, adding that the militants are just ordinary people who want to experience the open border with the neighboring country. Will they be looking for ingredients for building the Qassams? "Hardly," the oldest of the group laughs. "They are buying potato chips. We have enough raw materials to last for a few years."

On Engineers

Joahnna sent me this link about an Engineer's Mind and how it works, which was pretty funny. I also dug around and found a couple other links. This one covers engineers and why they are not usually involved in politics, at least in the U.S., whereas this one responds to some research that purports to show that engineers and terrorists have the same mind-set. The comments on the last article seem to be more insightful than the original research.

Band-Aids for Bullet Holes

When I first heard about Clinton's proposal for a gas-tax holiday, I thought "It's a gimmick. Gas is $4/gal, what good is knocking off ten cents going to do?" I had a lot of respect for Obama standing up and calling shenanigans. These types of proposals are the kind of election-year pandering that bloat the budget and have the tax-code looking like swiss cheese.

After I read this Huffington Post article about supporters of the gas-tax holiday (among economists, it's batting zero), I started to wonder who actually came up with this idea.

Which of the two is more offensive to you: A candidate that's dumb enough to think this will help the economy, or a candidate that thinks we're dumb enough to think this will help the economy?

What Ever Happened to Turkey Fuel?

A few years back, I wrote about a promising technology called Thermal Depolymerization, or TDP. It was supposed to create various types of crude oil from bioproducts, such as leftover turkey parts.

And then we never heard anything about the technology ever again.

Today I read this article about a plant opening up in Gilroy to produce jet fuel from municipal waste (another thing TDP was promising to do), and that made me wonder, "what happened to our old friend TDP?"

Apparently, it didn't work so well.

CWT still exists as a company today. Like cellulosic ethanol, TDP is a technology that actually works. But the technology was hyped beyond reason. People did not apply enough skepticism before embracing the promise of the technology. It was really going to be "the next big thing."

Hope that Solena Group does a better job with its bio-jet fuel.

China Understands Capitalism

A coworker pointed out this article, that the flags being used to protest the occupation of Tibet were made in China. Anyone think they don't understand capitalism?

Along the same vein of "people who don't understand economics", a good commentary on U.S. immigration. Unfortunately the ones who don't understand economics are the public. From the article:

A quick rule of thumb: If it fits on a bumper sticker, it's not a workable policy.

Bienvenidos a Mexico!

Although it's convenient and relatively close, stories like this one have severely damped my desire to vacation in Mexico any time soon, at least in my own plane. My next trip to Mexico will probably be on a commercial airliner, assuming all the airlines haven't gone out of business by then.

Beware the Ides of April

Interesting (and humerous) article on taxes by Glenn Beck at CNN. My favorite part:

However, I'm a little unsure which approach is better. Democrats burst through the front door of our convenience store with a gun and tell us to empty the contents of our cash register into their little bag with the dollar signs on it.

Republicans walk through the store and smile at us while shoplifting furiously when we turn our backs. When we catch them on surveillance cameras, they just claim they learned their lesson and won't do it next time. Either way I'm being ripped off, and both parties seem to have the attitude that we should be lucky they graced the store with their presence.

(And in case you're not aware where the reference in the title is from, you can read the Wikipedia article)

One-Way Trip

On sunday, the weather seemed nice and we had some free time, so Joahnna and I decided to fly to Paso Robles and have lunch. After a nice lunch at Matthew's we went back out to the plane and tried to start it up.

Since it was fairly hot, and my plane is a dark color, it had some problems starting up -- vapor lock in the fuel lines is fairly standard, and when it happens the engine needs some coaxing to start. While I was trying various combinations of full-throttle / closed-mixure and whatnot, the engine partially caught and then kicked back (briefly ran in the wrong direction).

And after that, trying to crank the engine only resulted in an ugly grinding noise.

I went out to try and hand-crank the propeller to a different position, hoping this was some sort of transient fault, but when I moved the prop, I saw that the starter gear and the main gear were now just brushing over each other rather than meshing cleanly, so this needed some attention from a real mechanic. Unfortunately, real mechanics don't work on sunday.

So, with some help from the kind people at the Paso Robles Jet Center, we rented a car one-way back to San Jose, and left the keys for the mechanic at the attached shop. He gave me a call today and informed me that I had broken the starter housing, and I needed a new starter.

The new starter is on order, but for the time being my plane is grounded.

This Has Been A Test Of...

Every now and then, I have a moment of surprise and shock when not only does someone in our government have a bright idea, but they actually implement it. The FCC has started work on a cell-phone version of the emergency alert system.

I remember listening to the old emergency alert broadcasts on the radio, which were a great idea at the time, but now almost no one I know listens to the radio, except for a few that might tune in during the morning commute instead of listening to their CD or iPod. But pretty much everybody has a cell phone these days, and they're always on.

Of course, this now means that every now and then, we'll get a text message that says, "This has been a test of the emergency SMS system. This is only a test. If this had been a real emergency, you would be reading text that is of actual value to you."

Aborted Flight

On saturday, Joahnna and I had a world-record shortest flight. The plane never even left its parking spot. The air pressure in the main wheels was a bit low, so I hooked up a portable compressor to pump them up a bit. When I removed the compressor fitting, I heard a loud hissing noise, which got louder as I moved the filler tube to try and figure out what was going on. About thirty seconds later, the tire was completely flat.

I didn't have the right equipment to change the tire, and I'm not really supposed to do maintenance in the tie-down spot I'm in, so I decided to skip flying for the weekend and have mechanics fix the wheel on monday. Or whenever they get around to it.

Second First Solo

I finished my check-out for the Comanche last weekend, so I'm cleared to fly without having to cart along that pesky instructor. The weather looked pretty nice today, so I skipped out of work a tad early, grabbed Joahnna, and took a quick flight down to Hollister.

Once we got there we found a fairly hefty crosswind coming across the runway, so I elected not to complete the landing, and headed back to Reid-Hillview. We didn't really go anywhere, but I fulfilled my primary criteria for my first flight in the new airplane -- it was uneventful.

We Want Scum

A green thumb in Texas has figured out a more efficient way to produce algae. While ordinarily known as "pond scum" and not something you would want to produce in bulk, algae turns out to be one of the most efficient ways to produce biomatter for ethanol/biodiesel production. And not just a little better -- they're claiming about 2000 times more output per acre of the next-best crop (soybeans).

Electronic Privacy

Although it showed up in the very techno-centric "Register", I think this article is a must-read for anyone concerned with privacy rights in general. The author is the former head of the federal computer crime unit, and makes a very basic point on how computers are different than the rest of the luggage we port around with us.

For most things, when we travel, we take the bare minimum with us -- the items we need to enjoy our trip and take care of ourselves. But in our computers we carry around information about our entire lives -- contact lists, email history, personal and legal documents, etc. The idea that the government has unlimited powers of inspection on electronic devices is akin to saying that every time you board an airplane, the government gets a free search warrant for your house.

Too Young To Party

Joahnna and I are in Santa Barbara this weekend, at my grandparent's house to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. We have a small crowd here for the party, including my grandfather's little brother and my grandmother's little sister (which means they're somewhere in their mid-80s), their spouses, my parents, and my grandmother's two sons, with their children.

There is a club house in the complex where my grandparents live, which we rented out for the evening. We had a good time, with some fun toasts and and a basic but functional bar.

It's not that we had a lot to drink. It's just that we're out of practice. Really.

We both woke up a little fuzzy-headed this morning, me with a slight headache, and Joahnna with an unusual aversion to bright lights. The elder generation seems to be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. So the conclusion is clear, and I'm man enough to admit it -- we just got out-partied by a couple of 90-year-olds.

Change Congress

Lawrence Lessig, a well-known name in the open-source community because of his views and commentary on digital rights and privacy issues, has launched an (ambitious) effort to clean up Congress by using web-based grassroots efforts.

The website is called Change Congress, and aims to get candidates to commit to four pledges:

1. Don't accept money from PACs or Lobbyists
2. Get rid of earmarks
3. Increased transparency in congress
4. Public financing of campaigns

The four items seem like a good starting point, especially since earmarks have run rabid recently. To help track how well your congresscritter is doing, they have a helpful "sludge map" showing how much PAC money each district is taking in.

New Player?

I'm not sure if they're actually a new player, but this is the first I've heard of it. The Aptera is a three-seater electric with a gas-electric hybrid option. Admittedly, it's not as sexy as a Tesla or as practical as a Phoenix, but at just under $30k it is significantly more affordable than either one, and it also has appeal in that it doesn't look like anything else out there.

It comes in pure-electric for $27k and electric-gas for $30k, so for that difference the hybrid seems like a no-brainer. It gives you a car that's electric for the 90% of the time you drive around town and still has the long-trip ability of a gas-powered car, as well as peace of mind if you're pushing the limits of your range.

Drivers, Connect Your Batteries

The Tesla roadster is now in production. It sounds like the initial units will all go to people that have reserved them. I'm pretty sure Joahnna wants one, but for $100k a pop, I think I'll wait for a bit.

Garbofuels

After reading this article on The Register, it was clear that we needed a new category of buzzword to toss about in our current discussion on how to power our array of people-movers.

Hence, "Garbofuels" -- fuels made from garbage. It's not really a long term solution, because we don't produce enough garbage to make fuel for anything more than a small percentage of our vehicle fleet, but if it works, it at least would get rid of the trash. At that rate you could sell the fuel at a little bit of a loss and still break even if you were collecting money for trash disposal.

Joahnna and I were talking about this last night while walking back from dinner, and I think that with all the effort that's being put into it, we're about 5 years away from viable, affordable electric cars. Once you get a significant amount of people focused on trying to find a solution, it's only a matter of time before we get a breakthrough.

Call A Spade A Spade

This article in the Jersusalem Post talks candidly about the justification and effectiveness of Israel's attacks on civilian areas. The author starts out with a purely practical argument (it doesn't work), but then shifts to a moral argument later in the article.

In this case, I thought the source was more interesting than the contents.

My Other Car Has Wings

I took delivery of my plane last tuesday, along with a little shuffle so I could return the pilot of the aircraft to his starting point. This also resulted in my getting my first couple hours of instruction and flying time in the Comanche.

We had a spare seat, so Joahnna jumped in for the ride, and all four of us took off from Reid-Hillview. No problems climbing out -- the Comanche has plenty of power, and climbed out at 1000'/minute even with a full load (by comparison, the Cessnas I trained in usually do about 700'/minute with just the pilot).

I have to do some more training before I can fly by myself, due to a mix of FAA and insurance requirements, but we should be jet-setting about (well, prop-setting, really) in short order.

No Sonar For You

The 9th district court recently upheld a ruling about the Navy's use of high-power sonar while training. Opponents stated (and the military does not deny) that the use of high-power sonar deafens marine animals in the vicinity, and can cause permanent hearing damage.

The part that caught my eye was the justification for continuing training even with the knowledge of the harm it was causing:

"We're a country engaged in two wars. When we send America's sons and daughters into harm's way, we must ensure they have the best possible training," [Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore] said.

We're a country engaged in two wars. Since "war" gets tossed around an awful lot these days, I thought I'd look it up.

It turns out we haven't had a formal declaration of war since 1942. Apparently declarations of war are passe, and have been replaced by a more ambiguous (and more defensible to your constituents) "Authorization of Use of Force". Also, we have a long and colorful tradition of congresionally-unauthorized miliary actions.

Just in case y'all thought the war (oops, sorry, military action -- it's so easy to make that mistake when, after all, your own president can't keep it straight) in Iraq was something new.

The Answer to the Ultimate Question

That being, the question of when I am actually going to take delivery of the plane. And the answer is, if everything goes to plan, "tuesday". The plane should be ready this weekend, but we have to do a bit of a shuffle to get all of our people and aircraft back in the right place, so getting the people lined up has taken a few days.

It Had To Happen

After all, what goes up, must come down. And this weekend and Air Force B-2 bomber came down hard.

Now, this isn't the first time the Air Force has lost an aircraft due to a training accident. After all, F-15Cs are dropping out of the air like flies these days. However, it is the first time we have lost a $1.2 billion (that's with a 'B') aircraft.

It makes you wonder if there isn't something better we could be spending this money on. Never mind the possible civilian applications like roads and schools -- how about the fact that the cost of this one aircraft is enough to 7 sets of body armor for each of the 130,000 troops currently stationed in Iraq?

I'm sure that I've written or mentioned before what a useless piece of equipment the B-2 is, now that we no longer have a compelling need to do a sneak nuclear attack on Moscow, so don't take my word for it. In 1995, Congress authorized buying two more B-2 bombers that the Air Force said it didn't need.

There's a four-letter word for this, and it's called "pork".

We're Back

We are back at home, after a couple weeks in the Philippines and Singapore. We are still sorting through our load of photos (we filled up nearly 3GB of storage in pictures and movies), so it will be a while before our photos get put up.

It's nice to be back home, but we also picked up a cold while travelling, so we recuperating some from that. I will post more on the last part of our trip and Singapore in a bit.

The Home Stretch

We just finished up our last day in Singapore, with a tour of the southern-most tip of the island. This area is being developed into a resort, with docking areas for cruise ships.

Tomorrow kicks off two long days of travel to get back to the U.S. Tomorrow morning we have a 4-hour flight to Manila, where we will pick up our remaining luggage, meet up with roommate-Alex for dinner, and then around midnight catch another 4-hour flight to Korea.

We have another 12 hour layover at Seoul, so we may catch a quick tour of the city during that time, after which it's back for the long-haul 12-hour leg back to SFO. While this isn't the longest amount of flying that I've done in a day (flying to Banglaore wins there), it may be the longest amount of time I've spent living out of a suitcase.

More Photos

Joey's camera was getting full, so we have pushed up all the photos from his camera to Joahnna's Picasa account. Here is the first group of pictures, and here is the second.

Uncle Yoyo's Church

Today we drove to Tinambac, which is the town that consistutes Uncle Yoyo's (known to others as Father Gaite) parish. The town has a large church founded in 1781 that was destroyed in the recent typhoon, and Father Gaite has been attempting to rebuild the church ever since.

Since Tinambac is a fishing village, we had a very nice lunch of fresh-caught seafood. Uncle Yoyo made a squid pasta with vegitables which was very good. Joahnna had a couple helpings of fresh crab.

Now we're heading back to Naga to pack our bags. Tomorrow we fly back to Manila, and then from Manila to Singapore.

Hot Springs

Yesterday we visited the local hot springs. And local actually meant local -- it was only 20 minutes drive from our hotel. Joahnna and I spent the morning shopping. She went looking for a new bathing suit, and I replentished my diminishing book supply.

In the afternoon we headed out to the springs. Along the way aunt Lyn spotted uncle Yoyo walking along the side of the road and invited him along, and he said he would drop by. This is normal. Naga is a city of 300,000 or so people and we run into Joahnna's relatives randomly as we're walking around.

The hot springs were possibly the most impressive scenery yet, just because it was so different than anything I have seen previously. The springs are located next to a river which is at the bottom of a canyon 300-400 feet deep. The resort has built small concrete pools to contain the hot water. Immediately above the springs rise a sheer cliff, covered with vegetation. The overall effect felt like a scene from Jurassic Park. If there had a been a couple dinosaurs in the background they would have fit right in.

Because we arrived in mid-week, we were the only people at the springs aside from a couple workers doing maintenence. We lounged in the springs for a couple hours until we were watered-out, and afterwards snacked on some food Joahnna's aunts brought, which was about the time uncle Yoyo showed up (yes, he's really called uncle Yoyo). After some further conversation and snacking we returned to Naga, had some coffee at a Starbucks-esque shop (I had a Freddocino), and dinner at Aunt Lyn's.

Legazpi

On Sunday we drove to Legazpi, which is about two hours drive away from Naga. Legazpi sits in the shadow of Mayon Volcano, an active volcano. We visited the site of a church which was famous for being the last refuge of a many locals when the volcano previous erupted in 1814. We also drove through an area which was devastated by mudslides of volcanic ash in 2006.

After Legazpi we drove on to Tobaco, which provided us with a few amusing puns, and then on to an old resort and shrine on the slopes of Mayon Volcano. The resort looked reasonably modern, but had been abandoned for a while -- at least 5 years. The scenery and views were beautiful, with cool, crisp air. Of course, only Joahnna and I though the temperature (somewhere in the mid 60s) was pleasantly cool; Joahnna's relatives were freezing.

After visiting the volcano, we drove back to Legazpi, where we met up with uncle Alex and his family, and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant before driving home. By this time it was after nightfall, and driving at night (or even being a passenger while driving at night) here in rural areas is a bit of a harrowing experience. There are no streetlights, the roads have no reflectors, the roads are narrow, and oncoming traffic occasionally leaves their high beams on and is frequently in your lane. And that's just for starters. Because in this mix of poor visibility you throw occasional tricycles, pedicabs, and bicycles that are completely unlit and devoid of reflectors, along with pedestrians that wander and congregate along the side of the road with no fear of traffic.

The net result of this is that people and vehicles simply appear out of the night 20-30 feet in front of your vehicle, and the only hint of their presence you have is that sometimes they block out the lights of oncoming traffic.

Fortunately for my sanity, I slept for most of the trip back.

Gun Culture

One of the things I've noticed in the Philippines is that armed guards are very common. In the U.S. you normally see these only around "high security" areas such as banks and airports, but here almost any properous business will have armed security guards at the main door. Hotels, malls, clubs, parks, and restaurants all have a guard or two, who usually do double-duty as a doorman.

The guns themselves are also interesting. When the U.S. does put an armed guard or police officer somewhere, they are usually equipped with a SIG or Glock -- an semi-auto pistol with a large magazine. Police and guards here are equipped with a large variety of pistols, mostly revolvers (complete with Wild West ammo belt). Occasionally you will see one with a pump shotgun. Rifles and submachine guns are noteably absent, even at the airport and president's palace (I saw a single guard post outside the palace with an M-16 leaning inside the post, and a couple guards with MP-5 submachines outside a bank). It's possible this difference in equipment is legislative, but I suspect economics -- guns are expensive and labor is cheap. Some of the guns look fairly battered (taped grips, etc.), and others look well cared for but old (the guards outside the palace had M1911 Colts that look like they could have been WWII surplus).

According to Joahnna's cousin Donna, the guards in front of our hotel do use their guns occasionally (Aunt Lyn lives across the street from the hotel she works at -- hard to argue with a commute like that), but the usual perpetrators are drunk customers at the club next door rather than any organized activity.

Beach Trip

Today we gathered the local branch of the family for a trip to the beach. Food was prepared, and we bundled most of our food and beach gear into two cars, and then rented a jeepney to transport all the people. The beach was about 45 minutes away from Naga.

The weather was very nice today -- probably somewhere in the mid to high 70s. I ended up getting sunburned, despite it being mostly overcast and applying sunscreen twice.

At the beach we rented a small floating hut, as well as a beach house, and spent the day swimming around our floating hut. The ocean was a nice temperature -- slightly cool, but refreshing once in the water. A local kid with a dual-outrigger canoe came by, and offered to rent us the canoe.

There was an island about a mile offshore that looked like a classic island-inhabited-by-cannibals from a B-movie. We tried to row out there in the canoe, but (like so many other things on this trip), the canoe was about two sizes too small for me, so I couldn't row very well, and I started to be very concerned about whether we could make the trip back. There was a strong wind at our backs on the way out, and rowing against it on the return trip would have been dicey, so we called off the full trip.

After a full day of rowing, swimming, eating, the jeepney returned, and everyone piled in for the return trip. Before too long about half the passengers were asleep. Both Joahnna and I ended up with a pretty good sunburn.

Riding Around

Spent another day kicking around Naga city. Walked through a couple open-air malls (and closed-air malls, I'm developing a new appreciation for air-conditioning), and did some shopping for souvenirs.

On our way in to Naga today, I borrowed Raoul's motorcycle and got a little taste of riding in third world free-for-all traffic. The area I rode in didn't have much traffic, so nothing was really hairy until I had to drive across a street full of tricycles. All intersections in Naga are uncontrolled, so the only way to cross a stream of traffic is to stick your nose out and kind of shove your way through. Takes some getting used to.

Speaking of tricycles, the tricycle and the jeepney are the two dominant forms of transportation here. A tricycle starts its life out as one of a variety of stock motorcycles, and then has a sidecar and a roof welded on, the driver's seat extended to form a large bench, and a number of handholds welded on. You can cram at least 8-9 people on a tricycle, which then crawls along as a poor, suffering 125cc motor tries to move its load. Tricycles operate like taxis in urban areas, but if you want to leave the city and go to a rural area, the tricycle won't leave until it has a full load.

A jeepney is the tricycle's big brother. The original jeepneys started their life as a surplus U.S. army jeep, which was then extended in every direction to create a small bus that can haul 20 or more people. Jeepneys take the place of local bus routes, and run everywhere.

Tonight we're going to Shakey's Pizza for a group dinner. Although Shakey's is almost unknown now in the states, in the Philippines it is a popular chain of higher-end restaurants -- like a nicer Chili's.

Trip Photos

We've found some time to relax and sort through some of the photos we've taken so far. This is the group that went on the tour of the Malakangan palace:


The front of the palace:



After pushing these two photos up, I've decided to change tactics. Posting photos through Blogger is just too painful to do more than one or two at a time, so I'm putting the photos on Picasa web,
here.

Presidential Gifts

When we visited the presidential palace in Manila, they had on display a number of gifts to President Arroyo from the heads of state of other nations. For example, Myanmar gave this jade dragon:


And what did we provide? The United States, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, provided...


a casserole dish.

On the Road

Yesterday we spent in Manila. First we managed to get a quick tour of the presidential palace and museum. They had the old presidential office, which was used until the end of the Marcos regime, as well as the nearby cabinet rooms and the small ballroom. They had a display containing many of the gifts to the government of the Philippines by other governments, as well as other clothes and personal effects of previous presidents and first ladies.

After the presidential palace, we walked through Fort Santiago, an old spanish fort. We walked the old walls, looked through gun ports, and spent about in hour in the memorial to Jose Rizal, a famous Philippine patriot and nationalist.

After the fort we stopped off in a local mall for lunch, and then found an internet cafe where I could check in with Alex and fire off a couple quick emails home. Afterwards we went to the Mall of Asia, which is billed as the largest mall in Asia. We spent some time and money taking advantage of the favorable exchange rate (there aren't many places left you can do that, after all), then headed back to the house for showers.

We finished up the day with dinner at Joahnna's aunt in Paranaque. I didn't manage to make it out to meet up with Alex, as he was out dancing with his performance group and we ended up fairly far apart, time-wise.

We are on the road to Naga city, which is a full day's drive from Manila. Most of Joahnna's relatives live in this area, so we will be spending a week in and around Naga. Along the way we stopped and took a look at Taal, an active volcano in the middle of a lake. There was an old Marcos palace called “The Palace in the Sky”. It's at the top of a nearby peak that overlooked the lake and volcano, so spent a while admiring the view.

After the peak we stopped at at a food stand by the side of the road and bought bananas, pineapple, chico, and jackfruit. The last two were new to me – chico is a small brown fruit that looks a bit like a kiwi, but inside is brown and tastes a bit like dates. Reputedly if you eat enough of it you will get drunk. The jackfruit looks a bit like a pineapple the size of a watermelon. We just bought portions of one – I'll have to check in later with how it tastes.

Update: Just tried some jackfruit. The taste is difficult to describe – the closest we could come is a combination of banana and pineapple.

Arrived in Manila

Woke up early in the morning to the sounds of roosters crowing back and forth. It's still quite dark outside, but my body insists that it's time to be up and about (according to the world clock on my computer, it's about 5AM). I slept a total of about 2 hours on the two flights over here, and probably not much more than a few hours last night, so I have a feeling this is going to catch up to me pretty fast in the next day or two.

Weather in Manila is as expected – hot and humid. Since our plane arrived last night at around 11PM, I didn't get to see much of the city as we drove to our present location (a rental house in southern Manila, owned by one of Joahnna's relatives). However, from the airport and what I did see, it reminds me very much of the Yucutan. Most houses in this area are walled and gated, with a small drive in front where you could park a couple cars, and a decent size back yard.

So far cell phone operation is a complete bust – it's able to come up and detect several local service providers, but registering with one of those providers doesn't seem to have any effect. I get no signal, and attempting to dial out produces an error message. There is no internet access at the house we're staying at, but some experimentation last night picked up a weak wireless signal. Since this is a pretty nice area, there's a good chance of finding an open access point around somewhere.

My plan, prior to departure, was to have dinner with Alex, my old college roommate, either today or tomorrow, somewhere in the vicinity. I had disucssed it briefly over email and chat with him prior to leaving, but had planned to figuring out the details today. My current lack of communications ability puts me in something of a bind. One of Joahnna's aunts took down his phone number and said she would give him a call, which sounds like a setup for epic confusion, since she has no idea who Alex is, nor he she.

Somehow it will all work out, I'm sure.

Counterpoint

However, in defense of her profession, Katie forwarded to me the sociologist-compiled list of the Top 25 Censored Stories.

Engineers Blow Things Up

According to recent research, that is: The Register quotes an Oxford study stating that disproportionate numbers of Islamist terrorists are engineers. The methodology used to arrive at this conclusion appears to be somewhat suspect, although there is a certain perverse logic to it. After all, if you want something blown up, who are you going to ask -- a sociologist?

Driving on Sunlight

An interesting research project aims to generate ethanol or diesel directly from sunlight: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan08/5866

To Android or Not To Android?

Found a serious and a not-so-serious posting about the new Android operating system from Google. The first, a serious analysis of who's participating in the Android alliance and why, is interesting from a market dynamic and background standpoint.

The second is just damn funny. It's a posting by (ahem) Steve Jobs on his highly-unofficial blog, where he explains that the Android OS is, shall we say, less than ideal, especially when compared with the iPhone, which is perfect. Then again, he might be biased.

Nerd Sniping

This comic pokes fun at the tendency of engineering-type people to be sidetracked by interesting problems. Good thing I'd never do anything like that. Bad things could happen.

Objective Reporting

Adam sent me a link to this interview on Fox with Naomi Wolfe. It's admirable how she keeps her cool throughout the interview as she refuses to follow the interviewer's script, and he grows increasingly frustrated. He attempts to side-track her entire book with a straw man ("don't you believe enemy combatants should be in prison?"). At the end he declares the "debate" a victory for him because she hasn't "answered my question".

The most surprising thing about it was that she agreed to even show up.

Dave Le Returns

Joahnna and I went to Dave Le's birthday part last weekend. First time I'd seen Dave in many years. True to form, he had a surprise for us:
I've known Dave long enough that I simply ignored whatever wierdness was printed on his shirt for a few minutes, until someone else commented on it and I actually read what it said. After that, I had to ask if it was actually true, at which point I congratulated the lucky couple.

Also ran into Chris Napoli at the party, who is back in town after a decade in North Carolina. He's currently at loose ends, and "thinking about" getting a job.

Photo Shoot

I've been thinking of selling the Morgan. Well, truth be told, I've been thinking of selling the Morgan for a few years now, but it never seems to get much past the thinking stage. In the meantime it just sits around my garage looking sad.

Last weekend one of Adam's friends came by to take a look at the car. He's looking for a project to work on, and the Morgan seems to be about the right effort and price level. Faced with its imminent loss, Joahnna decided we needed to get some photos of the Morgan before it's gone.Looks nice, doesn't it?

Haypatch Rides

I gave rides around the airport a few weeks back, taking Danger for a ride, as well as Awais and his kids. A good time was had by all, although I think the passenger that had the best time was Awais' father. He's worked in aviation for his entire career, but this was the first time he'd been in a small aircraft.

Tempting

I was browsing used plane ads today, looking for low-priced aircraft, and came across an ad for a Soviet L-29 jet trainer:
For only $18k, it seems pretty tempting. Unfortunately there are a few downsides to the aircraft. For starters, it burns about 210 gallons of Jet-A per hour, which runs about $950 at today's prices. And an hour is about all you get, because that's most of the fuel in the plane.

But it looks fun...

Mental Gap

I was halfway through this CNN article on gun proliferation when I just had to take time out for a rant. Early on, supporters of the Brady bill put the blame for this situation squarely on congress for not renewing the assault weapons ban:

[Robert Tessaro for the Brady Campaign] lays the blame squarely on lawmakers who allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004.

Designed to be fired from the hip, assault rifles such as the AK-47 can spray at a rate of up to 600 rounds a minute in full automatic mode. It is the weapon of choice for guerillas and gangsters.

Now, if we're going to get technical about things here, the AK-47 is a fully-automatic assault rifle, which is currently illegal, and has been illegal since 1934 (Wikipedia article). So we're already seeing some misdirection here, but it's possible that legally-acquired weapons are falling into the wrong hands and being used by criminals. Is that the case here?

Hmmm, later on the article reveals that:

"The streets of South Florida are being flooded by AK-47s and assault weapons from old Soviet bloc countries. It's driven the price down, making the availability greater," said Chief Timoney.

Really, from old Soviet Bloc countries, you say? Meaning, probably not imported by an authorized arms dealer or legally sold?

I'm all for solving problems, but one reason for letting the Brady bill lapse is that it isn't solving the problem. Criminals aren't going to buy a legal, semi-automatic assault rifle when they can buy an illegal, full-auto version for cheaper. They're not worried about breaking the law -- that's what makes them criminals in the first place.

Drought Politics

I was reading this article on CNN about a drought in the southeast. What I found disturbing is that it mentioned -- several times -- that the situation was "difficult" because all three states involved have Republican governors and senators.

"It's only going to antagonize somebody," said Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. "You have three Republican governors. The delegations in Congress of these states are predominantly Republican, so it's not easy politically. There's really no easy way out of it."

The implication, of course, is that this would be a nice, easy problem if one of the states was Democratic -- sorry, no water for you.

5.6

We were out celebrating Joahnna's brother's birthday at TGI Friday's when the earthquake hit. The quake itself was somewhat anticlimatic -- the building started to shudder, and just about the time people were wondering what was going on, we got one big shake. Everyone stopped and looked around for ten seconds or so, and then when it was evident the action was over, people just started going about their business again.

When I got to my car I had a text message from Jon saying "You still OK?" I thought back to my last conversation with Jon (lunch this monday), where I wasn't feeling all that well, and texted back "Not sick yet."

I didn't even think about the earthquake. It's California after all, and quakes are a part of life. But when I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, everyone was buzzing about how scary it was, and lots of products had been knocked off the shelves; about then I figured out that Jon was probably asking about quake effects and not my general health.

According to the USGS the epicenter was just a few miles east of my house, but I didn't see any effects when I returned home other than the garage looking slightly more disheveled than usual.

Flying in a Circle

Joahnna and I tried to fly to Paso Robles yesterday, but it turned out to be yet another aborted attempt. Our first try was a few weeks ago, when we fired up a Piper Archer and started taxiing to run-up, but aborted the flight because the HSI wasn't working properly. There weren't any other planes available, so we aborted the flight.

Yesterday I saw one of the planes was open from 8am to noon (tough to get a plane for a whole day on short/medium notice), so I figured I'd try it again. It was somewhat iffy, as the weather was forecast to be fog at 9am, clearing up by 10am. I figured if we arrived at around 9:30 we'd have a reasonable chance at landing.

Weather out of Reid-Hillview was clear, but as we got to King city, the ground was covered by a very pretty (but un-landable) blanket of clouds. Paso Robles was still reporting fog, so I knew it didn't get any better, so we tried diverting over to Harris Ranch. When we got there, we found the edge of another cloud deck just over Harris, so I turned back north and headed back to the airport.

I wasn't terribly disappointed -- the whole idea was to get out of the house, not really to get somewhere in particular. But it would be nice if I wasn't staring at the clock for the flight to make sure I got the plane back in time.

Wherefore Art Thou, Newt?

Some reasonably intelligent and insightful commentary by Newt Gingrich, of all people. He points out a number of screwy things about our presidential election process, mostly variants on The Daily Show's point that our elections have become style over substance.

Flying for $0.30/hour

It seems that battery technology is getting close to the point where electric aircraft are viable. A guy at Oshkosh announced that he has an electric ultralight that's ready today. The battery pack lasts for about 2 hours, and a full charge costs about $0.60 in electricity.

Can't fly for much cheaper than that!

Sharks with Laser Beams

Cool video of MTHEL (Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser). It certainly seems like the laser can shoot down whatever it sees, which is the hard part. All that money Ronald dumped into Star Wars may have finally had an effect.

Not going to help us much in Iraq, since it can't shoot down IEDs, but I'm sure the Israelis wouldn't mind test-driving one.

Source of All Knowledge

I was actively engaged today in increasing my value to the company by doing research (i.e. surfing the internet), and decided to go straight to the source. So I went to Google, and typed in "Source of All Knowledge".

The first few links were, naturally, red herrings -- you wouldn't expect the source of all knowledge to just jump out and bite you. After all, if it were that easy to find, we'd all be geniuses, and that clearly isn't the case. So I was looking for something unusual. And I found it on about the 6th or 7th link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_muffin

Think I need to change my diet.

Mission: Accomplished!

I passed my private pilot checkride yesterday, so I am now an officially licensed pilot. The checkride didn't go especially smoothly, but I performed well enough on the various sections to satisfy the examiner, so I now have my magic piece of paper that says I'm allowed to fly myself and others wherever I wish.

Harris Ranch, anyone?

Bomb Disposal Expert Analyzes Latest Attack

An excellent commentary on the latest terrorist attacks in Britain. To wit:

To recap: an exceptionally incompetent group of troublemakers, unknown to the plods or spooks, decided to bring a spot of terror to old Blighty starting last Friday. These people had no actual explosives, and were apparently too lazy and ignorant to learn how to make them.

Full article here.

Phoenix Motors

Phoenix Motors is making a smallish pure-electric SUV. Got this from a Register article about new quick-charging batteries, which are used by both the Phoenix and the British Lightning. The Lightning appears to be taking a page from Tesla's book and going for the less cost-sensitive sports car market, but Phoenix is taking a more interesting tack and selling them to fleets and municipalities, both of which are more sensitive to operations cost than capital costs.

Selective Democracy

Interesting article in the LA times about Hamas and Fatah. Not sure if anyone in L.A. will actually read it, but since it also made the top-three list on Google News, it's guarenteed to get some readership.

Once again it seems like the U.S. is choosing to back a politically-acceptable dictator (OK, jury is still out on whether Abbas is a dictator or not, but dismissing the elected assembly is not a good start. Who wants to bet Hamas won't be allowed to run in the next election?) over the radical but popularly-supported alternative.

The U.S. is scared of creating another Iran in Palestine, but the more opposition the U.S. creates to the current Hamas leadership, the more they empower the radical elements of the party. The way to moderate them is to bring them to the negotiating table. Radicals cannot abide compromise. When people have nothing, the guy standing up for their rights is a hero. When people see a promising offer on the table and the guy next to them says "No! XXX at any cost!" they stop seeing him as a hero and start seeing him as a loony.

(Found a Wall Street Journal article following writing this, on why support for Fatah isn't the answer. It illustrates the problems with support for Fatah pretty well, although I have serious doubts about the author's proposed solution)

Night Flight

I put in my final night flight, in a long but spectacular evening flying from Reid Hillview to Gnoss Field in Sonoma, to Livermore, and then back to Reid Hillview. Weather was clear through the whole flight, which was good luck -- SF is frequently covered in fog.

With this flight I've met all my hour requirements, so now I just have to brush up on some of my maneuvers and get my FAA checkride scheduled. Can't wait!

Memorial Day Trip

Joahnna and I visited my parents over memorial day, and did a whirlwind tour of some of the Seattle highlights. We managed to get a ferry ride in, along with a trip to the Seattle Art Museum and the new sculpture garden in downtown. We didn't manage to make it to the Boeing Flight Museum, but I guess we have to save something for the next trip.

New Front Lawn

Finally did something with the front of the house. I now have all new grass front and back, as well as a little ring to make my remaining tree look neat and under control. Now it's time for a backyard BBQ.

Soon.

Really.

Chickens

I found this video over at Groklaw. Anyone who has ever sat through a boring, technical presentation will definately appreciate this. If you haven't, well, count your lucky chickens.

Aviation Records

As Jon can attest, there aren't a lot of records around waiting to be broken. However, Barrington Irving, a young man from Jamaica, found one: The first African American to fly solo around the world. He put himself through flight school, managed to get a plane (!!!) and fuel donated to set the world record, and founded a non-profit to introduce aviation and aviation careers to inner-city youth.

More Cross-Country Work

Last week I did my first long solo flight, flying from Reid-Hillview down to Coalinga, back up to Salinas, and home to RHV. Total time was a little over three hours. However, I need at least 5 hours of solo cross-country time to get my license, so I need to do another cross-country solo this weekend.

Last weekend's flight was fun, and pretty straightforwards except for the second landing in Salinas, where they were having a convention for Light Sport aircraft. In retrospect, I should have parked for a while to chat with people about their planes, but I was so stressed to land the plane amidst all the traffic that I didn't even think about the event.

This weekend, weather permitting, I'm flying out over the central valley to Fresno, to get some practice at flat-land navigation while racking up my cross-country hours. After that's done, then it's time to do a little night flying, and afterwards it's just polishing up my skills to pass the practical test.

Simple Ideas

An article about Virgin's Richard Branson supporting research into aircraft biofuel also mentioned a simple idea he had for reducing noise and fuel consumption at airports -- have push-back tugs actually taxi aircraft all the way to the runway.

Woman sets records for the wrong team

Interesting interview with Hanna Reitsch, a German test-pilot during WWII and close associate of Hitler. By the 50-mile rule, she was the first astronaut, almost 20 years before John Glenn achieved sub-orbital flight.

U.S. Loses Top Tech Spot

Reading this article wasn't really a surprise, since the tech industry (and the VC industry) has seen this one coming for a while, but it's interesting to see it hit the news as a fait accompli instead of dire predictions of the future. Remains to be seen if this is enough to get the U.S. to address the issue, since we seem to be preoccupied with "staying the course".

Alternative Fuel Day

I was reading an article about new batteries that run off of sugar water. Similar principle to a fuel cell, except using a fuel that neither leaks through its container or explodes. Apparently can run on almost any sugary liquid (not Coke, though -- the carbonation screws it up).

Then, to top that, Sachin sent me a link to a car that runs on air. How much cheaper than that can you get? Of course, with a top speed of 40mph, it's not going to get you anywhere in a hurry.

One More

Apparently I missed mentioning the Milner Aircar, which looks like more of a garage-type development effort. However, their development is further along and they have a couple features which makes them more attractive than the Terrafugia. Chief of those is that the rear wing placement allows greater visibility in car mode, but also the styling of the car is more attractive, and they're targetting a four-seat vehicle, which is more in line with the car form factor.

The Jetsons Era Arriving?

It appears that the mythical flying car may soon be a reality. For many years Moller has teased us with his "Skycar" that was always "just a few years away". I've worked on a few projects like that, too...

However, recently a bunch more similar ideas have been popping up, fitting in under the new light-sport aircraft rules in the U.S. and Europe. The most famous is probably Terrafugia, which was started by a team of MIT students after their concept won a cash prize. I have some doubts about this one, but my main one is that they'll be able to get it made street-legal, since cars are so heavily regulated.

Which is why I found the new PAL-V to be much more interesting. For starters, they went with a gyrocopter design instead of a winged aircraft -- folding rotors is much easier than folding wings. More importantly, three wheels makes it technically a motorcycle, which means as long as the motor passes noise emissions you're golden.

And apparently they're not the only people to have come up with this idea -- an American gyrocraft designer has come up with a similar concept, although his vehicle looks much more like something from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

Will I be first to line up for a flying car? Probably not -- I'll let a few other people test them out for reliability first. The Terrafugia looks clumsy, but the PAL-V seems like something I could see myself owning one day.

Passed Written Test

I took -- and passed -- my FAA written test today, so that's one more milestone on the road to getting my license. I spent more time studying for this relatively easy test than I did for most of the tests I took in college, which was somewhat amusing in retrospect. I think it's been so long since I took a real test that it made me a little nervous.

Also, today was chart expiration day. Since all my sectional charts just turned into pumpkins, I stopped off in the airport store and picked up a new SF terminal and sectional charts. I've now realized it doesn't make sense to "stock up" on charts as they go out of date every six months.

I have a short flight schedule for this weekend to brush up on some more skills, and after that I'm ready for my next (and last) stage check. After that I do some long-distance solo flights, and then I'm ready -- supposedly -- to face the examiner.

Excellent Site

Just found a site called FlightAware after reading some aviation newsgroups. It's a really slick site with a tie-in to the U.S. air traffic control system - it will tell you exactly where any flight under IFR conditions is located. You can track flights by tail number (for small aircraft) or by airline flight number.

Unfortunately it doesn't report on VFR flights, even if the flight is being tracked by ATC. So no help for me in the short term.

A Bargain at Three Times the Price

I was reading about an Air Force procurement program for a next-generation combat, search and rescue helicopter. The contract is currently awarded to Boeing, and is expected to be worth 10-15 billion dollars for 140 aircraft.

For the math-impaired, that works out to about $71-$107 million dollars per aircraft. A not-inconsiderable sum. Especially when you consider that it's an upgrade of the CH-47 Chinook, an aircraft that's been in service since 1966. The feature list for the aircraft includes fancy sounding items like "terrain-following-radar", "foward-looking infrared" and "net-ready cockpit". Pretty impressive, until you look around and find this: An MH-47D Chinook, special-forces equipped, already comes with FLIR.

No wonder the GAO is going to pay close attention to this one. Paying $10bil to buy a minor variant of aircraft we already have sounds like pork to me.

Cirronimbus

I cancelled flying (and work) on Monday because I was still recovering from the cold I acquired over the weekend. Actually I'm still recovering from it now, but I'm down to the sniffly-nose part that can be tackled with Kleenex and decongestants.

The weather this morning was iffy for flying, due to heavy clouds coming in, but it wasn't raining, so my instructor decided we could fly as long as we just did pattern work (that's flying circles around the airport, for the uninitiated). We did some more practice on unusual takeoffs and landings, which are pretty fun. I scraped the tail skid on one of my soft-field takeoffs, but other than that they went well. The landings weren't quite as pretty but I got a lot better as the day went on. Some better flare technique helped out here, as well as learning to use some rudder to correct for crosswind alignment.

I have homework for the weekend -- some final studying for my FAA written test, as well as plotting out a detailed course for my cross-country trip, which (weather permitting) will be this sunday.

Oh, and a cirronimbus cloud is a big, puffy raincloud, which is exactly what the sky was full of this morning.

Air America

I watched "Air America" with Joahnna the other night, which is a fun flick. What I hadn't realized is how close to reality it came. Air America was a fully-functioning CIA airline which operated all over southeast asia.

I had this little epiphany while reading an article on proper leaning techniques for piston engines (fun stuff!), and noticed in the author's bio that he spent some time flying for Air America.

When at first we practice to deceive, it usually ends up as a good plot for a movie.

The Eagle Has Landed

Today I completed my first unsupervised solo (on my first solo, my instructor was sitting on a bench watching me fly the plane). Although, actually, it turned out to be semi-supervised, since my instructor was giving a demo flight to a prospective student, and he ended up in the traffic pattern right behind me. So he was watching my first landing.

It was definately a thrill to go out and do everything on my own, with no one watching over my shoulder (or correcting my mistakes). I could have held the plane for longer, but I decided to keep this session short at just over an hour. Sometimes it pays to quit while you're ahead.

It did take a while to get here, though, because of the weather minimums I have as a student pilot. For me to fly solo, the weather doesn't have to be merely good, it has to be darn near perfect. The past few weeks I've tried to go up several times, but when the time came around, the weather was below minimums every time. My biggest enemy recently has been haze (frequently smog), which on otherwise nice, sunny days reduces visibility below the 10 miles I need. Finally a storm system blew in and got rid of all the built-up haze, but then I couldn't fly because of the storm. If it's not one thing, it's another.

But I'm finally past that, and the weather should be getting more predictable as we head in to spring. And if I land the plane a few more times without bending the landing gear, they'll probably drop my minimums a little, too...

HD DVD Copy Protection Cracked

This Register article reveals that a crack has been found for HD-DVD copy protection. And, apparently, it wasn't even that hard.

Score: Hackers 2, Hollywood 0.

Wonder if the Blu-ray guys did any better of a job on their security?

Kevin Smith Interview

Just finished watching a really funny interview with Joahnna and Adam. Actually, the interview is with Kevin Smith, and I watched it with Joahnna and Adam, but you get the point. Enjoy.

Friendly Fire Video

The Sun somehow got ahold of the gun cam video from an A-10 involved in a friendly-fire incident. Illustrates a number of things, among them the communications lag between disparate parts of the service (the A-10s make two passes and have already figured out that it's probable friendly fire by the time the call comes in from the unit under fire to break off the attack).

Mission: Possible

I got a very excited phone call from Shana the other night, saying that she had been (finally) accepted into Vet school. She got an acceptance letter from Kansas State, and she's still waiting for responses from Oregon and North Carolina. But with this letter it changes from a question of "if" to a question of "where."

Congrats, Shana!

Contracting

I had a running discussion with Awais a ways back about the number of contractors and contractor deaths in Iraq. Like so much about the war, it is difficult to get any sort of accurate information out of the murk presented by the government. A prime example is the latest casualty report:
Since the start of the war, the U.S. military has suffered 3,094 fatalities in Iraq. Seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department have also been killed.
This is pretty much your standard casualty report, except in this one I saw a key phrase I hadn't seen in previous statements: that key little caveat "of the Defense Department."

Of course the vast majority of contractors in Iraq aren't Defense Department contractors; they're employees of Halliburton or Blackwater or some other private company, and paid via sufficient indirection that you can claim they're not Defense Department contractors.

Some quick searching showed that I'm not the only one who can't figure this out (Here is a news article on the subject, as well).

Buying Opinions

If there was any doubt in people's minds about how "analyst reports" are generated, this one should pretty much put the nail in the coffin. The article details some of the relationship between Microsoft and IDC, when Microsoft was struggling to come up with a plausible argument on how Windows costs less than a free operating system.

To be fair to the analysts, they did have a bit of trouble finding someone to write the study:

In a different Nov. 3, 2002, message, Houston said that the company had been unable to convince any other major research company to do the TCO study, and specifically mentioned Gartner as one that turned down Microsoft's request.

This may not be researcher integrity, however, so much as having a good sense on which way the wind is blowing:

"We approached Gartner about doing this study and they declined," said Houston. "They said it was because they didn't know that their model for TCO would work well with Linux. I privately wonder if they want to take on this debate."

Gratuitious Cross-Posting

Jon has decided to silly thing (defined as silly, of course, by the fact that I would never attempt such a thing. Myunique activites are not silly, of course -- they merely enchance my character). To wit, he has decided to break the unsupported, unresupplied speed record for the John Muir Trail, and he's launched a blog to document the attempt. I'll let you read all about it for yourself.

I think the distances involved would probably kill me, but I'm certainly interested to see how Jon's progress goes.

Solo!

Today I achieved my first major milestone in my flight training, which was my first solo flight. I was a little nervous going into it, but I figured if my flight instructor thought I was up to it, and the rental company was willing to toss me the keys to a $180k plane, then I must really be ready.

Or something like that.

The event itself was, fortunately, uneventful. I made three circuits in the pattern with my instructor in the plane, then after the third landing, he had me taxi over to the "instructor bench", where he sat and watched while I made three more circuits on my own.

After my third landing, I taxied back and picked him up, after which we returned to the office/classroom for the festivities. This involved a couple after-action photos and a ceremonial shirt-doodling, as well as congratulations by the office staff and other instructors.

I spent the rest of the day bouncing inside.

Pushing The Limits

I was reading this article on CNN about "signing statements" that Bush appended to a recent postal services bill. I found this interesting because, although I may have slept through a few social studies classes, I had never heard of such a thing as a "signing statement" (link goes to Wikipedia article).

Bush's statements often reserve the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.

"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," ABA president Michael Greco has said.

The practice, he added, "is harming the separation of powers."

Not surprisingly, Bush has used more signing statements in his term in office than all 42 presidents before him combined.

Patent Surfacing

Ahh, the joy of submarine patents. For those of you not familiar with patent lingo, a "submarine patent" is one where the owner of the patent surfaces, seemingly from nowhere, at an inopportune moment.

Usually after you have completed the design and testing and are shipping millions of units. Like in this example -- the patent licensing company for Washington State University has just asserted a patent covering Bluetooth. Which is used, oh, pretty much everywhere these days.

New Look and Feel

Busy day for the blog today. To kick off the New Year (and to make my new shiny labels more relevant) I switched my blog to a new look and feel. I liked the austere look of the old template, but as I work in the networking industry, I also felt a need to increase the bandwidth consumption on the internet.

I'm creating a market for fiber-to-the-home one bit at a time.

Update:
Labels are very cool. I've gone back and labelled a bunch of my old posts, so now you can find all my travel info more easily.

Labels

Also played around a little bit with labels, which will allow those of you who are only interested in, say, my political rants, to skip past my posts on the progress of my flying career. I'm not sure that my legions of fans have swelled to quite the number where they are incapable of sorting through this on their own, but I'm usually willing to take some shiny new piece of technology for a test-drive.

DIY Electric Car

I was spending some quality time Googling today, and ran across this kit to do an electric conversion of a Porsche 914. It could make an interesting summer project, and of course it would be available much earlier than the Tesla...

I was a bit worried when I didn't see any 914s for sale on Trader Online (finally found one in Arizona), but apparently that's because they're just not expensive enough. A quick search on Craigslist found 7-8 of them for under $3000.

First need to get the Morgan out of the garage, though.

UFO Finds Gate Occupied at O'Hare, Returns Home

"To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable," said union official Craig Burzych

The funny thing is that I found this on CNN, and as opposed to the tabloids...

It's Electric

Over the Christmas holiday, I watched "Who Killed the Electric Car", an interesting documentary on the history of electric vehicles in the 90s. The story primarily covers the vehicles created after California's historic mandate to make 2% of all vehicles on the road zero-emissions vehicles, and the subsequent development of the EV-1 by GM.

The short answer to the film's title question is that GM killed it, and in a very emphatic manner. When the leases on the EV-1s expired, GM did not allow owners to renew the lease or purchase the cars, but instead forced them to return every EV-1 to GM, where they destroyed. No question about it, GM wanted those vehicles gone.

One of the lessons I picked up from this is how easy it is to buy into hype. The EV-1 was a workable electric vehicle -- it had good acceleration, decent styling, and a range of 120 miles, which is good enough for any normal commuting. But shortly after the vehicles were coming out, many questions were raised about battery life, recycling, accident danger due to acid spills, total environmental impact, etc. And I remember giving these arguments some weight, since they are legitimate concerns.

The problem is, although these concerns are legitimate, they are also mostly non-issues when you dig into them. The batteries could be completely recycled, battery life is mostly a problem with lead-acid batteries rather than the NiMH batteries the EV-1 used, acid is far less dangerous in an accident than gasoline, and even if more coal-fired plants were built to provide the electricity, they still put less carbon in the atmosphere total than a gas burning car.

And whoever raised these issues, probably knew all that.

Ultimately, I think the problem was that the electric car was forced upon the manufacturers, and most companies are unwilling to promote a product that makes their existing product line obsolete. No existing car manufacturer wants to touch these for fear of making their existing cars look bad.

Which is why my hopes are with a couple new companies making next-generation electric cars with state-of-the-art battery technology. Tesla Motors, a new silicon-valley startup, is building a line of high-performance electric sports cars, with a range of about 250 miles. Full production won't start until 2008, and it will probably be a year or two after that until we see something a bit more affordable, but hopefully they'll have a sports sedan out in time to replace my Subaru STi.