My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on February 25, 2011

NASA’s space shuttle Discovery rocketed on its final voyage about 3 minutes late due to a computer problem yesterday afternoon. Mission STS-133 (PDF Summary) is sending six astronauts into space to dock with the International Space Station and plans to spend 11 days orbiting the earth. This launch has been delayed for four months in order to repair to a fuel tank.

STS-133’s lift-off was the 39th launch of the most traveled of the three remaining shuttles and the 133rd shuttle mission overall. Discovery plans to dock on Saturday and deliver supplies and an experimental humanoid robot dubbed Robonaut 2 or R2. 

According to reports, the on-board TV cameras showed some pieces of foam insulation breaking off the external fuel tank four minutes into the flight, but most analyzing the images say that it shouldn’t pose any safety concerns because it was late enough after liftoff.

Discovery’s list of achievements include delivering the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit, carrying the first Russian cosmonaut to launch on a U.S. spaceship, performing the first rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir with the first female shuttle pilot in the cockpit, returning Mercury astronaut John Glenn to orbit, and bringing shuttle flights back to life after the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

Discovery is expected to be eventually put on display by the Smithsonian Institution.

Category: News, Space | 1 Comment »
Tags: astronaut, discovery, nasa, shuttle, space

Posted By RichC on February 24, 2011

Hulk? Well it all depend on what we’re comparing … but the latest in micro computers has made my notebook and the Apple Mini computers look like antiques. One wonders if before long computers will not just be embedded in devices like watches or jewelry as I once imagined,  but be embedded under the skin sending the video image to a contact lens while running off energy created by the biology of our own bodies!

World’s Smallest Computer watches you from within

Researchers recently unveiled the first complete millimeter-scale computing system that is about the size of the letter “N” on the back of a penny (or about the same size as the letter in this sentence).

This tiniest computer to date is a prototype of an implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients. Key to this unit linking up with other computers to form wireless sensor networks is a compact radio that needs no tuning to find the right frequency.

One day, these Lilliputian computers could track pollution, monitor structural integrity, perform surveillance, or make virtually any object smart and traceable.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Posted via email from RichC’s posterous

Category: Computer | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on February 23, 2011

I can always count on my friend Scott to come up with a good link or photo when I’m not in the mood or don’t have time to post something to my blog. This Firefox ‘crop circle’ photo caught my interest when he mentioned it the other day – very “geeky.”

<== click for larger TwitPic image

On side note, my older ‘backup’ notebook computer, the one I was planning to take to the boat, crashed last night. From an initial look, it could be hardware (hard drive) or a Windows 7 OS problem. I’ll scrounge up the CD tonight and try running ‘repair.’ (Now this would also be a good time to remind those reading this to back up their data … something I haven’t done recently.)

Category: Computer | 1 Comment »
Tags: circle, crop, firefox, geek

Posted By RichC on February 23, 2011

The stock market was down on Tuesday in its biggest drop in 2011. The unrest in the Middle East and North Africa sent oil prices soaring while those buying considered gold or precious metals with the recent news from Libya.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 178.46 points, or 1.4%, to 12212.79, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 27.57, or 2.1%, to 1315.44, and the Nasdaq down 77.53, or 2.74%. All indices were down after recent moves up. This, along with confidence that corporate earning would be strong and we would start adding jobs. I think Americans ‘were starting’ to believe that there was light at the end of the tunnel for the US economy.

Category: Financial, News | No Comments »
Tags: economy, gold, investing, stocks, trading

Posted By RichC on February 22, 2011

I was sad and angry to hear that the sailors aboard the s/v Quest off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea were killed today. Americans Scott and Jean Adam, along with sailing friends Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, were taken hostage by Somali pirates last week and as their captors headed toward Somali, something caused the pirates to begin shooting … at 1 AM this morning.

One would think that centuries after pirates plundered vessels on the high-seas that we would have learned how to ‘exterminate’ their ilk … let’s get a backbone and eliminate the problem. Something needs to be done to deter the practice of taking yachts, ships, cargo and crews. How about a little less political correctness when in comes to dealing with thugs, theives and killers – maybe the 2009 Russian Pirate Hunting Cruise hoax should actaully be scheduled? Yes I’m angry and frustrated.

…  Four American hostages on board a yacht hijacked by pirates last week were killed by their captors Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The vessel, named the Quest, was being shadowed by the military after being captured by pirates off the coast of Oman on Friday. Officials had said earlier Tuesday it was less than two days from the Somali coast.

… The forces responded after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a U.S. Navy ship about 600 yards away — and missed — and the sound of gunfire could be heard on board the Quest, U.S. Navy Adm. Mark Fox told reporters.

"Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds," U.S. Central Command said.

MORE

Category: News, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: pirates, quest, sailing, somali

Posted By RichC on February 22, 2011

Saw this photo posted on a blog and tried to imagine what it must have been like to land a 7 foot sailfish from a kayak. Shawn’s account is entertaining.

Shawn Zenor and his 72.2 lb. sailfish off Hawaii’s Punaluu Beach (Black Sand Beach)

Here’s a snippet from Shawn’s post “Fighting monsters with a kayak:”

I was surprised- we were in 200 ft of water, water that I had trolled through often with no luck and assumed it was because it was without much structure, and it was right outside the bay.  But the connection was solid, and my was being spun around quickly…and then it jumped.  I think the first thing I remember seeing was the bill, and saying, “What the hell am I going to do now?”  I was thinking marlin, and that I was going to die.  Then I noticed the sail, and of course assumed sailfish, but having never seen one or ever even had the vaguest idea that I might catch one, I was only guessing.  The thing was leaping everywhere, tailwalking across the surface, and whipping that spear around like it was trying to throw it at me.  Then I calmed down.  All his thrashing was carrying him closer and closer to me with each leap, so I was reeling in slack line like mad, by the time I got everything snugged up, he was within 100 ft of me, and most of the battle probably was within 50 ft.  That was the key to it being only about a 35 minute fight- if he had run right away, it could have taken a LOT longer.  Eventually I get him close enough to leader a couple of times, and finally get a couple of kage shots into his head.  Took about four tries to finally stone him.

Took a while to get a leash on his tail and then wrap my radio/GPS leash around his bill to get him fairly tight to the kayak, and still had the kage through his head with my foot on the handle to hold him a little tighter.  It was a long hard paddle into the bay- when we landed, the lifeguard said that he had been watching and thinking he was going to have rescue some kook who was struggling to paddle a kayak that was listing severely!  All was made clear as he helped pull the boat out.  I’m so glad I caught him just outside the bay- I would hate to have to paddle another 2-3 miles with that thing.  I’m also glad he hit on the 6-0 reel on the Fenwick that Brian gave me, because none of my other poles would have been up to the task (thanks Brian!).

We were both were guessing he was over 100lbs, because they are shaped like an ono; but they are deceptively thin.  They aren’t thick like an ono.  He was over 7? from fork to tip of bill.  They are a very strange fish to clean too- was hard to keep the knife along the spine, and just the shear size of the fish is difficult to deal with too.  I’ll be digging a hell of a hole in the garden tomorrow to bury the remains.

http://driftingson.com/2011/02/11/fighting-monsters-with-a-kayak

Category: Recreation | 1 Comment »
Tags: fishing, hawaii, kayak

Posted By RichC on February 21, 2011

I like the concept of the Motorola Atrix which combines the larger working area of a lightweight laptop display/keyboard/battery and the portability of a pocketable smartphone. I’m not sure that I’m ready to give up a full-powered Windows 7 notebook, but IF the new Windows 7 mobile OS running on an Atrix-type phone with a current Win 7 OS on a netbook, I might be interested. Having a portable device that could access the Internet and sync with the cloud at 4G speeds would be a great traveling companion.

Category: Cellphone, Computer, Technology | 1 Comment »
Tags: atrix, motorola, smartphone

Posted By RichC on February 20, 2011

Although I’m not a NASCAR fanatic, I do enjoy watching the Daytona 500 each year. This year a rookie named Trevor Bayne (age 20) ran a superb race with a strong Wood Brothers car to win the 2011 Daytona 500. The drivers nowadays are unbelievably talented having to handle the 200 mph speeds of Daytona while juggling the chores that now include the busy radio chatter, partner negotiation and new this year a bumper ON bumper push/pull style of driving that makes the drafting of previous years pale in comparison. Talk about white knuckle driving.

Bayne inherited the lead from David Ragan for the second attempt at a two-lap overtime finish after Ragan was penalized for changing his lane position for the first green-white checkered restart.

In just his second career Sprint Cup Series start, Bayne held off Carl Edwards on the final lap to become the youngest winner in the 53-year history of the Daytona 500.

"I don’t know where to even go," Bayne told his team over the radio, asking where Daytona’s victory lane was located.

The race on the newly-paved 2.5-mile speedway also featured records for most lead changes (74), different leaders (22) and cautions (16).

Edwards finished second, followed by David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch, who had won the Budweiser Shootout and the second Daytona 500 qualifying race.

Category: News, Sports | 1 Comment »
Tags: nascar, racing

Posted By RichC on February 20, 2011

While doing a few chores around the yard on a bright and warm-ish Saturday afternoon, I decided to hook my old Garmin GPS 75 (early 1990s) to a solar panel scavenged from the boat to see if they both still worked. Besides being  clunky, and slow to acquire the satellites, the GPS worked after putting in new batteries. Unfortunately all my old waypoints and trips were gone. (GPS 75 PDF manual)

A little sailing history on the Garmin GPS 75:

Sailing legends Sir Robin Knox Johnson and Sir Peter Blake used a Garmin GPS 75 for their round-the-world voyage in a catamaran in 1994. The team won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation in a time of 74 days, 22 hours, 18 minutes and 22 seconds. This was their second attempt at the prize after their 1992 voyage was aborted when their catamaran Enza struck an object, tearing a hole in the hull. The GPS 75 used in their successful voyage was later donated to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, where it is currently on display.

Category: Personal, Sailing, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: garmin, GPS, sailing, solar

Posted By RichC on February 19, 2011

The moon was full and extraordinarily large as it rose above the road in front of me while driving home tonight. Unfortunately the Palm Pre lacks a bit in the camera department (photo below) and I pulled my DSLR out at home. The moon had already risen a bit further and lost some of its size and orange color, but it was still beautiful peeking through the trees (above)

Category: Photos | No Comments »
Tags: moon, photo