Category Archives: Future

The iPad, Pandora and life

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pandora-ipad-landscape

iPad, Pandora App

I’ve said it before but want to  reiterate that Pandora + iPad have made a deeper impact on how I live my life more quickly than any other technology change.  And in some ways that change is more ‘SciFi-ish’ than any other change I have experienced.

Don’t get me wrong other things have had more impact but they were much more profound in and of themselves.

  • Smashing my ankle
  • First Car
  • First Real Job
  • First House
  • Getting Married
  • First Child
  • Second Child
  • First Child going to college….

How can I even compare two pieces of Triviachology like the iPad and Pandora you ask?

Well I have worked from home a significant amount of time since 1997 and I have very consciously tried to limit the amount of paper I generate and find ways to get information in electronic rather than paper form.  I have felt that the eReader was going to reach takeoff eventually and while the pundits always poo poohed it I saw a steady decrease in the Paper load in the engineering world probably a leading edge in the utilization of information that had made it paper heavy for a very long time. When the piles on young and not so young engineers desks began to collect dust I figured it was because they weren’t shuffling through them so often any longer because the primary sources were in electronic not paper form.  The paper was for reference and for making notes on (BtW Paper / print / writing / reading is a fantastic intricate and powerful technology if you stop for a moment to think about it.)

Now I can carry around a single small compact rugged and handsome slab of Al and Glass that is book, magazine, note taking device (typing or hand writing, I take copious ‘ink’ notes on my iPad, Check out the Penultimate app if you want to try it.) calculator with some of the calculators capable of solving and displaying very complex systems of equations (MathStudio or SymCalc HD) and I do some quite complex artwork for fun and other purposes using ArtStudio.  I load a lot of papers and other tech pups (pdf) onto my iPad (iBooks) so I can read them at my leisure. 

Now the iPad is no replacement for a laptop (for me.) But unlike many commentators I do not see that as anything but a special case. It is a fabulous adjunct, extender, even amplifier, but I see it as a reasonable laptop replacement for certain users, especially those who are more interested in consumption than creation.  To be honest I think the combination of an iPad and a smart TV may be all that an even larger cadre of users need.  But that does not denigrate the iPad as a consumption device, it’s an adjunct amplifier to your digital life, that can be a replacement under certain limited circumstances.

So…there you go the iPad as significant life changer, what about Pandora?

Well here my story is a bit weaker and it’s really the combination of Pandora and the iPad and to an extent Netflix streaming service.  And let me tell you right now that I hate TV’s in the bedroom and my wife is addicted to the BBC versions of many US TV procedural cop shows..and insistes on watching them (on her iPad) late at night if she can’t get to sleep……I must have been bad in a very twisted way in some previous life…! Anyway Pandora in itself was a revelation, as I have said before it mix of being able to select music you like and then let it go off and find things similar in ‘feeling’ has opened me up to huge swaths of music I had never heard before.  Add that to the ability to have that music with me most of the time with the iPad and one can feel a bit like one is living in a movie with your own sound track, though I found this soundtrack doesn’t do a good job of foreshadowing the next scene.   And even though I curse Netflix fairly regularly it is nice to be able to browse in ‘the long tail’ of shows, see things I never had a chance to watch, like BBC’s Primeval, or some Nova or History Channel programs. 

So while those two services are not responsible for as profound a change as the iPad is in itself, added to the iPad they are a very profound change in my and my family’s habits…and as one would expect not always for the good.

IPad Neflix App

iPad Netflix App

From Defense Tech

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20120218-215324.jpg
This reminder of fun times past, though one wonders about the prayers of the C5 pilot prior to ignition. I remember seeing this as one of the options explored for the Peacekeeper ICBM follow on to The Minuteman. Must admit that it seems pretty crazy cost wise and if you kept them on the ground most of the time little different from the bomber force. Maybe it made some sense, fly as close to the border as you want then toss in at a shallow angle, mixing up the attack as it were. Of course by the time this was really feasible, there was no point…and history seems to say that much of this kind of thinking was wasted time and energy, the BOOGEYMAN, was only ever a boogeyman, and probably more worried about what we might do to him than what he could do to us.

What a New Model education would Disrupt

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Megan McArdle’s take on change in higher Ed. Ms McArdle blogs and writes for ForbesThe Atlantic and has a lot of interesting insights on economics, politics and societal change, more libertarian than conservative her opinions are well reasoned with a dash of humility.

(corrected don’t know what I was thinking. Ms McArdle is at The Atlantic not Forbes, sorry about that)

New and abused

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This StratPage article on the LCSs is very good, but has a negative tone that is disappointing.  As the article notes with a bit of hyperbole the LCS is a pretty radical break with the past, LCS 2, Independence being by far the more radical and perhaps deserving of the hyperbole.  Where has our patience gone, whenever something radically new is tried there are problems and with LCS even with LCS 2 the problems seem relatively minor in the big picture.  Also the fact that LCS went from concept to hulls in the water in less than a decade is tribute to sensible expectation setting on the part of the Admiral(s) who have pushed this family forward.  Though tying hull and weapon system together may make sense for the battleships (carriers and cruisers of our age) it makes small craft too expensive and obsolescent before launch. 

The Radical Sister

LCS 2 Independence The Radical Sister

The trimaran LCS 2 is essentially all aluminum built by Austral (relocated Australian fast ferry company.) She was launched later and has had a lot more or at least more serious issues than her fraternal sister LCS 1.  Most pictures of Independence are either slow speed or docked, far fewer deployment pictures than of LCS 1.  This should have been expected (and was by most) when you have this radical a departure its bound to collect a lot of baggage.   But the ship has a huge flight deck and is highly stable in rough weather, as well as being fast.   In the end its possible the Independence will be the more successful sister, though it’s just as likely that both will be considered successful but better at certain missions than the other.  
 By the way the concept of a trimaran warship was originally raised by the Royal Navy and as above the builder is an Australian company experienced in building catamaran ferries (which have had their own issues.) Who says the US doesn’t take good ideas from abroad?
Just as a matter of interest I had the honor of getting a tour of the LCS3 the Freedoms sister ship Fort Worth at her builder Marintte Marine.  The ship has huge empty spaces but the ‘fixed’ facilities are pretty tight . The bridges of these ships remind one more of something out of a Star Trek movie than a WWII flick. 
And while the hull is the size of a WWII destroyer they are (when geared up for the mission) vastly more lethal the crew size is more in line with a WWII PT boat than the Tin Cans of yore. 
The idea behind LCS is for a capable craft that is available in the numbers needed for dealing with busy coastal waters. These are the modern equivalent of the Gunboats of the nineteenth century. They are not the modern cruiser (called destroyers) battleships (called cruisers) or battleliners (carriers.)  These ships are the corvettes, the torpedo boat destroyer, the frigate, of today and with their vast flexibility and high power they will most likely find uses far beyond those envisaged today.
 
 
 
 Mark

Charge Your Phone (and Your Car) from Afar

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Charge Your Phone (and Your Car) from Afar – Technology Review.

This has been coming for some time but as the tag line says at the end, “…It’s going to catch on superfast…”  This may well be the technology that electric cars were looking for. Think about it coils at stop signs and stop lights, etc, or even in charging lanes.  With the technology of the battery and electric propulsion at its current level this should make the electric car a reasonable investment.  The problem is the deployment, investment, but spread out over time and geography and with the expectation that you’re going to have diesel, gas and LNG vehicles around for a long time I think you can see a realistic road to electric nirvanah.

George Washington, A Human for the Ages

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George Washington Circa 1782

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Rules of Behavior

A man’s intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.

 WASHINGTON, letter to the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, Dec 1756

There is a Destiny which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Mrs. George William Fairfax, Sep. 12, 1758

I shall not be deprived … of a comfort in the worst event, if I retain a consciousness of having acted to the best of my judgment.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Colonel Bassett, Jun. 19, 1775

It is with pleasure I receive reproof, when reproof is due, because no person can be readier to accuse me, than I am to acknowledge an error, when I am guilty of one; nor more desirous of atoning for a crime, when I am sensible of having committed it.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Governor Dinwiddie, Aug. 27, 1757

Some quotes to think about in these days of chaos that are also potent with opportunities for renewal and change, they are words of a human as true today as then.  The man who spoke or wrote them would not recognize the world of  today.   Those living today might have the same trouble with the world twenty years hence,  but the quotes will be as true then as they are now and were in the eighteenth century.
 
 
 

In the Developing World, Solar Is Cheaper than Fossil Fuels – Technology Review

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In the Developing World, Solar Is Cheaper than Fossil Fuels – Technology Review.

          The sudden interest is fueled by the advent of relatively low-cost LEDs, …., powering lightbulbs required a solar panel that could generate 20 to 30 watts, …. LEDs are far more efficient. Now people can have bright lighting using a panel that only generates a couple of watts of power…  

         But such technological improvements aren’t quite enough to open up the market. High-quality LED systems, with a pair of lamps and enough battery storage for several hours of lighting, cost less than $50. The systems can pay for themselves in less than two years, but the upfront cost is still too steep for many people. 

         Eight19, a company based in Cambridge, U.K., is one of several companies offering some type of payment plan to make the systems affordable. Customers pay $10 for the solar lighting system,….Then they pay a weekly fee for the power it generates.

It is a truism that new technology often needs a new business model to make it really pratctical.   This is an interesting and promising approach. 

 

Space X continues to make progress…

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The picture below was part of this article about Space X’s intentions to develop a better launch abort system using  the integrated rocket system on the Dragon Capsule.

Space X abort and landing system
Dragon Boosting clear on Draco motors

The cool thing about this is that the old system was horribly wasteful and a danger in itself.  This is the old and still standard way (from Wikipedia) a shot of the Apollo system under test, and that was just a larger version of what was on Mercury.

Apollo Pad Abort Test
Apollo Pad Abort Test

This is called a Tractor system, and it pulls the capsule off the booster in case of disaster.  The rocket motor is attached to a shell which attaches to the base of the capsule protecting the capsule in case of rocket ignition.  But for a successful, even survivable mission, now you have to discard the abort system during boost.  And it’s an expensive and heavy piece of gear tossed in the sea.  Even the Orion exploration vehicle, part of the SLS uses the same expensive and wasteful system.

Space X will make the rocket motors part of the Dragon, firing from the skirt area as you can kind of see in the picture at the top.  This rocket motor will Push the capsule off the booster.  It can also become part of the landing system, the intent is to make the Dragon a mixed mode lander, decelerating using rockets, heat shield, then parachute but finally landing under rocket power, this will allow for pin point landing in some reasonably remote and safe spot on land instead of at sea.  In fact the Russians have used a rocket ‘cushion’ system for landing their capsules forever, but the Dragon will be a real landing system, not just a cushion.

Below the Draco Rocket under test, and here the article in Wired that does a good job of explaining what’s going on in the picture.  There is also video at Wired so enjoy.

Draco Rocket Test

Draco Rocket Test