New and abused

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

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.

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

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

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

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

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.

GM Reveals Dismal Volt Sales in January – Technology Review

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

GM Reveals Dismal Volt Sales in January – Technology Review.

The Volt is a pretty car but it’s just too expensive and too Me-to to gain real share. The Prius is a Toyota and as such, up scale yuppies don’t feel down class when driving it, they feel virtuous.

While the Chevy Brand is beloved by many middle class Americans it’s loved for its trucks and muscle cars, edgier yuppies buy Cadillacs. If the Volt had been a Caddy and a bit more of everything: bigger, striking, powerful, EXPENSIVE it might have had a better chance. Yuppies feel dissed in a Chevy, however green, and the Red Staters aren’t going to buy a smaller, slower, more expensive car when they can get one of the quality new generation GMs, Fords or Chryslers for a few pennies more or less.

Autonomous Quadrotor Video, cool to be creepy

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

This video of swarming Autonomous Quadrotors has made the rounds, I guess I’m just adding my bit to the noise, this isn’t that surprising but it seems to me just one more indication that the world is the cusp of great change. The article at Wired is short but has some other interesting links.

Sundays always get me down…

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

Trying to keep up with a busy real job schedule and my desire to get Exotic Contraband ready for the first book to be published on Smashwords so blogging has not been prolific, will at least be home this week, hope to get a few meaty posts done.

Used to be that Sunday was the day before Monday and I dreaded school…until I got over that and actually started to like it. Then it was the day before Monday and I had to face the fact that I was just a cog in the gears of my job. Then I was a manager and I would have to face the folks who worked for me and keep up expectations. Next I was working for myself and Monday meant having to figure out how I was going to keep it up after the near term mana gave out. Then I was working for a small company and it meant another week of 12 to 14 hour days, and commutes that really sucked, though I enjoyed what I was doing. Still the case but now its the realization that I didn’t get to most of the things I’d intended to do over the weekend and the week is going to be clogged…

But then isn’t that the human condition, never really satisfied, isn’t that what keeps us moving forward?

Sorry edited, used the quick blog button and it made the central paragraph a differen color and unreadable on my blog….had to get into the HTML, I find that WP is a way to learn some HTML…again.

Elgin First Draft is Done and Posted

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

The wait is over, at least for the unedited version. So when the 24th of Nov hit it was 58K words. It is now 122K and you may not believe this but it’s the shortest book and by far the shortest draft I’ve ever managed. I think it works, I hope you like Elgin and his world. It’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, it rises through a series of peaks to a crescendo then slips into the end.

Download, enjoy, especially if you’ve downloaded, read and enjoyed the first parts.

And remember that the finished Moon Dreams and Under Siege are available.

Skynet it’s not yet, but one has to wonder…

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

: Skynet’s distant ancestor

The fact of the matter is that this, like so many other things, is coming. I used to laugh at some ‘SciFi-ish’ cartoons for their depiction of flying drone/droid/robo cops, but then I’ve never been any better at predicting the future than most other engineers, we always dive way too deep into the details far too quickly unless we have something keeping our head out of the water long enough to figure out if we are in the ocean, sea, lake, pond, swamp or whirlpool.

But there is the issue of privacy and the increasing ability of ‘the system’ to keep track of citizens 24/7/365. Save a few puppies and a kid or so and we’re all for giving up a little bit of something for increased safety. But at what cost, and have ‘we’ ever considered that we may be being manipulated?…..Anyway….

This post by Babbage at the Economist covers the ground pretty thoroughly, at least for the near term. I think the killer app here is the comment about replacing choppers which cost a couple of million up to operate along with expensive maintenance and aircrew tails. Smaller police forces will be able to have an air contingent and big forces will have a lot of these things (hopefully replacing most if not all the choppers, which are IMO a waste of taxpayer money.)

UAV’s , particularly like the one in the picture have a lot of advantages they :

can fly in a wider weather window than crewed craft.
are harder to see and hear
can land and sit/monitor for long periods
could operate 24 hours with rotating crews or units
can travel ‘as the crow flies’ instead of around buildings, fences, traffic etc

That’s in the near term, 2-3 years, what about the middle Future (4-7 years)?:

Wide area surveillance from solar powered (maybe a SolarSaurs?) high altitude platforms.
Add ‘Gorgon’s Stare’ technology, constant surveilance with roll back capability.
UAV’s the size of a bird it could follow a perp under cover.
UAV’s that can launch a smaller pursuit drone with a TAZER ?…a bit like this
What about a humingbird UAV?

And as you add those capabilities my libertarian hackles go up more and more. None of the above should be given by a free citizenry to a gov’t that is actively growing and actively misusing its powers or taking advantage of congressional stupidity.

…Maybe I’d be happier if…..I had the right to pot one of the little puckers if it was over my property without my permission? Hey it would create a new market, for home ultra short range anti aircraft systems! Maybe these guys would have a head start?

The old New VW bug, a VW through and through

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

I’ve owned more VW’s than any other make of vehicle and I have always enjoyed them. I bought a bright yellow new Beetle as a commuter car in 1999, a safe but fun vehicle with some class. And it remains all of those things. It has been abused one way and another and its stayed good looking, solid feeling and fun to drive.
It now looks like I am about to replace the third battery which is supposedly good though I find it odd since its the only vehicle I’ve ever had to replace a battery more than once. I’ve had the fuel gauge stick once and strand me on the road….out of gas and absolutely clueless as to why the car had stopped running. The passenger side window motor blew in the middle of a Commute around Boston in the middle of a Noreaster once, which was bloody interesting….

Which brings me to my only beef really, they are expensive to have work done on and they are almost impossible to work on yourself these days. The old New Beetle, is, was, a Rabbit (sorry a Golf) with a swoopy outline, making it hard to work on. I’ve had to replace the headlamps and that’s expensive since you have to take it in to the dealer, there is no what to get at them without removing something important. So the shape compounds the problem with upkeep cost.

But on the whole I have no regrets and I notice a lot of ‘bugs’ around these days. They maintain their ‘fun’ a lot longer than other cars and they really are good commuter cars and a fun but safe first cars for the kids (having a certain panzerlike ruggedness.)

Writing Update

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Sci Fi Engineer

My first published novel Moon Dreams, published through Smashwords and available for Nook, iBooks, Sony Reader as well as Smashwords and other eTailers (for FREE!!!) is still available and is seems to be doing reasonably well. It gets 5 stars by those who read it. Its classic Sci Fi, how a new invention might be used and how it affects the world, it has it all, invention, a nutty scientist, hero, heroine, space battles, a reasonably happy ending etc.

: Cover Art

My second book, Under Siege is on sale for $1.99 on the same web sites, and is I think (I should) is well worth the price. Its a far future Sci Fi in a rather different tradition than Moon Dreams, talking about the human condition and the tides of civilization using the tapestry of a decadent empire.

Far Future Adventure, Intrigue and Battle

The third book (or the first half of it) currently available just on Smashwords and not published yet is Elgin. The story of a modern day cowboy who finds himself in a completely different role as the avatar of an ancient guardian sent to earth to protect it from the predation of other interstellar species and to protect humanity from itself, in a world where Magic, absent since before the height of the Roman empire, is returning.

Cover