Thursday, July 17, 2008

I swore I would never forgive Al Gore for his claim to have invented the Internet. But today, I do forgive him completely. Not because he in fact invented the Internet, a ridiculous claim, but because of his speech today titled: A Generational Challenge to Repower America.

For the first time today, I heard an address that encapsulates my point of view on carbon-based energy. Briefly Al Gore calls for America to switch to an electricity based energy strategy where the electricity is generated from non-carbon-based sources. It recognises that demand for oil is rising much faster than supply. It recognises the political and economic risk of continued dependence on carbon-based fuel. And it calls for a NASA (or Manhattan Project if you prefer) style strategic investment to free ourselves from carbon fuel dependence within 10 years!.

It is bold. It is compellingly articulated. It’s profoundly simple to understand.

I’ve included his short, readable, articulate address in the “rest of the story” below. 

Click here for the rest of the story ...

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Politics
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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Walt Mossberg - “Was Vista a mistake?”

Bill Gates - “Not at all. We have a culture that’s very much about ‘We need to do better.’ Vista’s given us more opportunities to exercise our culture.”

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Quotable
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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Click on any image to enlarge ...

A couple of weeks ago we took the boat over to some Lake Washington bays where there are some interesting floating houses. For the most part, these are minimalist houses, with efficient footprints, and due to small moorage, most have eclectic designs. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

On the way home we went by Gasworks Park and caught it with nice light on the gasworks themselves.

This 20 acre point on Lake Union was cleared in 1906 to construct a plant to manufacture gas from coal - later converted to crude oil. Import of natural gas in the 1950’s made the plant obsolete. The city acquired the site for a park in 1962. The park was opened to the public in 1975. The boiler house has been converted to a picnic shelter with tables, fire grills and an open area. The former exhauster-compressor building, now a children’s play barn, features a maze of brightly painted machinery.

Fun!

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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Friday, July 04, 2008

"Watching Microsoft in the company of Google and Facebook is a bit like watching your dad trying to be cool.”

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Quotable
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Friday, June 27, 2008

Please, please click on these to enlarge ...

A week ago a friend of mine and I took ourselves off to Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Museum. He has collected about 15 WW II aircraft, restored them to flying condition, and displayed them in his new museum. A couple of weekends a month, they are flown to keep them in working order. The photo above is a panorama taken inside the museum. The photos below are of some of the more interesting things you’ll see if you go.

One of the things that’s interesting to me is the nose art on these planes. Just below is a caricature of Neville Chamberlin painted on a German Messerschmitt. The German translates roughly to God Punish England. Below Neville is the nose art from a German Rocket plane. It carried only 8 minutes of fuel. It was designed to fly straight up toward bombers overhead firing machine guns. It would race past them on its ascent and then dive past them on the way down again attempting to shoot them down. It had a 50% fatality rate ... which is to say, 50% of its pilots were killed flying it.

Below is a Curtis P-40C Tomahawk ... one of the famous Flying Tigers. It’s interesting because Disney designed the flying tiger fuselage art you see here.

One of the prettiest things in the museum is the propeller on this Curtis Jenny, below.

The Mustang above has 9 kills on its record.

But the record for the most bizarre aircraft has to go to the one below. Germany built V-1 “Buzz Bomb” rockets to attack London. These are similar to today’s cruise missiles but without sophisticated guidance. So even though over 9,000 were fired, only about 5,000 landed anywhere near London. Germany’s answer to better guidance was to put a pilot in them, and fly them over the channel under manual control. When the pilot had them lined up with the target, he would bail out (over enemy territory sure to be captured) and let the plane do the rest. One serious problem!  The cockpit is just in front of the jet intake. As soon as the pilot popped the canopy and started to climb out, he’d be sucked into the engine and killed. These were never successfully flown against London. Duh!

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Planes
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