BeachWeb_December

This is the December version of the BeachWeb; - Just today (14 December, 2015) I was 'throwing-out' things and came across the 'pre-cursor' to this web-page, what USED to be called In the 1994 time-frame (when FrameMaker was the 'pre-cursor' to today's HTTP / HTML), the original document(s) were "May and Bill's Miti-Fyne Beach and Dinghy Club" - where I wrote a FrameMaker version of what you see, today... now that was something like 20 years ago - 'ain't it fyne' to see that the 'trend' is still there - a copy of that document is here, just below...

AND - Just when you decide you need to spend a LOT of TIME to trim-the-trees in preparation for the hurricane(s) that are coming - and you go and spend a LOT OF TIME to do this - the people at Florida Power and Light send this thing out to do the same thing - and these guys are FREE, and they do a MUCH BETTER JOB than I do ...

AND - just to 'add to' the yard / flower / weed / things, here's a picture of a "Passion Flower" (raised at home by Ms. May!)

who's vine(s) have now laid-claim to Ms. May's car-antenna!!!

Cycling, - not been doing much, lately, tons of reasons, mostly RAIN and screened-in-porch, - but - last week or so have been 5-6 times, tricycle - getting back into it... Had a real 'revelation' while riding the tricycle, though, the only cycle I have where I can 'see' (in real-time) the software I use to do cycling-rides; the speed would jump from 10-12 mph to 20 plus mph in an 'instant' - when I wasn't pedalling harder... - After quite some time and several 'views by the developer(s) it became obvious that the software was jumping from GPS to WiFi locations and back again - and since many of the WiFi locations' Lat-Lon is in error, this created a speed-problem on the tricycle (the road-bike has a speed-sensor on the wheel and that's more reliable). - ANYWAY - it was good to have the developer tell me what the problem is - and - of course, the solution is to get 'wheel-speed-sensors' on all my cycles, and that - yes - COSTS MONEY. - but whatever?

This section of the web-page was published in July, this year (2015) - but I've left it in here, since a lot more people seem interested than I had originally thought...

For a LONG TIME (years, actually), Mr. Bill has been 'attempting' to 'model' (in CAD software) some pottery-kilns... I won't bore you with all the technical mumbo-jumbo about this effort, other than to say that I'm using a product called "_Rhino3D_" and it is an awesome software tool, that if I continue to use it until the day I die, I still won't know but 15% of it's capabilities...

this drawing / model was developed using a 'simplistic' approach - modeling what - basically, was '1/2' of the kiln, then using something called the 'mirror' command to duplicate what I'd modeled onto the other side. This is the typically methodology used to design a boat-hull

this kiln was modeled with a Python (programming language) script to create, in essence a 'series' of (mathematically / geometrically) ellipses, and each of those purple lines you see on the green 'surface' is an ellipse (with it's bottom-half cut-off at the bottom of the kiln (green surface)...

Note, also, the 'secondary' chamber in the back (far-right)... - another 'feature' of our 'design software' -
auto-magically-inserted at a location programmed-into the Python software...

What is VERY INTERESTING about the two approaches is that they require the same amount of 'WORK' - (man-hours).

One, however, creates a better set of numbers for estimation of numbers (of (4-6 types of bricks, costs (of bricks and of shipping,
weights, man-hours, etc. and one creates a better "Surface" to view / model / cogitate about...

HOW to 'meld the two' together - that's the next challenge... - eventually I hope to get to 'Push-Button-Design'
- but that is probably a long way off at this point...

Rhino3D has a companion software tool that is called (loosely) a "graphical algorithm editor" (_Grasshopper_ is it's name) - it allows me (the 'pilot' for lack of a better word) to do several things that are not inherently possible in Rhino3D... Most everyone has heard of 'AutoCAD' (which is actually a 'suite' of products) and even in the (VERY EXPENSIVE) _AutoCAD_ world there is nothing to compare to Rhino3D and Grasshopper applications working together...

Just recently I've begun watching the on-line-training-videos for _Grasshopper_ , and I'm now blown-away (mentally) by what the two products can do, together, and furthermore what they might allow me to do, assuming I can "re-think" my mental approach to this task.

I suspect it'll take me another 6 to 18 months to perhaps as long as 36 months to do what I want with these two products, but I've got a real start, here, and the people who wrote and support this software have taken an interest in what I'm attempting to do (from their viewpoint I'm a 'customer' but one who has a concept they might be able to produce and sell, and I don't see anything like it in the marketplace, at this point...

Above you will see one small picture of the two products working side-by-side, and the key (mathematical / geometric) 'gadget' I've discovered is something called 'biarc' - click on the link to view what Wikipedia has to say about it... ...

WE went BACK to BC to FINISH what (some of us) started, back in October of last year... - there is / are a LOT of 'stories to tell' - but - in this case, one picture really is worth 1,000 words. - this is at the end of roughly 12 hours of work, and we still had to clean-up, eat dinner, pick-up the dog, and drive back to the intermediate step, and then drive-home from there - bottom-line we hit the sack about midnite and that makes for a very very long day! - but it is DONE, now (at least our part, therein!)

(BIGGER VERSION click here)

Mr. Panda-bear had his annual "bath" on 03 Sepetember, (2014) and here's his web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html