Opening Picture(s) - hope to have at least one each month...
YES YES YES - this is me - 'foiling' on
our new board (with the wing (which you can NOT SEE) and 'foil-mast' (that
you CAN SEE) up in Cocoa Beach on Thursday, 7 November... - YES - I was
being 'pulled' by a SeaDoo with Ms. Ashley driving and Ms. May was riding
on the SeaDoo (and then Ms. May was foiling and I was riding...)
YES YES YES - we already had 5 sailboards - so the 'logical' out there
will ask, "Why the hell buy another board when you already have five?" -
good question - if you look at this picture - and 'think like an engineer'
(I know it's hard but some of us are afflicted with this cursed disease) -
you'll recognize that the forces / weight / strength is ALLLLL where
the 'foil-mast' attaches to the sailboard in the 'fin-box' area... - ALL
of our boards are well over 25 years old - and one of them has it's 3rd
skeg-box - and, so, well, - we didn't want to break the back-end off of
one of our existing 5 boards - so we bought a sixth...
I've tried one additional time (a couple
of days ago Wednesday, November 13th I think)) with the
boardsailing 'rig' at our local Sailing Center ( http://www.usscmc.org
) but the 'deck was stacked against me (water-depth, wind-angle, etc.
etc. etc. . - Ms. May didn't go that day because there was too
much wind - we will probably try again tomorrow (Saturday, 30th )
but not sure - depends a LOT on the wind strength and direction.
However, we are both convinced we can do this..- wish us Luck!!!
Late February - probably25-28 or so? - - I 'managed' an afternoon
session - managed on my 6.0 boardsail, since I'd had so much trouble with
the 'wingsail' - was able to get 'water-started' several times - and
though the wind was 'puffy' and out of the south-west I did manage to get
a few 'foil' sessions in - didn't last long on the water, though - got
winded and tired easy, and so wasn't actually on the water, foiling more
than about 45-75 minutes or so... BUT I got a lot of things 'squared
away' and was definitely able to water-start - which is a significant
improvement over my prior effort ...
February 16th
Update AND a report on Ms. May does well on her 4.5 sail:
We have tried
the board sailing 'thing' to drive our foil, and we know that it is
possible (we watched a LOT while we were in Maui - at 'Kanaha Beach'
(right near the airport)), it is possible to do kite boarding with a
foil, BUT we have ordered something called the 'Ozone
"Wasp" - (5.0) ' - which is, in essence, a board
sailing 'sail' with no 'hard-parts' - no mast, no boom, no universal
joint - seems like a LOT LESS TO MESS WITH AND TO RIG - so - we'll see
- MAYBE in time for Mr. Bill's Birthday?
Ms. May went
out - yesterday, on her 4.5 sail and didn't quite get where we wanted
she to go - but she had some really good foiling and we both learned a
lot. - (Like she should have taken a larger sail. )- BUT it was a
'fair' day and the wind wasn't 'quite' what we wanted but she had a
good time and we put some new knowledge in our 'quiver' and overall
pretty good.
February 26th
Update and Mr. Bill does 'not so well (two separate tries on two
separate days) on / with "Wing Sail" ( http://www.ozonekites.com
) but he's put-in some time with his 6.0 boarsail, and has confidence
when the wind speed and direction are 'RIGHT' that he'll do well
Index to the rest of the web-page:
- click on one of these 'section-titles' to go directly there...
This is a 'concept' that - perhaps does not 'strike the hearts of
many' but it does tend to 'bother' me... Think about what you KNOW and
what you PERCEIVE about software that 'takes input from 'SENSORS' '
(temperature, pressure, proximity, GPS, salinity, blood-gasses, etc.
etc. etc.), runs those 'numbers' through some algorithm, and then 'takes
charges' (or takes control of (airplanes, cars, human bodies (Medical
software / equipment), drones, telephone conversations) based on what it
sees / hears / "senses") -
There has been a "public outcry" about sensor based software and the
'perception' that because of it's decisions -that people have died (will
die?) Boeing's '737 Max' airplane is a 'good example' of this issue;
self-driving / autonomous cars are a 'current' example of this
issue. - Think also of 'drones' flying around with who knows what
software in them. Think about medical equipment - luckily for us - MOST
(though not ALL) medical equipment, though complex and expensive 'reports'
the status of sensors but MOST medical equipment does NOT actually 'keep
the body alive' - most medical equipment merely reports the status of the
sensors and it is up to the medical staff to understand what the numbers
mean and how the patient (and medical staff) should respond.
HOWEVER, as time goes by and as "AI" (Artificial Intelligence) becomes
more commonplace in equipment and software, the future may be a society in
which many decisions are made on our behalf, - do we really (REALLY) want
to have our lives depend on AI?
BUT - in the short-term - we could probably have (AI / Smart /
Autonomous) cars tomorrow - if we didn't have to go through this 'stage'
of development where human beings (texting, putting-on-eye-shadow,
shaving, eating breakfast, talking to kids and other passengers) - THOSE
are the PROBLEMs, not the algorithms (that don't do any of those things
(much less get lost and have to figure out where to turn, next?))
If we (as a society) didn't have to go through the 'transistion' stage
with "humans" in the way - maybe we could do all this tomorrow.
AND - YES - we've got to fix a number of things - like the FACT that
ALMOST ANY "Company" who has software in their product is going to tell
people / governments / regulatory bodies that the software is
'Secret / Proprietary' - so there will be no 'option' for someone to
REVIEW that software before it kills someone? - and this whole 'for
profit' concept in the mind of a big company will NEVER go away as long as
there are companies who feel more responsible to their shareholders than
to their customer's lives...
AND there is apparently someone who teaches at MIT who has picked-up this
'theory' (that there could be software that kills people) - and she's
focusing on 'safe software' - and has a LOT of papers that are devoted to
safety in software: http://
sunnyday dot mit dot edu
There is / are a whole bunch of documented cases in the 'space-programs'
arena where software (sensor-based) might have caused some problem(s)?
Video things (movies / series / other 'visual'
experiences):
If this doesn't scare you to death - then you're sleeping: "Project
Dark Chapter" - by: Alex Ryan - about - ultimately - how 'safe' are
'e-books'! - ! - !
the other one that is pretty 'stunning' (if you REALLY THINK ABOUT IT!)
-is how can we manipulate our own dream-scapes - let alone how can we
manipulate other people's dreams - and - then - further - capture the
'brain-cycles' in dreams and in dreams of dreams (and so-on and so-forth)
- pretty good movie - has Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page (who's
AWESOME!) Movie is called "Inception" - directed by Johnathan
Nolan (who's brother Christopher Nolan was a key person behind "Person
of Interest" (we are all just 'bad code'!)
"Speed of Thought" - can't remember if this is Netflix or Amazon
Prime Video - but it is pretty good - reminds me a lot of Carolyn
O'Doherty's Rewind and Unleased stories
A Netflix 'Goodie' is something called "Pine Gap" - the 'real'
name of a joint (Australian and American) intelligence-gathering-station
near a place called "Alice Springs" in 'mid' Australia - if you
read-down the web-page-here you'll see about my recent Mac OS "X"
problems - and at one point I needed something streaming to run in the
'background' and I picked this TV series (six episodes) - and it is (VERY)
good... - you might like it - I certainly did - and it really brings-out
the human-element of what goes on in an intelligence gathering station -
very (VERY) interesting and entertaining!
Books - MOST of the books I read are "e-books" on my
iPad, but every once in a while I find a 'printed-paper' book that I
really like:
Lee Child 'edited' (put together) this book ( Matchup
) - where he and others put together 'pairs' (one male author / one female
author ) ( http://www.leechild.com/short-stories/matchup.php
) - and they write a short story, starring their characters from
their book series.. - This 'compendium' of short-stories is very good -
especially from authors that maybe don't 'normally' do 'short stories'
The Kraken Project by Douglas Preston
JUST Finished, "_The_Unexpected_Spy_" by Tracy Walder - just
exactlywhat it says - a USC student and soroity sister goes into the CIA
in the early 2000s and then goes into the FBI... VERY ENGAGING,
Interesting, enlightening -
Unleashed by Carolyn O Doherty - this is an extension (2nd of 3
books) in the 'Rewind' series (trilogy) and I just got it in hard-back -
after 4 months of hoping for an e-book it never happened and the Author
said it might-not; so I gave-up and got the hard-back. - I won't give-away
it's secrets, but suffice it to say it's pretty good and follows Ms. Alex
into a new phase of her life, where she 'saves' the remainder of the
spinners, and begins the next chapter in her life...
"The Overlook" - another "Harry Bosch" book (2007) by
Michael Connelly - this one I got out of the 'Little
Free Library' 'house' at the nearby Presbyterian
Church - right near our house, here in South Stuart. If you
are into 'challenges' - go to the Church's web-site and see if you can
detect the 'issue' with the roof on their church? - the pictures are not
great but the roof is still a challenge?
some e-books:
Girl, Stolen by: April Henry - this is a very interesting book
about a guy who steals a Cadillac Escalade in a mall parking lot, but like
a lot of people who steal cars, isn't terribly bright. Turns out
there is a GIRL in the back of the Escalade - and he didn't know this -
and - well - interesting stuff.. this same author wrote "The Girl
Who Was Supposed to Die" - a very interesting book about exactly
what the title says... - these two are part of a number of books by this
same author... The author is from Portland, Oregon
Some older books - these you may have seen before:
- "Skinny Dip" - by Carl Hiaasen (who is also a reporter for the
'Miami Herald'(I think?)
- 'Think before You Like" by: Guy Harrison -
might want to read this as a user of Social Media - amazing the statistics
that are quoted here
- "Moby Duck": by Hohn - 2012 - 28,000 something
rubber-bathtub-ducks lost at sea - you can not imagine the shores upon
they washed-up...
- one of my favourites: -"The Kraken Project" - by Douglas
Preston
- "Blue Moon" - another "Jack Reacher" novel by Lee Child
- "Project Dark Chapter" by Alex Ryan - maybe you want to read
this before you read too many other e-books?
Miscellaneous: Other INTERESTING things...
PROTECT your Address Book in your PC or your Macintosh... - One
thing many do NOT KNOW about getting your computer 'hacked' is
that when that happens and someone 'steals' your e-mail address
book, that YOUR address book is then 'in the public-domain' - and
what you may NOT KNOW is that MULTIPLE PEOPLE in your address book
will get all sorts of 'private' e-mails that you may not want in
the 'public domain' - things about your finances, you parent's
finances, etc. etc. etc.. THINK ABOUT THIS, THOUGH, - you
have supplied YOUR e-mail address to SOMEONE ELSE - if that person
gets 'hacked' and their e-mail address book is 'stolen' then -
generically - YOUR
E-mail Address can be used to send 'iffy' e-mails and the
receipients will believe those 'iffy' e-mails came from YOU! - -
so - you MAY or MAY NOT want to 'share' your
e-mail address with others?
SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL with your COMPUTER FILES - once stolen -
EVERYONE in your address book is 'fair-game' for ANY e-mail you
send -
Pokemoning:
I've pretty much given-up on Pokemon - my fault, entirely - I've
been away from it so long (probably 6-9 months) that I couldn't
get logged-in and so I spent probably 10 e-mails with their
support people - and I could never get anyone (or find on any
web-site) what was the difference and requirements for: Username,
Screenname, Nickname, Loginname, etc. etc. etc. - Anyway - I'm
JUST LEARNING Ingress (Prime) and I'm apparently already
'logged-in' but have found a bit of stuff to read, and I'll do
more there as time permits...
In all fairness, though, to the
Pokemon login-problem I had a SEVERE Apple Maintosh OS "X"
problem that took about 7 phone calls over a period of 9 hours
in one day (Wednesday 12th February), and then a visit to the
"Apple Store" nearby at the "Gardens Mall" (13th at 6 pm) - but
- eventually I got it all fixed and better (I think) - this week
will prove (or disprove) what I have achieved (if anything?) -
ugh ugh ugh -
The Mac OS "X" issue really set-me-behind - a lot of things went
'on-hold' for that problem to get fixed. - So my priorities have
to be re-thought to get out of this mess that an upgrade in the OS
from Apple got me into trouble (which I'd done before with
Catalina) - be careful before you upgrade...
Tricycling:
Other cycling, things - there's a State
Park (Jonathan Dickinson State Park (JDSP) _ near 'Tequesta" (about
a 20 minute drive south), that we use for 'off-road' trails - here
in Florida we hesitate to use the word 'mountain' bike - feeling as
that is an insult to places that have 'real' mountains... - I think
the highest natural land in Florida is about 300 feet - somewhere
near Tallahassee (a LONG way from here!) -
a picture of my newest trike-pants!
on Friday (Valentine's Day) I went to
Lake Okeechobee with my friend John, and we had a spectacularly
great day - overcast (so not much sun) - foggy - which was
interesting, but it was one of the great rides, no question...
we're probably going again, this coming
Friday (6th) - same place, hope to get a similarly good ride...
AND - Bicycling - been doing the
'off-road-thing' at Jonathan Dickinson State Park - recently - boy was
I OUT OF SHAPE for off-roading!
Pythoning:
One thing I've been doing more of is 'generic' Python
programming, not as much oriented towards the Rhino3D thing as just
learning new Python things... ' and the 3.x stuff is becoming
'dominant' -- this really helps me - because most of what i do is now
3.8 - except for my Rhino3D scripting which is 2.x based...
BUT PLEASE NOTE: _ Rhino6 is now available on
the Macintosh (HURRRRRRRAAAYYYY!!!!!!)- and Rhino7 for Windows
is being worked-on - so I'm Rhinoing also - as well as
Pythoning - but using the two separately, for the most part...
HOWEVER, there is, also, the differences between Active-State
Python, CPython
and IronPython
(Microsoft) and 'generic' Python
, and then to confuse you even more there is something called IPython
(really just an IDE)... - and - the Rhino people use IronPython
(because of their 'ties' and 'background' with Microsoft, but I use
something called "Entropy Canopy" (which is going away soon!)
and it is based on CPython, and then there's Python 2.x and Python 3.x
and all of this stuff continues to 'complicate my life' - but - well
everything in life has a 'trade-off' - and in the Python world - this
is it... BUT - I may go to Ubuntu for all my Python stuff,
but I may just buy another Macintosh - since it has 'native'
Python installed when you get it -
BUT BUT BUT Catalina 'changes everything - and there are a couple
things (actually WAY MORE than a COUPLE) that I really REALLY do NOT
LIKE about Catalina - I may give-up Macintosh, entirely and move to
Ubuntu - the jury is still out but it is NOT
looking good for Macintosh...
BUT - I'm trying to learn how write 'generic' Python,
and sometimes I do better than other times (probably, though,
percentage wise I do better with Rhino3D-Python than 'generic' Python,
though now I'm moving into 'big data' and though my six year old
laptop sometimes 'chokes' on 4 GIGABYTE files - sometimes it does
quite well
when I can keep the file under - say - 100 MEGABYTES -
but - size does not ALWAY MATTER?
Some Python help web-sites:
http://www.socratica.com
" - they are very good at what they do - a lot of science
and other subjects for students. - the lady who presents the Python
stuff is " Ulka
Simone Mohanty " - and she's a very very good presenter... - the
other presenter of note is Lilianna de Castro and she does some things
with abstract
algebra that are quite good... the people that own
Socratica and do the video and the editing and the putting-together of
all the 'parts' are REALLY GOOD, - they present VERY VERY LITTLE of
what they produce, themselves, but they have people to present the
material on-camera that are excellent at what they do...
http://www.tutorialspoint.com
" - they, though, lump python with the other 'scripting' languages, so
you won't find their Python stuff with "Programming" you'll find it in
'Scripting Languages'...
there are other web-sites that do pretty well, " http://www.lynda.com
" is quite good and there are plenty of others.
The nice thing about being interested in Python to
'grow my skills' is that Python has been around for nearly 30 years in
one form or
another and so if you can't find what you want here,
or there, there is always some place else to look for good information
and lessons.
YouTube.com things you might be
interested in...
And a NEW SECTION: - YES - I've known about
'youtube.com' for YEARS
Some new music things you might find interesting - go to
YouTube.com and try these artists:
I have one question, and ONLY one question about
this Young Lady: - HOW (where did she buy her memory chips) - HOW does
she keep all the music for all these songs in that tiny, 11 year old
brain?
Here's another excellent, young, violinist street
performer: Sandra
Cygan
Kiln Building:
We (re)built yet another kiln in Honolulu ( a couple of VERY LONG
Plane Rides away! ) - - it was a 8-day 'ordeal' but it is, I guess,
something I do 'well' or they wouldn't keep asking me to go back and
do it again.. The next one MIGHT be in LA, in late April but -
well - we'll see - we have LOTS of picts but they are, at the moment
being edited and twiddled by others...
Ansible:
- have you ever thought about this: - We (as a society or as
Earth-Dwellers) can not 'populate the galaxy', or settle other
'worlds' UNTIL we can solve / re-solve two issues:
faster than
light-speed TRAVEL for humans and etc? (black-holes / worm-holes MAY
help with this - but there are "RISKS" - we've all heard of
'warp-drive' - how to 'warp' space-time so that we can get from 'a' to
'b' in less time than 'real' travel
- some science fiction writers have used
the term "Ansible" (for the communicatiosn device-system) - Ursula K.
LeGuin (Wikipedia-link)
was the first to use this term - but it is a REAL PROBLEM - as is
brought-out in the above listed novels 'Saturn Run' - as well as in
"The Kraken Project".. .
think about this, also - (yes - I might
be accused (yet AGAIN)) at 'making a 'connection'' where none is
warranted...???
Think about THIS:
Most Sci-Fi movie and book 'authors' or
'creators' BECAUSE they 'ignore' the FACT that ansibles and/or FTL
travel or communications is not POSSIBLE - in most Sci-Fi movies and
books , this 'failure to accept' that FTL is not possible, the earth's
scientists and mission commanders become the 'default'
decision-makers? - rather than allow 'intelligence and wisdom' to be
resident on the space-shuttle-travel-pod-whatever, the writers /
creators 'assume' (probably irrationally) that the people on earth are
smarter than the people on a remote planet or on a remote
space-station or travel-pod.
THIS PUTS the scientists / mission
controllers on earth in an odd situation - but doesn't allow the
people CLOSEST to the problem to solve it ????
for those of you out there who have
nothing better to do (and lots of money to spend doing nothing): -
Let's get our minds wrapped around this problem and SOLVE it NOW...???
