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As we venture off Earth, power generation becomes more and more important. We hear about solar and nuclear power generation in spacecraft.

The solar panels on some Mars experiments were partially covered by dust which prevented the batteries from charging. Dead batteries means no data transmitted, no roving, no science from the experimental package.

Adding a small wind generator to many rover power systems or as a charging station on a planet known for wind would be a good idea. The further away a planet is from the Sun, the more the planet tends towards strong winds. Neptune has the strongest winds of any planet in the solar system, measured above 1,200 mph and predicted above 2,000 mph.

Anyway, I haven’t see much related to wind power for electrical generation mentioned in any Mars colonization plans. Hum. Perhaps that would be a solution for power generation on Mars? Of course, the numbers would need to be carefully determined since a wind generator can be really dangerous if it isn’t built to handle high winds and sand. Also, don’t forget that the Mars atmosphere is 1/10th the density of Earth’s, but the average wind speed over a 3.5 yr period was about 11mph as measured by Viking.

Where I live, the average wind speed is 3 mph and wind power generation isn’t considered cost effective.

This planet, the Earth, is a death trap for all life on it. At some point in the future, everything on this planet will be killed off. That is a fact, not some possible future vision, but FACT.

An asteroid hit is the least of our problems. Don’t get me wrong, we need to watch for them and have a plan of action to shift the inbound rock enough that it doesn’t hit us. We’ll need a backup plan should the first shift effort not work well enough. We also need to search for asteroids in the hard to find regions of our sky to prevent another 20 day notice asteroid event like last year. That amount of warning isn’t quick enough to do anything but a hail mary attempt.

We have to get off this rock if we, as a species, want to survive. The further away from here, the better. Sadly, many of the things that will kill the Earth will also kill Mars and most of the solar system.

There is already a star pointed at us that will send high energy gamma rays AND will destroy all life here when it goes supernova. It is a matter of time and will probably happen before the Sun becomes a red giant and boils away all water on Earth, before expanding beyond Earth’s current orbit.

We need to take the first steps to get off this rock and find alternative travel methods beyond normal propulsion (throwing stuff out the back to move forward) to get to other star systems. There is no viable method of propulsion to get us (or anything else) to another star system currently. Ion, solar wind, etc are pure fantasy and CANNOT GET ANYTHING TO ANOTHER STAR SYSTEM in 1,000 years.

Steps to Get to the Stars

1. Look for suitable extra-Solar planets to colonize with water, a strong enough magnetic field and appropriate temperatures. Telescopes.
2. Research theoretical propulsion methods that don’t involve mass thrown out the back of the rocket. We can’t physically carry enough mass to another star. Solar wind is too weak for interstellar travel. Only travel faster than 0.5C or instantaneous travel are useful here. Generational ships traveling for 200+ year trips can’t carry enough mass to throw out the back.
3. Perform colonization efforts inside our solar system as local laboratories to learn how to live off the land everywhere we go. Expect 75% death rates.
4. Perform basic renewable farming research in completely closed environments until 50+ years of complete, perfect success. Determine the most efficient amount of space and stacked farming for long interstellar trips.
5. Perform artificial gravity at 1G trials that are sustainable for 50+ years. Humans cannot survive long-term in lower G environments without exposure to 1G for hours every day to maintain bodily functions and prevent HUGE bone and muscle loss. The best answer is for most of the ship to have 0.8-1.2G to support normal life, plants, animals, and for long term storage to be placed in the lower-G internal areas of the ship. Centripetal force created gravity seems like the only real answer here.
6. Perform heavy research on low-G conception, birth, and growth into adulthood for as many species as possible. I suspect bad things will happen to most newborns created in this way.
7. Test more efficient methods to get mass into orbit – probably aircraft-based launch systems, not rockets. Ground cannons and earth based energy pushing devices are also interesting. Space elevators are extremely dangerous. What happens when a 200 mile long 3 foot thick cable falls back to earth? It will be bad – earthquake or tsunami wave = BAD.
8. Perform heavy research on protective living materials against solar radiation, in space, on planets and moons. Planets must have radiation protection similar to our magnetosphere unless we want to live underground forever. Learn to remotely locate planets with this trait. To learn more, search on exoplanet magnetic fields

We need to get off this rock. It will take generations to accomplish. Every long journey begins with the first step, followed by another and another.

I’ve been running Vista on a laptop since Sept. Generally, I don’t really use Vista for anything other than a platform to run virtual machines. What I need from Vista is

1. a stable host platform
2. Disk access and storage for VMs
3. Network access and bandwidth for VMs
4. Video access for VMs
5. Accurate Time Service since VMs get time from the host OS. There’s no way to disconnect time from the host provider.

Not all computers will go through airports or traveling to client locations in your car. So why do you need to encrypt some of the data on desktop systems?

Tech Support

At some point, tech support will be needed for every computer. Unless you are or have access to a computer nerd, a tech support call will be involved. If you are a retail user, you’ll take your non-working system into a big box electronics retainer or computer store and leave it there a few days or more to be worked on. During that time, all your media and any interesting files (spreadsheets, financial data, programs) will be copied off by the minimum wage techs.

Which files? Quicken files, emails, EI browsing history, games, high cost programs, and all audio and video files will all be available to and copied by the tech. Also passwords, PKI keys, and any certificates will be copied. Expect that this copying happens and plan for it.

Wouldn’t you rather have those files encrypted inside a volume that is password protected so nobody gains access to them? The bad news is you need to set this up before there’s an issue, since after the issue happens, you PC probably can’t be used.

House Guests

We all have guests in our homes and the first thing my guest expect is the ability to check their email and blogs. Some bring their own PCs, but family members usually don’t bring any since there are many computers all around here.

Internal IT Support

If you are an executive in your company or temporarily store sensitive data on your work PC, you also need truecrypt. I’ve seen all stock option grants for an entire company stored on a network shared disk, unencrypted. At least this data was put someplace that got backed up, unlike desktops, but sensitive data needs to have additional protection.

Summary

Your mother was right. Better safe than sorry. Think about the sensitive data you have on your PC. Think carefully, since most people will say I don’t any anything important on my PC. How would you or your company feel if that data was on the front page of the New York Times? That is what is at risk.

I saw this story from the BBC today. The headline was Hacker renews extradition fight. After reading the story, I got that he’s afraid to come to the USA.

Gee, I wonder why?

Charges

He allegedly broke into 97 computer systems at NASA and US Navy in 2001-2002 causing $800,000 worth of damage. He claims to have been looking for information on UFOs. British police arrested him in 2002. If convicted, he could face 70 years of imprisonment.

I’m sorry for that

Ship the guy here, put him on trial and, if guilty, send him to prison. Simple. His, “I am sorry for that” doesn’t cover the damages. The fact that he can’t work in IT anymore isn’t anyone’s problem, but his. If he did the crimes, he needs to be punished by incarceration, IMHO. His apology makes me believe he actually did the crime, unless there were circumstances we don’t know about (which is likely).

He claims that being taken from his family is a psychological hardship. Yes, it is. He’s going to be in prison where you have to do what you are told and normal freedoms are removed. Isn’t that the point? He should be happier that the time would be spent in lush federal prisons, not cheap state prisons.

Actions have consequences.

At age 42, he should have learned that already. If I hacked into a British military system, I would expect to be caught, extradited, tried, and, if found guilty, serve a sentence in a prison. Duh. Hackers should know by now that you always jump through systems in countries that aren’t friendly to your target system/country. Don’t do any damage to the middle systems. If you don’t know how to accomplish that, you have no business attempting the break in.

Reporters in North Korea

This article is about the reporters who were convicted of entering North Korea illegally while filming at the Chinese border in March 2009. I have to assume they did this act. Entering any country illegally has consequences. They knew that. Both Ms Ling and Ms Lee had to know they were doing something illegal (though ignorance is no excuse). The article says they would be sentenced to 12 years of “reform through labour”. This seems an excessive time to me, but I don’t make the laws of North Korea. If that is the normal penalty, they should serve it. I’m disappointed that the USA government is asking for their release. Laws need to be followed regardless of who you are or who you know.

I read an article today that said willpower and money are the reasons humanity hasn’t launched men towards the stars.

The barrier between us and the stars is not some insurmountable technology one, its a matter of money and willpower.

This is just 1 of the misconceptions that the average person has related to scientific items. Some things can’t be solved with enough effort and money in a given timeframe.

Fastest Man-Made Object

The fastest man-made item reached 150,000 mph (41.67 mi/sec). Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is going only 38,500 mph as it leaves our solar system.

Distance

The closest star to our solar system is about 4 light years away (5,800,000,000,000,000 miles away).

How Long is That Trip?

That works out to about 3,941 years to travel there at 150,000 mi/hr.

Remaining Problems To Be Solved

We definitely do not have the technology to accomplish or even begin that goal. We’d need a multi-generational ship, capable of growing food without sunlight. It would need to survive longer than any culture or nation has by far. There are thousands of other issues that would need to be solved too. Gravity, bone loss, fuel exhaustion, genetic diversity, long term power, …

So perhaps everyone can better understand why we aren’t planning to visit other stars at all?

Did I make any simple math mistakes?

Another big misconception is the fact that there are more stars in our universe than there are grains of sand on the entire planet Earth. Average humans don’t understand this. Large numbers and distances cannot truly be understood by our human brains.

The FINA World Diving contests have been occurring around the world in 2009. China, Mexico, England and in the USA. Fortunately, my cable system has added a channel, Universal Sports, that shows great sporting events that usually aren’t covered like basketball, football, hockey, and baseball. Bicycling, table tennis, diving, horse jumping – those type of sports. SWEET!

I’m in heaven watching the 3 meter springboard contests, except for the scoring. Many of these judges are giving scores based on only the entry. Boo.

The Entry is NOT the Dive

Judging based on the entry alone is like judging a meal on the dessert only. Boo.

Board Work

This phase sets up everything to follow. Bad board work leads to a poor dive.

Approach

Walk calmly, not too fast, and be smooth. Don’t stub a toe.

Hurdle

The hurdle is where the board starts moving and working for the diver. There are single and double hurdle styles. The double style really gets the board moving which is turned into more power, a higher dive and faster spins. If performed properly. The single hurdle usually provides less power and helps inexperienced divers learn to ride the board.

Jump Up, Not Out

There’s no need to jump away from the board. Jump straight up. This will make the dive higher and it will be easier to convert kinetic energy into rotational energy. Jumping out cuts height from a dive, which is bad for obvious reasons.

End of the Board

The last jump off the board needs to occur from the end, with both feet about an inch from the end. This is the sweet spot for power on the spring board, like a baseball bat has a sweet spot.

Ride The Board

If the diver is riding the board, they will be thrown the proper distance away, and significantly higher than jumping alone. The sound of the board is distinctive too. When the diver rides the board it is relatively quiet. When they don’t, it is EXTREMELY noisy for all to hear, almost painful. Poor board timing makes everything else harder. Everything. The diver will be lower, spin slower, and almost certainly struggle to complete the dive.

Each diver sets the board fulcrum to their preferred setting for each dive. There is only 1 manufacturer of boards approved for international contests. Over the years, there have only been a few significant changes to the boards to make them easier to ride and provide more power transfer. The double hurdle takes advantage of these board changes.

Back and Inward Starts

The rules of diving say that the diver’s feet cannot leave the board as they try to build power. This rule is almost always ignored by the judges AND the divers. The rules say it is a balk and 2 points are to be removed from each of the judges scores. There’s a belief that if the feet leave slightly then the judges can’t see it. If they can’t see it, then they can’t take off for doing it. Obviously, the greater the bounce, the more power can be gained from the board, so divers have a real interest in pushing this rule to the limit. This rule exists for diver safety. It is very easy for feet to slip when they aren’t already on the board, especially when performing inward direction dives.

In the Air

Not Too Far Out, nor Too Close

Distance from the board is critical. Using the board properly to convert power into height and spin is the game. Any extra distance away means the diver didn’t go as high as possible. It is a waste.

Being close is also bad for obvious reasons. If the judges are afraid of a hit, they’re likely to miss important aspects to the dive.

Spin Fast

Spinning slowly makes a dive look difficult. The goal here is to make it look easy. Spinning fast lets the diver finish early and setup for the following phases.

Point the Toes

Point the toes, always. There’s no other way to say this. If the toes aren’t pointed, it is a 9.0 dive if everything else is absolutely perfect. Flat feet in the middle of a dive are a major flaw. At the beginning of some dives, when the feet are in danger of hitting the board, it is ok to not point the feet until passed the danger time, then the feet must be pointed. This covers twisting dives too. Point and curl the toes.

In the Correct Position – Pike, Tuck, Laid Out

Tuck – knees to the chest, feet pointed. Head location isn’t important.

Pike – Chin to knees, feet pointed. If spinning forward, nose or forehead to knees is fine too. Legs should be straight, not bent at the knees at all.Some divers hide their bent knees in the pike with their arms.

Twisting Position

Arms are used to cause the twist to occur. The arm position is close to the body until is it time to stop the twist.

Legs shouldn’t be twisted. They should be together, held tightly, no crossing.

Feet should be pointed with the big toes together, but not overlapping. This is extremely difficult to accomplish. Crossed feet are bad.

Toes should be pointed and curled under.

Kick Out Strong

To stop the rotation and/or spin of a dive, kick out strong and stretch. Kicking out weakly or timidly doesn’t stop the dive enough. In my book, a strong kick adds point back to a dive that may have been flawed in other ways. There is no 10.0 dive without a strong kick out.

Finish Early, with Some Drop Time Left

Most dives should finish just under the 3M board and allow time to extend and drop into the pool vertically. Finishing a dive lower means they will still be rotating as they go into the water. Boo.

Vertical, Not Short, Nor Over

Going in vertical means just that. The body should be fully extended and straight as it drops into the pool. Coming out of a 107b (fwd 3.5 pike) dive and having a slight pike as the diver enters the water is flawed. If everything else was perfect, this is a 9.0 dive when the pike isn’t ended and the diver rotates into the pool.

Entry

On the Head

Divers go into the water on their heads, not on their feet. Sorry cliff divers.

No Twist

As the diver stretches his arms above the head it is common to cause a slight twist by pulling one arm harder than the other. This is unfortunate. Usually it can’t be noticed until the calves or feet go into the water and the front or back of them is seen.

Rip It

Ripping a dive causes the splash to be minimized. It is a critical part of the dive and worth 30-40% of the total score. Big splash means points off. We just want bubbles. The sad truth is that smaller divers produce smaller splash. The 9 year old Chinese women prove that. Divers that are thick have a tougher time ripping an entry. Physics doesn’t care about your feelings, but it does care about big shoulders and big butts.

Shoulder Splash

For some dives, usually the blind entry dives, back and reverse, being short on the dive will cause tell-tale shoulder splash. If you see shoulder splash it means

• the dive is short
• the entry isn’t vertical
• the dive wasn’t finished high
• the dive probably wasn’t stopped (from rotating)

Point the Toes

One last time, point the feet, toes and curl the toes. It should be the last thing the judges see.

Sound Matters

The sound of the board, the sound of the entry – both matter. A quiet board means a higher and faster dive. The rip entry sound is exciting for the diver, the crowd and the judges.

Platform Judging

Almost everything said for spring board diving above applies to platform dives too. Jump up and jump strong. Point the toes. Spin fast. Go in vertical and rip the entry.

On platform, going in vertical isn’t just for high scores, it is a safety issue. If your arms aren’t together, stretched, tight and vertical as they hit the water, the impact will cause them to be pulled in front or behind the diver. In front and the head takes a direct hit. Behind and the shoulder muscles could become ripped. Talk about repetitive stress injury. Ouch.

Conclusion

Judging a dive isn’t something that a non-expert can do consistently. Basically, every dive starts with 10.0 points and deductions are applied as the dive progresses. Even the best judges miss parts of a dive and make mistakes. That is why there are 7 judges with the high and low scores thrown out.

For more information, a well know coach wrote this article.

Diving is also subjective. An attractive person will tend to score better than someone less attractive.
Tattoos, blue hair, uneven skin coloring, poor swimsuit selection and bad fit each matter. A slight tan is often the easiest fix to make someone slightly more attractive, but don’t get sun burnt. Also, don’t overdue it. Later in life, that tan will matter.

Who am I to write this?

• A diving fan
• A former high school diver, but not particularly good
• Wrote a computer program to score diving meets
• Dove in a Regional Olympic Trial – finishing last, failing multiple dives on 3M
• Coached 7-16 year old divers 1 summer
• Engineer / Former Space Shuttle Rocket Scientist

I didn’t create this list, but since getting a new Hauppauge 950Q HD receiver, the search for the best PVR solution has been ongoing.

• http://gbpvr.com Home
• http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki Wiki & downloads
• http://forums.gbpvr.com/ Forums

Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts

• Power F12
• Return to main/ previous menu HOME (or) ESCAPE
• Accept the selection ENTER
• Go to pictures F5
• Go to radio F6
• Go F11

Audio Control Keyboard Shortcuts

• Turn down volume CONTROL+Z
• Turn up volume CONTROL+X

Music Library Keyboard Shortcuts

• Go to music F4
• Play an audio file or song CONTROL+P
• Stop music CONTROL+S
• Skip to the next song CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW
• Fast forward a song CONTROL+LEFT ARROW
• Toggle b/w icon & list view while navigating library CONTROL+B

Control the TV Keyboard Shortcuts

• Go to Recorded TV/Videos F3
• Go to the Guide F1
• Go to live TV F2
• Record a TV show CTRL+K
• Pause or resume live TV or recorded TV CTRL+Q
• Fast forward xx minutes # MINS +CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
• Rewind xx minutes # OF MINS +CTRL+LEFT ARROW
• Catch up CTRL+O
• Display the context menu CTRL+B
• Aspect Ratio F7
• Return to main menu with Video inset ESCAPE
• Go to the last channel viewed CTRL+W

Control the TV Guide Keyboard Shortcuts

• Go to/ view TV guide F1
• View TV Guide During Playback/LiveTV CTRL+G
• Scroll right, left, up down in guide ARROW KEYS
• Skip Back one day in guide CTRL+LEFT ARROW
• Skip Forward one day in guide CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
• Move page up in guide PAGE UP
• Move page down in guide PAGE DOWN
• Move forward one page CTRL+F
• Move backward one page CTRL+D
• Move to specific channel NUMBER KEYS 0-9 (then) ENTER
• Watch highlighted show CTRL+P

Video/TV Playback Keyboard Shortcuts

• Go to Recorded TVVideos F7
• Play CONTROL+P
• Pause CONTROL+Q
• Stop CONTROL+S (or) ESCAPE
• Rewind CONTROL+D
• Fast forward CONTROL+F
• Skip commercial (w/Comskip add-on) CONTROL+P (or) 0+CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW
• Skip back xx seconds # SECS+CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW
• Skip forward xx seconds # SECS+CONTROL+LEFT ARROW
• Skip back 60 seconds CONTROL+LEFT ARROW
• Skip forward 60 seconds CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW
• Show progress bar CONTROL+B
• Quick jump to side menu (while navigating library) CONTROL+LEFT ARROW
• Toggle icon/list view (while navigating library) CONTROL+B

Play DVD’s Keyboard Shortcuts

• Go to the DVD menu ESCAPE
• Play CONTROL+P
• Pause CONTROL+Q
• Stop CONTROL+S (or) ESCAPE
• Rewind CONTROL+D
• Fast forward CONTROL+F
• Skip forward 60 seconds CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW
• Skip backward 60 seconds CONTROL+LEFT ARROW
• Skip forward xx seconds # SECS +CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW
• Skip backward xx seconds # SECS +CONTROL+LEFT ARROW
• Skip to chapter xx CHAPTER# +ENTER
• Show progress bar CONTROL+B
• Change Aspect ratio F7
• Change the DVD audio track CONTROL+G
• Change the DVD subtitles selection CONTROL+Y

Some data about the swine flu outbreak that I find interesting. The rate of spread is important. As of Thursday, the rate of spread appears to be slowing, except in Mexico where I expect it will eventually hit 2000 confirmed cases once their laboratory backlog is cleared.

Supercomputer models are reported to predict an explosion in cases next week and are warning that we aren’t doing enough to isolate our selves.

So far in 2009, about 13,000 people have died from normal flu complications in the USA. In a normal year, 36,000 people in the USA die.

Number of Cases Over Time

Location	5/11	5/10	5/9	5/8	5/7	5/6
USA	2532	2254	1639	896	642	403
Mexico*	1626	1626	1364	1112	1112	822
Canada	284	280	242	214	201	165

Location	5/5	5/4	5/3	5/2	5/1	4/30	4/29	4/28	4/27	4/26	4/25	4/24
USA	403	286	226	160	141	109	91	64	40	20	?	?
Mexico*	822	590	506	397 c	156 c	97 c	26 c	26 c	27 c	?
Canada	165	101	85	51	34	19	13	6	6

Mexico doesn’t/didn’t have laboratory capacity to test every sample, so those numbers are confirmed only. Not all of these numbers are perfect. I’ve started using WHO as the source for counts. Mexican confirmed counts appear to be off so much that these numbers are nearly meaning less. There were over 1800 suspected cases in Mexico on 4/28.
Laboratory confirmed cases are used in the USA. Obviously, labs take a day or two from the time the sample is taken to be processed.

• Google Map of known cases. This isn’t my map and it doesn’t appear to be completely accurate.
• The World Health Organization site.
• The CDC Swineflu site.

From prior reading, exponential increases in the number of cases is to be expected, so far only doubling has occurred. This is very good news. I expected to see clear trends in the data by 5/1, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. Perhaps a trend will become clear next week?

The last few days, headlines have been made after Chinese authorities quarantined guests in the Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong due to a single guest having tested positive for swine flu. This broad use of Metropark is unfortunate since there are over 5 Metropark Hotels in Hong Kong and across the bay in Kowloon. I’ve stayed at a Metropark Causway Bay in 2008 and it appears to be close to if not THE impacted hotel.

Mexico is criticizing China’s response, but what they don’t understand is that Chinese cities are extremely dense with populations. There is a cultural habit of trying to get around rules, so once this flu gets out, millions of people will be impacted. China is still fighting SARS and doesn’t want another virus to fight.

During the White House briefing around 1pm ET today, a reporter asked whether we should read anything into the fact that President Obama went golfing during this health crisis. Then they asked over and over about the steps and testing that our President has undertaken.

There are 20 confirmed cases in the USA as I write this and none required hospitalization. Mexico has 80 deaths, so we all want to know what the difference is between USA and Mexican health? Could it be that treatment for this flu in Mexico may be limited in rural locations and it is likely that the person with the flu isn’t completely removed from the infective agent. I don’t know if that is true or not. Most, if not all, people in the US were infected by someone who recently traveled to Mexico.

Duh. The President’s Health is Fine.

The President hasn’t been anywhere near anyone that could have the flu, much less swine flu, so there’s no need for him to get the flu vaccine (if he didn’t already get it a few months ago) or for him to start taking anti-viral medication or take “TheraFlu.” Heck, if I got the flu, I wouldn’t do anything besides eat, rest and shower every other day. I haven’t had the flu in years.

The President is fully connected to his staff at all times. He can be on a conference call in the time it takes to dial the number. He shouldn’t alter his schedule. He isn’t a Medical Doctor. What is he going to do that his staff and existing people in the CDC won’t do anyway? Nothing.

In short, relax folks unless you feel sick AND traveled to Mexico in the last 5 days and visited a location with impacted people or animals. Follow the CDC recommendations
- talk with a doctor if you have flu-like symptoms and could have been exposed
- stay home if you are sick; keep you kids home when they are sick
- wash your hands

I’d be interested in knowing the total number of flu cases today as well. Let’s guess there are 10,000 people in the USA with any form of flu and 20 of them have this version of swine flu. That’s just 0.02%. You are more likely to die an a car accident this year (1:6500). Are you going to stop driving?

Japan Taking Steps

So Japan is using thermal imaging to screen airline flights from the USA. I guess having a higher than normal temp is part of having the flu. While that’s true, I find that having an increased temp at the end of an international flight is common for me … usually because I didn’t get a chance to use the toilet before landing and really, really have to go. Then there isn’t a bathroom available until after customs, at least in 6 countries that I’ve traveled to/from. I recall just Costa Rica having toilets available before customs. There are no direct flights between Mexico and Japan.