fcheblog  -

2010-03-08 17:17 | fche blog seriously, tech bright solar idea

Here in Ontario, the provincial government last year started our own super subsidized solar microgeneration program – $0.81/kWh “earned”, if generated from a rooftop photovoltaic panel, which is about ten times the value of that same electricity flowing the other way, purchased from the grid. I’ve been tempted to jump into it, just on the charming theory of personal backup power in case the grid goes down. (I will leave aside whether such a subsidy makes any economic or environmental sense.)

But for the scruple-free, it provides an opportunity to maximize profit using this European technique:

A German aristocrat of my acquaintance has figured out that the price he will be paid for the output of a solar panel is so high compared with the price he will pay for his input of normal electricity, that he is thinking of rigging up powerful arc lamps to shine on solar panels on his extensive roof.

2010-03-05 13:17 | fche blog eric, seriously bleat me daddy

OK. I’m stumped.
What the heck are the sheep talking about at the end of this sesame street classic?
UPDATE. Ah, this Andrews Sisters song.

2010-02-28 23:16 | fche blog enun-dorsals advice to salesmen

A broken piece of the household forced us to entertain a visiting salesperson. It went avoidably badly.

2010-02-27 12:25 | fche blog politics topical speech

30 minutes of Reagan from 1964. No teleprompter. Multiply his numbers by 5-10, and he’d be right on today.

2010-02-26 19:38 | fche blog seriously not one word

The family went on a brief swimming outing this afternoon to shake our fist at winter. One of the boys and I took a moment to look at the renovation in progress at the recreation centre. Two dozen steel columns have been erected and bolted to the concrete foundations for the new hockey arena. The sight of the mighty machines lifting those parts always swells the heart of a technical person.

As we were watching, two middle-aged ladies came out of the open part of the building. One took a big puff of her cigarette, and said aloud: “Wow, look at all those long columns, standing up so straight. It makes me so excited just looking at them.”

I said only “There’s a joke there, but I’m not saying a single word.” with as straight a face as possible, and headed into the building.

Behind me, the lady cracked up. She was still laughing out loud when we got out of aural range.

2010-02-23 21:35 | fche blog stuart how to find a lens cap

Consider a prized camera, being borrowed by a 3 year-old for some unsupervised roving photography all around the house. (Like his brother, he’s been self-sufficient on computers and cameras since about age 2.5, so this is not unusual here.) Listen for the shutter clicks all around as the brat roams. Relax and get back to work. An hour later, notice the camera, its job now finished, sitting someplace. Note with horror how its lens cap has gone missing.

2010-02-17 18:11 | fche blog tech passport privacy

I am a recent customer of Flashpass, a little software package to partially automate the US Customs data reporting necessary to fly to/from the USA in private aircraft. Flashpass is basically an XML editor that assembles all the personal information required by the USA government: passport numbers, full names, birthdates, home and away addresses, trip dates.

Now comes from the same outfit an online version of the tool, where a web browser is the client. The application and the all above data is presumably stored elsewhere. On the lobo-labs computers. In Mexico.

What could possibly go wrong?

2010-02-15 20:11 | fche blog flying ignored advice

Yesterday, a brief flight from Buffalo, NY, to Toronto had an excess of drama. Even music from the intercom — sesame street silly songs — was not funny.

2010-02-12 21:59 | fche blog seriously day ruler

Today was unusual. Due to no fault of my own, I was a hero five separate times.

1) taking a hangar mate for spontaneous evening flight in GXRP

2) winning a raffle at elementary school’s movie night to have a comfy couch, so my family could sit there instead of on comfy mats on the gym floor

3) winning another raffle at same event, closely guessing the number of chocolate kisses inside bottle

4) sharing said chocolate kisses with every kid in the movie night event – 30ish young ‘uns

5) giving audio-visual technical advice to the school staff to bypass crappy wires and allow the movie to proceed with sound

Such run of public luck is unlikely to reappear, but I promise I will advertise only better ones in the future.

2010-02-08 19:55 | fche blog politics a degree in rantology

This is making me want to watch TV again, just a little bit.

2010-02-07 21:56 | fche blog stuart body parts

Stuart, aged 3.1, noted today that he has a “funny looking” body part, right there below his nose. We looked at it really close, and determined that yes, he has a funny philtrum.

2010-02-02 10:31 | fche blog politics energizer writer bunny

A great polemicist cranks another one out.

2010-02-02 08:29 | fche blog eric, stuart uninvited

Time’s passing rubs itself in one’s face in all sorts of ways. This morning it was the brats’ show of “appreciation” after I built a little foam/mat house for them in the basement. They moved in right away and dumped a bucketful of toys.

Since this house was larger than usual, I was able to squish in and see what was going on. I told them them about the times long ago when I and my brothers played with cardboard forts on an apartment balcony, shooting waterguns in the summer. But not for long.

ERIC
Go away please.
FRANK
Why?
ERIC
Because you’re too old.
STUART
This is for kids only. Two kids. Zero adults.
FRANK
(moping, withdraws)

2010-01-28 20:24 | fche blog seriously picky picky

I was doodling around with our home synthesizer, with the brats and woman in the next room over. After fifteen minutes with my uneducated fingers, the wife comes over, and says

Hey, that sounds like boring elevator music. Try something more exciting. (Like what?) Like some baroque, with a twist of classical.

Yes, I am married to someone who thinks “baroque, with a twist of classical” is more exciting than modern elevator music.

Lucky me.

2010-01-19 07:29 | fche blog politics torture trust

Whom is one to trust on the efficacy and means of terrorist interrogation? People who do it, who know,, or whiny torture shriek monkeys?

2010-01-14 12:11 | fche blog politics dimming glitter

Wow, lefty intellectuals caught introspecting.
It it’s serious, it’s tragic. If he’s joking, it’s not very funny…

2010-01-12 10:18 | fche blog stuart no more sweets for me

3.0-year-old Stuart comments:

Your bum is too fat. It is monstrous.

2010-01-07 21:27 | fche blog seriously threefer thursday

As our third novelty item today, witness the headline Bogus Lawyer, Doctor Tries to Visit Fort Hood Massacre Suspect Nidal Hasan.

OK, don’t get excited, it wasn’t some vigilante who almost managed to shortcut the legal process and kill the guy.

But read the article to the bottom.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shootings. He is undergoing rehabilitation for paralysis.

Yes, you read that right. The mass murderer is undergoing rehabilitation, at taxpayer’s expense no doubt.

So perhaps the intruder wasn’t a vigilante, just an auditioning death panel adviser wannabe, looking to cut medical system costs by talking the good Mr. Nasan into declining the rehabilitation services. Better luck next time.

2010-01-07 20:58 | fche blog politics it's inevitable

For years, people complained during the W. years about preemptive military action, endangered civil rights, the terrorism-inducing inhumanity that is the USA, all of which was counter-intuitively (to them) effective in keeping the bad guys away from the homeland. The same ones are starting to crow that it is inevitable that some bad guy will get through and cause major terrorist damage. And when that happens, by golly we shouldn’t blame anyone — especially current government leaders — since, you see, it was inevitable.

The reasoning looks sound — if you ignore time. Yes, eventually, some guy is likely to successfully exploit one of the many weaknesses of the system. But the failures don’t have to happen on this guy’s watch. One can fight them by reacting to what they’ve tried, predicting what they’ll try next … smart and willing people can put up a fight.

But what does Mr. Security suggest? To roll over: all those new security measures and evolving counter-tactics are all a stupid game we should stop playing. Maybe they bad guys will just leave the “playground” and go home to shag some goats. Right. Or else they will succeed in an attack against weakened defenses, in which case it sure wouldn’t be our chief-executive pal’s fault, since it was inevitable.

Brilliant.

2010-01-07 12:44 | fche blog seriously only in china

Headline: Chopstick pierces tot’s brain through nose
Cultural trivium:

Chen said Li’s neurosurgeon was perfect for the job since he had extensive experience with surgeries involving chopsticks lodged in eyes, foreheads and necks.