2010-03-16 12:55 | fche blog flying aopa letter
My humble brag(*) responding to AOPA’s airplane/car naming coincidence article(*) refers to this pair of beasts.
Now you know.
(*): AOPA member-only links. So you know.
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.
Read more...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.
Read more...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?