I like to write stuff, so here is my blog.
26 June 2008, 2:15 UTCThe VTA rules
When we first moved to SJ, all my colleges recommended I find a place along the caltrain. We decided against all that advice to find a place along the light rail. This was based on a number of reasons, one of which was the fact that the light rail runs all day every day at least once every half hour. Unfortunately, they only run every half hour in the mid morning, when I'm usually going to work.
22 June 2008, 2:31 UTCA Plan for Sam
Last weekend we went to Yosemite (Named because people go Oy Vey when they see it). Now there are a zillion blog posts about yosemite, so instead I'm going to continue my very short series of thoughts on how to maintain (or raise) our standard of living whilst reducing car usage. Something that is immediately apparent to anyone who goes to Yosemite is the fact that the main valley is full of cars, car parks and roads. Already the National Parks Service is working hard to reduce this by providing a regular bus service around various popular areas, and encouraging bikes.
18 June 2008, 5:18 UTC2Geom in Scribus
Andy tells me that Scribus is now using 2geom for some of their internal work.
12 June 2008, 6:25 UTCOn schools and vocational training
US schools look remarkably like US prisons. I asked mental why.
11 June 2008, 22:46 UTCTenebrary: He who hides the truth
Just thinking we need a work as an antonym for luminary. I hereby propose tenebrary from the latin 'tenebrae' or shadow.
10 June 2008, 2:04 UTCEfficiency of socialised services
Americans get very antsy about socialised anything, with some vague feeling that if the country socialised anything, it would turn into a soviet state1. A common claim is that government run health services are inefficient and have a long waiting time.
7 June 2008, 18:03 UTCComparing maglev to railed high speed
Slashdot today had an article about plans to build a maglev between LA and LV. I love the idea of a maglev - it's very science fiction - but given the poor record of the US to actually build anything anywhere on time and on budget I think they would be better off with a TGV style railed service.
The Transrapid MagLev has a number of problems over TGV/ICE/bullet style trains:
- more expensive trackwork (by a factor of 2 or so)
- can't run on conventional trackwork, thus unable to continue at lower speed to other destinations, or to negotiate the city ends whilst direct routes are being built (See London and Madrid for examples)
- slow and complex switches: rail switches involve moving a few 100kg of steel rail a few cm, monorails (including maglev) require moving huge 100tonne segments of track many metres.
- dubious speed merits - the TGV has been matching the maglev for speed in trials, though not in commercial operation.
On the pro side, maglevs have a number of purported advantages:
- no contact: reducing wear, rolling resistance vibration and noise.
- lower drag coefficient
- no overhead wires
But these turn out to be less significant in practice because:
- wheel wear is not a major operating cost. The wheel vibration in railed vehicles can be avoided with maglev suspension in the bogies/trucks; and most vibration at high speed comes from the air (the AGV has special door handles to minimise turbulence).
- The wheels do contribute to the drag coefficient, and in fact the limiting factors for TGV speed are drag, power supply and the speed of sound in the overhead wires. But as I noted, they have matched the MagLev's speed repeatedly and there is no known reason why they can't increase the speed (especially when nanotubes become commercially available, allowing an order of magnitude increase in the speed of sound in the catenary). Increasing the operating voltage is practical to at least 50kV, at which point the rail line can start to be considered as an additional supply line.
- Overhead wires are considered by some to be unsightly, but as someone who lives next to a freeway, I can't see that roads are any more sightly. Often these people then propose having an elevated monorail line - let's replace those unsightly wires with giant concrete trackways :)
4 June 2008, 18:25 UTCBlush
After picking on audiophiles for poor testing I made an equally silly mistake.
1 June 2008, 23:23 UTCHarley pedal stop for aeolus
Sometimes I find aeolus's pedal range a little limiting. This morning I had the idea of taking a recording of a harley I'd gotten off the intertubes and turning it into a pedal stop for aeolus.
28 May 2008, 15:00 UTCReducing Fort Collins - Denver's car dependency
After posting that the best way to reduce Fort Collins' car dependency was to introduce a rail service to Denver, I decided that I should actually work out its practicality.
24 May 2008, 2:17 UTCI don't know whether to laugh or cry
19 May 2008, 5:32 UTCCraig wins Silver and Gold at SC International Invitational Swim
18 May 2008, 4:29 UTCInteresting perception experiment
14 May 2008, 2:19 UTCdevelopment types as biomes
13 May 2008, 4:34 UTCMy alternative to Eddington's folly
10 May 2008, 3:22 UTCI will survive.
8 May 2008, 22:50 UTCelectrickery
8 May 2008, 5:00 UTCflimflam fin fan film
8 May 2008, 2:44 UTCJam speaker
5 May 2008, 3:28 UTCAsphalt Nation
4 May 2008, 3:57 UTCMaker Faire
29 April 2008, 5:46 UTCropes for lists in python
29 April 2008, 1:11 UTCwhy clean coal doesn't scale
28 April 2008, 4:24 UTCWider roads are poorer ares
21 April 2008, 20:50 UTCEntry
17 April 2008, 7:06 UTCHow much stuff can you grow in a 10m^2 yard?
15 April 2008, 2:31 UTCSometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards
14 April 2008, 20:07 UTCPT rant for the day
13 April 2008, 3:57 UTCA little more work on my amp case
12 April 2008, 1:24 UTCEntry