Thought # 6 - Bizarrely Predictable

There is a concept that I need to know the word for:

Completely and utterly ridiculous and incredible, yet strangely, completely and utterly predictable.

I think there must be a French word for it. But if anyone knows it, please tell me, I need to use this word at least twice a day.

Brokenness

My email is broken. My two (2) TWO! laptops are broken. My team got trounced.
Hmmm.

Idea # 1 - Arm Extension

I need this today.

A remote manipulator arm that is effectively an extension of your arm, able to be located distant from the operator. Complete with camera, and tactile feel feedback.

A pair of these arms would effectively allow me to do things at height, and perhaps three of these would allow an intricate method to clean the gutters and other such things.

I am tired of wearing fatigues.

Inventions in Thought

What is an invention in thought? An idea? A plan? A design? Much like Leonardo Di Vinci's sketched or described inventions, they are not patentable until built. However, I will call it an Invention Idea.

And I will list and describe these, so that someone can actual design and build them for me, and I can go to the shop and buy them.

Lost in the Sun and Spiral Dive

Debrief on RC incident 20090419-1-C-B

Event

• Spiral Dive from 150 feet.

Date/Time

• UU April 2009 10:30:00 (exact time to be determined)
  

Location

• Secondary flying location - UUU
  

Weather

• Very windy, with gusts exceeding 19 knots, changing direction from westerly to, at times, easterly
  

Aircraft

• Make model and type of A/C to be determined
  

Details of Aircraft

• All up weight 398g
  
• New brushless motor just installed (outrunner)
• Make and model and specification of motor to be determined
• Pitch and diameter of propeller to be determined
  
• Net thrust > 500g
• Slightly (incidental) off centre thrust - about 5 degrees to the left
  
• Weight and balance modified, tail wait of approximately 15g installed forward of vertical stabiliser
• C of G 25mm aft of leading edge (within limits)
  
• 11.1v LiPo fully charged
• Radio gear - digital 2.4GHz - DX6
  

Owner

• Mr UU-heli-man
  

Pilot in Command

• Mr UU-aero-man-not-too-windy
  

Other Mitigating Circumstances

• Little G was running around, creating a landing hazard which required the PIC to need to look out top and bottom
  

Description Prior to Event

• Aero configured in hangar
• New brushless and brushless ESC installed - checked out okay
• Motor held onto balsa with drilled screw
  
• Thrust slightly to the left (5 degrees) due to over pushing the motor onto balsa rod
  
• C of G moved aft by the application of plasticine weight fore of v. stab.
• Ground check okay
• Controls correct and proper movement
• Controls visually centred
  

Launch

• Full throttle, count "1-2-3-go"
  
• A/C hand launched by assistant - straight and level launch
  
• A/C airborne without too much trouble
• The A/C was difficult to handle in the fluky winds, with excessive aileron roll requiring constant correction
• Positioning the A/C was difficult - it was fairly constantly choosing its own path to fly
• Keeping altitude was easy - as excess thrust allowed it to climb near vertical, limited only by the ability to maintain the A/C attitude
• After around 3 minutes, the pilot considered attempting to try and get enough control to check the balancing of the A/C
  

Description of Event

• at T-10 seconds, the pilot attempted to initiate a down-wind (right to left (east to west)) pass, needing to turn the A/C 180 degrees to initiate the run
• the A/C was at about 100 feet and climbing - on initially 1/2 power
• at T-8 seconds the turn commenced, and additional power was applied (to full power) as the A/C became unmanageable
• the A/C climb at around 45 deg angle of climb to an altitude of around 300 feet at T-5 seconds
• the PIC was aware of the near vertical sun which was full (no clouds obscuring) - and was unable to bring the A/C under any control as it approached the suns direction at about T-4 seconds
• the PIC sheltered one eye and closed the other in order to try and keep visual on the A/C, and be able to pick it up post pass as soon as possible
• the A/C passed over the sun at T-3 seconds, also achieving maximum altitude of 350 feet as power was cut
• at T-2.5 seconds the PIC regained visual on the A/C which was proceeding to the northern outer permitter in with an attitude that was not initially determined
• at T-2.0 seconds the aircraft adopted a nose done, proceeding to vertical nose down attitude, with the PIC still not having positive control
• at T-1.5 seconds the A/C was nose down vertical, accelerating, and exactly on the edge of the boundry, although it appeared to be slightly beyond
• at T-1.0 seconds - at this point the PIC applied full back stick (elevator) - instintively - which only increase the speed - the A/C was in a tight near vertical spiral dive, estimated speed was at least 20 meters per second (70 km/h)
  
• the actual speed of rotation was not conciously realised until a few seconds later, but it was around two rotations per second
• again, the instinctive maneover to level the wings and pull back - was countered by the knowledge that this had a 50 percent chance of taking the A/C beyond the boundry - as a result - no action was taken
• at T-0.5 seconds - some control action was being applied, but with no response - the A/C's wings were perhaps stalling or some other type of control problem
• at time "T" (-0.0 seconds), the A/C impacted the ground nose first vertical, 5 cm into the boundary (short plants), remaining vertical after impact due to leaning on those same short plants - some 150 meters distant from the PIC

Post Event

• the throttle remained closed, and the controls were still responsive (rudder, elevator) the ailerons were obviously jamming and did not have much movement
• the A/C initially appeared mostly intact despite the impact speed; however
• on closer inspection, the nose was considerable damaged and bent, and the wings were displaced
• the battery was disconnected
• video of the damage was taken
  

Post Event Analysis

• The A/C was prepared sufficiently and to the best knowledge available
  
• The flight should not have taken place due to the nature and speed of the winds
• There should have not been extra people on the field during the test flight
• Being a test flight - the Sun's position in the sky was a factor, before sunrise would be preferable - or during overcoast (nil wind day)
• The aircraft's top speed was quite high, allowing the aircraft to get a long way downrange very quickly - perhaps different propping could improve this situation
  This meant the orientation and attitude of the aircraft became ambiguous at difficult to determine quite frequently
• It is quite possible the PIC's eyesight "ain't what it used to be" or it is just that the model was faster than what he was used to
  
• The PIC was unfamiliar with A/C of type - and needed at least extra simulator training before hand
• Incorrect recovery technique was applied, however the mitagating circumstances of loss of control in general, and exceed boundary were an issue
  

Outcome

• The model could probably be repaired, with a fair amount of effort
• Rebuild nose mount, and fairing
• Re-set wing position
• Strengthen and straighten bent structural parts

Precautions for Re-flight

• Paint or indicate on wings unique colours the enable simpler attitute and orientation perception
• Experiment with pitch and prop size to "gear down" the motor, which means greater low speed thrust, at the expense of top speed (which was too fast for the area) - trials and calculations required to do this
  
• Rebalance and correct control deflections on newly rebuilt model
• Airfield to be large and unobstructed
• No extra personnel or observers on airfield
  
• Nil wind conditions
• Series of planned exercises to ensure the model is flying correctly
• Initiate landing sequence early, then re-launch
• Low - or clouded Sun if possible
  

Things to Learn

• Gusty winds not the best for initial flight of a model (including changed setups)
• Practice, train, simulate, and stay current
• More diverse training worthwhile
• If it is your model, don't let some talk you into flying it in gusty wind - they don't know what they are talking about :-)

Terms

• RC - Remote Control
• A/C - Aircraft
• PIC - Pilot in Command
• attitude - the direction the aircraft is pointing (e.g. nose high)
• orientation - the exact relative position of the aircraft with repect to the PIC - e.g. closer (left) wing down, far wing up
  
• altitude - the height above the ground
• ESC - Electronic Speed Controller
• brushless - no brushes to the commutator
  
• outrunner - the outside of the motor rotates
• propping - the configuration of the propeller - pitch and diameter
• propeller pitch - how "deep" the cut into the air is, measured in inches

Oracle's Sun acquisition

This is a good thing. We live in interesting times*. My thoughts about Oracle DBA work versus Solaris Administration and my personal and groups future seems headed toward a new direction. Although what lays ahead is not clear, it is obvious that the paths are intertwined more than ever before, if not, the same path.

It is definitely a turning point.

But what is to happen to MySQL?

* I know.

Joists explained

To explain what I was doing, and specifically answer the question, what are joists, I answered with this:

Thought # 5 - Ability

/* thought 20071207 */

people don't ever change, they discover their untapped ability

Thought # 4 - Jokes

What's disappointing is when a joke is funnier when one misinterprets it.

What's embarrassing is when it is your joke.

Embarrassing Status

Apparently it is embarrassing for someone to set their status on Facebook. I better not say that I have a blog, how doubling embarrassing.

Spiral Dive

RC. It was too windy today. I can prove it.

The blinding sun was also a factor, which happened because basically it had a mind of its own (like my mind).

It wasn't my RC, I was maiden flighting it. Sorry 'bout that, I'll make it up to him. So far, one take off - no landings.

Officially winds gusted to 19 knots, with direction changing 180 degrees. You can't even land a Cessna in that!

Loosing to Collingwood

Voss+Brown+Lions+Gabba V a pie

Should only equal ONE thing. But alas, tonight, it did not.

Why? (Monday expert mode ON)

• Rain, why did it rain? It was suppose to be fine, it was fine all day, I even left my raincoat on the kitchen bench this morning on purpose. No, that didn't have any effect on the result, it made play sloppy in places, but equally for both teams, it just effected my coffee drinking and soaked my backpack. And, Alice, I had to get my own coffee! Beers elsewhere were to be had as usual.
  
• The ascendency the Lions had in the first quarter was not capitalised on - it should have been about a 7 goal lead, but was only a few goals in it, even with a bonus 50m free and goal after the siren
  
• The second quarter was good, and was a case of holding lead, but ended on the siren with a pies goal, bring it back to a small margin.
• The third quarter - the premiership quarter, was when the Lions should have let them have it, but a wobbly (straight) goal to the wobbles inside a minute of the second half, and another, put them in the lead. The third quarter really was two teams trying to power their way through, and they nullified each other mostly. With only one more goal kicked in that quarter by the Lions, giving them the slender lead at 3/4 time.
• Sherman? He was off tonight. Coaching was on, maybe even to the point of Voss being out-coached by Malthouse. The matchups on key players were perfect, Bradshaw was kept out, and everyone else (was anyone else there?) including Brown with the usual focus of the best defenders.
• Charman got broken badly in a tackle - it didn't look good. I think both his legs are broken, well maybe not, but close to it.
  
• The forth quarter was all about the Paul Medhurst and Leon Davis show, with sloppy Lions disposal for entertainment.
• The sealer being an errant handpass when the Lions looked ready to pounce, letting through a woods goal, and that was about it.
• There wasn't too much more of a threat left in the Lions, although we all hoped for a couple of quick miracle goals to bring them back in, it wasn't to be.
• The Siren sounding, seemingly prematurely to end the match, which really was won by the better team on the night.

And one of the worst things about it was a rouge crollingwood supporter sitting next to me - being happy of all things - in such a non-happy occasion.

It was a good game though, my voice is gone, that means it was exciting.

..."Got a black magic woomeennn..."

Yes, it is gone.

Christmas Island Holiday

Christmas Island, by name sounds like it would be a fantastic place to have a holiday.

Illegal immigrant detention centres seem to dent that fantasy, however, you can still have a holiday, see this

http://downunderonline.com/Australia_Holiday_Christmas_Island.htm

Computer Games

If you are time poor, do not click on the following sites:

http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com/alchemy/alchemy.htm
(online graphical programmable puzzle - very good)

Words

I can never spell garentee correctly. :-(

I spent what seemed like the whole of grade 7 writing out 100's and 1000's of times the correct spelling of successful. I still could not spell it correctly for a few more years. That is a little bit ironic.

I can garentee that you will be a successful speller.

I still can't spell garentee as the spell checker offers these options:

• parenteral (what?)
• garments
• godparents
• garment's

I can garentee your godparents garments will be successful in their parenteral garment's spelling.

Solar Cooking

I intend to make a solar cooker. This is how far I have got:
Peak power 600 watts per square meter. So the trick is to focus the rays from one square meter at a small target volume.
If you did focus 100cm x 100cm into the small volume:

1 watt = 1g water by 1 deg C in 1 sec

200 watt = 200g water by 1 deg C in 1 sec

600 watts = 200g water by 60 deg in 60 sec

Is the maximum you could get - but that ain't bad.

Here is a cardboard box design : http://www.freewebs.com/sunnycooker/suntasticcookerplan.htm

Hyperion

Hyperion - is it going to have a resurgence?

I have a mind like a steel trap: rusty & dangerous.

Then again, my mind has a mind of its own.

Thought # 3 - Patterns

People respond to patterns, and interpret patterns to understand things.
The world is full of patterns, but these are put there by design.
The patterns we understand, are the patterns we actually put there in the first place.

[8 jan 2008]

Here is an example.

You get out of bed in the morning, again. You have done this many times before, is this a coincidence? No, why? That is because we went to bed the night before. Of course, silly. But why did you go to bed the night before? Because we were sleepy. No, Bzzt, wrong. You were sleepy all day weren't you, and then when it was time for bed, you actually couldn't sleep, but you tried everything until you could couldn't you. And Bed, why did you choose to go to sleep in a bed, why not right now in that chair, or someone else's laundry basket. Well the bed is more comfortable. Of course it is, you made it comfortable. Why? Because it is a bed. Why is it a bed? Because you need a bed to sleep in. When? When your sleepy? No, when it is night time.

I was walking along the street, feeling kind of sleepy, when I tripped over a quitely sleeping friend I knew. So as not to alarm them, I tip toed around them and promptly sat down on a conveniently placed truckload of feathers and fell as sleep until about 3pm when I felt it was time to go home and have breakfast. I waited all night for the train to arrive, but it didn't, that sometimes happens on Tuesdays, but you can never be sure.

There are no patterns in that. That would be anarchy. I look for patterns, I rely on patterns, and they are placed there by me and others for that very reason.

ambiguous

I really think that the word ambiguous should have two meanings:

• One, meaning of unclear multiple mutually exclusive meanings.
• The other meaning having a clear and concise meaning.
  

Zero Cost Hobbies

Zero cost hobbies? There can't really be any such thing. They all take money, and they all take time! However, you can come close to zero extra outlay hobbies. All of these still involve time, but, what is a hobby if it doesn't involve time? It is then someone else's hobby or non-existent. So lets assume time is the essential defining factor of a hobby. Not many of my hobbies are in the category of zero or low cost (yet). Here is a list (currently very very short) of other peoples hobbies, and a few of mine...

• Paper folding models (the fold instruction templates downloaded from the ubiquitous communication conduit)
• Photography with your standard camera (you already have the camera for other purposes)
• Programming in java
• Things To Do List making (!?) including making lists in blogs
  
• Reading other peoples books
• Entertaining children (apparently, looking after your own children is not classed as baby-sitting)
• Almost anything involving sitting in front of the computer without your credit card, and that does not involve a shopping or retail/vendor site [I envisage see a long list of disclaimers here to make this zero cost]
  

What does not constitute a hobby:

• Doing tax filing
• Anything involving water in the house

"Zero Cost Hobbies" does not even return a direct search result from Uncle Google! What?

Easter rain

Does it always rain at Easter, or does it always rain when planning RC activities in the park?

Thought # 2 - Moment of Thought

Is there a word for:

Mental Momentum

I would try and look it up, but I just can't really be bothered at the moment, I just can't get started. This is really Mental Inertia, which is the resistance to motion of a mental effort.

However, I seemed to be going along no problem mindlessly blogging... Arghhhh.... I can't stop it - help!

[Thought word from Dec 2004]

Success in failure

When an unsuspecting blog reader says they are having a not very good* evening after reading your blog, you have succeeded in the predicted failure as posted previously :-)

* not very good replaces a specific word that indicates "not very good".

Thought # 1 - Reality

Not so randomly selected, as it is the oldest one in my "thought" directory - perhaps, my oldest thought - no definitely not, as I am sure I'll find some earlier thoughts, perhaps stored - oh, in another directory. I no longer use neurons for storing long term information.

reality is just an implementation of models

No... what? That doesn't make sense now, does it? Let me thing about it a while and get back to, umm you? the world? me? someone... that person who unsuspectingly will be getting and reading this (once).

Thought from 23 Nov 2004.

Blog like no-one is reading it!

Well, this is good advice from myself to myself (allow me to..???). And I am quite entitled to give that advice as it is actually true. No-one Could be reading this blog, being a test and all.
That being said, I will send this link to a friend in order to annoy her... Here we go...
(She will read all entries, suspecting there might been some reason, and discover there is none). Life's like that. I'm teaching her a good lesson.

Meaning of Easter

When did easter turn, not only into a chocolate-fest, but into a mini-christmas present like occasion.

The easter bunny, and even the easter bilby didn't even get around to hidding eggs around the yard! Slack! Well, he did hide them in a "virtual" computerised world. (To my good friend, no, it is not Sad to hide virtualised easter eggs, I think.)

Still can't really use Facebook

I still don't really get how to use Facebook. (Maybe I don't want to know how).

Facebook Friend Culling

I'm reading an article in the local Train-Newspaper that discusses facebook friend culling and how to go about it. It says review every 6 months and trim 10% right away.
I'm seeing a parallel with household budgeting that I am currently doing.
Why?

Did you just misspel...

My speling is perfect! The blog's naming was completely intentional, imagine my surprise when no one had thought of misspelling the blog title exactly like me!
Is blog one or to g's? blogg? Hmmm I don't know.

Just a Test

Oh, this is just a test. Only a test. Please do not read.

I said: Do Not Read.

Have I become Technologically old?

Yes, I know what a BLORG is. A BLOG, that's what I said.

Well sought of... What does it do, why would you use it?

Oh, I could have a blog if I wanted to, why not? Well I don't need one yet. (What does it do for you again?)

BACK IN MY DAY... I remember telling the world around me computers were great and amazing and you can do all these things with them, one day EVERY house might even have a computer and you would be able to talk to other people through bulletin boards like the one I was running. Did they really believe me? No... But now, I am no longer the master, I am but the pupil.