Thursday, February 6, 2014
Does Sochi have any snow?
This is the winter Olympics. Skiing. For which you gotta have snow. The noble world press corp has let us know all about various discomforts they are suffering in Sochi, but except for once, they have not bothered to tell us if they have snow for skiing. Clearly personal comfort comes out ahead of reporting the facts.
F-35 ready to fly. Software ain't
F-35 is an all software airplane. Apparently it needs software to do anything. It's been flying on an early version of software that provides "basic aviate and navigate" functionality, but cannot launch missiles or even drop bombs. Next software version, 2B, offers some fighting capability but is pretty flaky. The report talks about "poor sensor performance and stability, excessive nuisance warnings, and disproportionate pilot workload required for workarounds and system resets". The Pentagon chief of testing thinks it will take a year to get software release 2B straightened out. The Marine Corps wants to start flying for real in six months. They can't both be right.
The Aviation Week article did not mention whether the software was written in the DOD miracle programming language ADA, which was supposed to make software development quicker and easier. Nor does it mention how capable the processor[s] are or what brand they are.
Lots of luck to the F-35 programmers, they will need it.
The Aviation Week article did not mention whether the software was written in the DOD miracle programming language ADA, which was supposed to make software development quicker and easier. Nor does it mention how capable the processor[s] are or what brand they are.
Lots of luck to the F-35 programmers, they will need it.
Cannon Mt Ski Weather
Fantastic. It snowed all day yesterday. We got 8 inches of powder. It's cold today, 8F, sunny, and is forecast to stay cold thru the weekend. This weekend might be the best skiing of the year.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Disfunctional Deadlocked Washington passes a Farm Bill
A farm bill. Pure pork. Corporations do the nation's farming now. The small farmer is pretty much extinct. So all the crop insurance, and price supports, and marketing orders, and sugar tariffs are pure welfare for corporations. That's half the money in the farm bill. Pork. The other half is food stamps. Corporate farmers love food stamps, it creates demand for their farm products. The taker class loves food stamps, it's more free stuff for them.
Congress still cannot deal with tax reform, defense spending, debt ceiling hikes, NSA snooping, TSA groping, the deficit, or immigration. All are locked in partisan squabbling.
But they can get together, and be bi partisan, when it comes to passing more pork that the country cannot afford.
By rights, we ought to cancel all handouts to corporate farmers, in fact to any kind of farmer. I don't get a handout, and neither should they. And we can reduce food stamps by half. And we should never put handouts to corporate farmers and handouts to takers into the same bill.
The country would be better served if partisan fighting had stalled this farm bill. Better to do nothing than to pour tax payer's money down a drain.
Congress still cannot deal with tax reform, defense spending, debt ceiling hikes, NSA snooping, TSA groping, the deficit, or immigration. All are locked in partisan squabbling.
But they can get together, and be bi partisan, when it comes to passing more pork that the country cannot afford.
By rights, we ought to cancel all handouts to corporate farmers, in fact to any kind of farmer. I don't get a handout, and neither should they. And we can reduce food stamps by half. And we should never put handouts to corporate farmers and handouts to takers into the same bill.
The country would be better served if partisan fighting had stalled this farm bill. Better to do nothing than to pour tax payer's money down a drain.
Congressional Budget Office sticks its neck out
CBO just released a damning forecast on Obamacare. They predict 800,000 lost jobs, 2.5 million workers put on part time, and a drag on the economy equivalent to a 1% tax hike. Ouch.
I wonder where CBO found enough backbone to speak up. When they were forcing Obamacare down our throats, CBO released several studies claiming that it wouldn't be all that bad. While anyone of common sense knew Obamacare would be expensive as a medium sized war. At the time, excuses were made for CBO, claiming that they were required to forecast based upon the presumptions passed to them by Congress rather than sure knowledge of what will really happen. For instance Congress could ask for a forecast with the assumption that the federal deficit would shrink. Everyone knows that is unlikely to happen. But if it did, wonderful things might happen, and CBO would dutifully forecast wonderful things.
Yesterday's forecast was a bummer for Obama. The TV news reported a lot of huffing and puffing from the White House.
Is this a sign that Obama is a lame duck? And CBO figures he will be ineffectual if he retaliates against them?
I wonder where CBO found enough backbone to speak up. When they were forcing Obamacare down our throats, CBO released several studies claiming that it wouldn't be all that bad. While anyone of common sense knew Obamacare would be expensive as a medium sized war. At the time, excuses were made for CBO, claiming that they were required to forecast based upon the presumptions passed to them by Congress rather than sure knowledge of what will really happen. For instance Congress could ask for a forecast with the assumption that the federal deficit would shrink. Everyone knows that is unlikely to happen. But if it did, wonderful things might happen, and CBO would dutifully forecast wonderful things.
Yesterday's forecast was a bummer for Obama. The TV news reported a lot of huffing and puffing from the White House.
Is this a sign that Obama is a lame duck? And CBO figures he will be ineffectual if he retaliates against them?
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
California regulators attack computer programming schools
In Silicon Valley a half a dozen computer programming schools received scary letters from the Staties. The Bureau for Private Post Secondary Eduation wants the schools to submit each and every curriculum change to the board for approval, and for all teachers to have three years of teaching experience.
Wow. Talk about killing off the goose that lays the golden eggs. This is Silicon Valley, which has laid a lot of golden eggs over the years. Silicon Valley runs on programming. The schools the staties are harrassing are necessary, private, costly ($10,000), and successful. 99% of their graduates are offered jobs. Caltech doesn't do that well. And yet, the staties cannot resist the urge to meddle.
The bit about requiring three years teaching experience is a killer. The schools are teaching Windows internals, and Internet programming. To make anything happen in a Windows computer or over the Internet, the programmer has to call specialized subroutines furnished by Microsoft or Oracle. These vital subroutines are poorly documented, or not documented at all. Only a few experts know what they are, where to find them, and how to use them. And these guys aren't about to waste three years teaching grade school for $30K. They can make 5 times that amount programming. They teach in the programming schools largely as a labor of love. Programmers love what they do, and want to enable others to get into programming just because they love programming so much. If the staties really enforce the "three years teaching experience" bit, the schools won't be able to find qualified instructors. The bit about submitting curriculum changes for state approval is less damaging, it only traps the schools in a web of paperwork that saps time and energy away from running the school and wastes it doing mickey mouse.
America used to be a free country. In a free country you can start any business, and run it, without getting approval from the staties. California is no longer free. Maybe that's why the state economy is so bad.
Wow. Talk about killing off the goose that lays the golden eggs. This is Silicon Valley, which has laid a lot of golden eggs over the years. Silicon Valley runs on programming. The schools the staties are harrassing are necessary, private, costly ($10,000), and successful. 99% of their graduates are offered jobs. Caltech doesn't do that well. And yet, the staties cannot resist the urge to meddle.
The bit about requiring three years teaching experience is a killer. The schools are teaching Windows internals, and Internet programming. To make anything happen in a Windows computer or over the Internet, the programmer has to call specialized subroutines furnished by Microsoft or Oracle. These vital subroutines are poorly documented, or not documented at all. Only a few experts know what they are, where to find them, and how to use them. And these guys aren't about to waste three years teaching grade school for $30K. They can make 5 times that amount programming. They teach in the programming schools largely as a labor of love. Programmers love what they do, and want to enable others to get into programming just because they love programming so much. If the staties really enforce the "three years teaching experience" bit, the schools won't be able to find qualified instructors. The bit about submitting curriculum changes for state approval is less damaging, it only traps the schools in a web of paperwork that saps time and energy away from running the school and wastes it doing mickey mouse.
America used to be a free country. In a free country you can start any business, and run it, without getting approval from the staties. California is no longer free. Maybe that's why the state economy is so bad.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Everything is sharp now.
A few days ago, knowing that I had a dull kitchen knife, I brought the oilstone and the 3 in 1 oil up from the shop. Then I procrastinated. Today, I planned to clean up my case project with a block plane. I also knew I needed to sharpen the block plane, 'cause the case project had mortise and tenon joints, and trimming them means cutting across the grain, which only works if the plane is good and sharp. And I didn't want to carry the oilstone back downstairs to the shop without dealing with the kitchen knives.
So, first kitchen knife is a big 12 inch Gerber chef's knife from a yard sale. Must have been a bad day at the Gerber plant when this one was turned out. Gerber uses stainless steel bandsaw blade stock to make their blades, and this knife's blade came from a bad batch of stainless. The stuff rusts on the sharpened edge and has little inclusions of crud that drop out leaving a ragged edge. Dunno how that happened, Gerber is a quality name in knives. So, a few drops of oil on the stone, it's a two grit silicon carbide stone. Start with the coarse side. Hold the knife, by hand, at 15 degrees or so, for a good fine edge. Work it back and forth until I can see bright fresh metal all along the edge from handle to point. Add a drop or two of oil each time the stone looks dry. Then flip the oilstone over to the fine side and repeat. Inspect edge from time to time. You will see when the fine side of the oilstone has polished out the scratches from the coarse side.
Now, as long I am on a roll, let's do the other knives kicking around here. My Swiss Army pocket knife gets sharp from just a bit of stoning on the fine side. It's stainless, and a better batch of stainless than the Gerber, no rust spots, no little inclusions of crud. A little two inch no-name lockback knife some child brought back from summer camp, and I use for opening bills, sharpens up nicely with a few strokes of the fine stone. An NRA knife needs more grinding on first the coarse side and then the fine side before it is as sharp as I like a knife to be.
So, now I can take the oilstone back downstairs to the shop and deal with plane irons. I have a home made jig to hold the plane iron at 32 degrees while I slide the stone back and forth. Keep at it until the iron shows bright fresh metal all the way across. Then lay the iron flat on its back and stone the back flat, and as a side effect, stone off the wire edge from sharpening the bevel. Repeat with the fine side of the stone. After this treatment, the plane will cut cross grain without tearout.
Anyhow, we are all sharp now.
So, first kitchen knife is a big 12 inch Gerber chef's knife from a yard sale. Must have been a bad day at the Gerber plant when this one was turned out. Gerber uses stainless steel bandsaw blade stock to make their blades, and this knife's blade came from a bad batch of stainless. The stuff rusts on the sharpened edge and has little inclusions of crud that drop out leaving a ragged edge. Dunno how that happened, Gerber is a quality name in knives. So, a few drops of oil on the stone, it's a two grit silicon carbide stone. Start with the coarse side. Hold the knife, by hand, at 15 degrees or so, for a good fine edge. Work it back and forth until I can see bright fresh metal all along the edge from handle to point. Add a drop or two of oil each time the stone looks dry. Then flip the oilstone over to the fine side and repeat. Inspect edge from time to time. You will see when the fine side of the oilstone has polished out the scratches from the coarse side.
Now, as long I am on a roll, let's do the other knives kicking around here. My Swiss Army pocket knife gets sharp from just a bit of stoning on the fine side. It's stainless, and a better batch of stainless than the Gerber, no rust spots, no little inclusions of crud. A little two inch no-name lockback knife some child brought back from summer camp, and I use for opening bills, sharpens up nicely with a few strokes of the fine stone. An NRA knife needs more grinding on first the coarse side and then the fine side before it is as sharp as I like a knife to be.
So, now I can take the oilstone back downstairs to the shop and deal with plane irons. I have a home made jig to hold the plane iron at 32 degrees while I slide the stone back and forth. Keep at it until the iron shows bright fresh metal all the way across. Then lay the iron flat on its back and stone the back flat, and as a side effect, stone off the wire edge from sharpening the bevel. Repeat with the fine side of the stone. After this treatment, the plane will cut cross grain without tearout.
Anyhow, we are all sharp now.
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