Thursday, March 13, 2014
Cannon Mt Ski Weather
I measured an honest 12 inches on my deck this morning. For those of you who don't know, my deck is within walking distance of the Peabody Slopes chairlifts, so it's pretty representative of what they got at Cannon. The snow started mid day yesterday and had put down 4-5 inches by sunset. It snowed all night, and it's still snowing this morning. Temperature is good and cold, 9 degrees so we are getting nice light powder. Very little wind, so the snow is staying on the trails rather than blowing away into the woods. Conditions at Cannon will be the best all year. Don't miss it.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Missing 777 Flt 370
So where could it be? If it crashed at sea, we ought to spot floating wreckage. If we are looking in the right place.
There is evidence that the plane changed course 90 degrees or more to the west. At 600 mph, it could go a long long way in an unexpected direction. The 777 is designed for long range trans oceanic flight, and can carry enough fuel to stay up for 10-20 hours. Which means it could be nearly anywhere on earth.
Air traffic control radar mostly works off transponders. These are descendants of WWII IFF units. When struck by a radar transmitter pulse from the ground, the transponder replies with simple code with perhaps 25 watts of power. That is humungously stronger than the "skin paint" return of the transmitter pulse reflected off the aircraft skin. It gives a good bright solid pip on the ground radar screen and also gives an ID and the altitude. Air traffic controllers work with the transponder pips, and may not see or may ignore the much fainter skin paint pips. Turning off the aircraft's transponder makes it very difficult to see on ATC radar. Flight 370's transponder pips disappeared off radar. The 777 has two transponders, it is unlikely that both of them failed at the same time. Either someone switched them off, or the plane blew apart in midair, or it crashed into the sea, (or both). Nothing less would silence the transponders.
There are reports that a military ground radar saw the missing plane, flying way off its planned course. If the plane was hijacked, all they had to do is fly at 1000 feet or so and few to no ground radars can see them. I remember USAF air defense exercises. A target aircraft would be sent way up north, then turn around, and fly back south into US-Canadian airspace. The radars were supposed to pick him up and vector fighters onto him. This particular morning, a bright and sunny morning, fine flying weather, the radar operators were calling back to SAGE HQ and complaining that they could not see the target. SAGE would ask the target to "come up another 1000 feet". Target was not visible to ground radar until he was a 9000 feet.
I'm pretty sure a 777 at 1000 feet would not get picked up on today's ground radar.
If it crashed at sea, we ought to find wreakage. If it crashed in the jungles, we might never find it. We lost an F-111 Aardvark somewhere in Laos during the war. We never did find the wreck. It just knifed thru the triple canopy jungle, the leaves closed up behind it, and it was gone. Granted that a 777 is bigger than the Aardvark and ought to make a bigger ground footprint, but who knows.
Final possibility. They might have landed the plane in one piece, somewhere. A good pilot could probably get a 777 down on a very short strip. Might blow a few tires, but the plane ought to survive. And now we have to beginnings of a James Bond movie.
There is evidence that the plane changed course 90 degrees or more to the west. At 600 mph, it could go a long long way in an unexpected direction. The 777 is designed for long range trans oceanic flight, and can carry enough fuel to stay up for 10-20 hours. Which means it could be nearly anywhere on earth.
Air traffic control radar mostly works off transponders. These are descendants of WWII IFF units. When struck by a radar transmitter pulse from the ground, the transponder replies with simple code with perhaps 25 watts of power. That is humungously stronger than the "skin paint" return of the transmitter pulse reflected off the aircraft skin. It gives a good bright solid pip on the ground radar screen and also gives an ID and the altitude. Air traffic controllers work with the transponder pips, and may not see or may ignore the much fainter skin paint pips. Turning off the aircraft's transponder makes it very difficult to see on ATC radar. Flight 370's transponder pips disappeared off radar. The 777 has two transponders, it is unlikely that both of them failed at the same time. Either someone switched them off, or the plane blew apart in midair, or it crashed into the sea, (or both). Nothing less would silence the transponders.
There are reports that a military ground radar saw the missing plane, flying way off its planned course. If the plane was hijacked, all they had to do is fly at 1000 feet or so and few to no ground radars can see them. I remember USAF air defense exercises. A target aircraft would be sent way up north, then turn around, and fly back south into US-Canadian airspace. The radars were supposed to pick him up and vector fighters onto him. This particular morning, a bright and sunny morning, fine flying weather, the radar operators were calling back to SAGE HQ and complaining that they could not see the target. SAGE would ask the target to "come up another 1000 feet". Target was not visible to ground radar until he was a 9000 feet.
I'm pretty sure a 777 at 1000 feet would not get picked up on today's ground radar.
If it crashed at sea, we ought to find wreakage. If it crashed in the jungles, we might never find it. We lost an F-111 Aardvark somewhere in Laos during the war. We never did find the wreck. It just knifed thru the triple canopy jungle, the leaves closed up behind it, and it was gone. Granted that a 777 is bigger than the Aardvark and ought to make a bigger ground footprint, but who knows.
Final possibility. They might have landed the plane in one piece, somewhere. A good pilot could probably get a 777 down on a very short strip. Might blow a few tires, but the plane ought to survive. And now we have to beginnings of a James Bond movie.
Winter not dead yet
It's snowing up here. Coming down pretty good. The TV news is doing the winter storm warning (warning is more heavy duty than a mere watch). I'm forecast to get a foot. We'll see if that works out.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Game of Thrones Season III
Netflix just got the Season III discs of Game of Thrones. I don't get HBO so I have to wait for the show to get to Netflix. It's pretty good, a swords and sorcery fantasy, set in an imaginary medieval world. They have some interesting characters, who they haven't killed off yet. It's decent light entertainment, better than the average cop show.
But I do have some advice for the show's producers.
1. Get a real sound man. I can't hear much of the dialogue. The dialogue lacks needed volume, and is often blurred by the score or the sound effects. I notice that on the "commentaries" (actors voice overs explaining how cool they are) are perfectly understandable. If you can do it for "commentaries" you can do it for the main thing.
2. Don't costume everyone in the same color of drab homespun gray-brown . I know it's realistic, but when you costume everyone the same it is hard for the audience to tell who's who.
3. Turn up the lighting. Too many scenes are dark interiors, so dark we cannot see what's going on. Go back to that old Hollywood trick, where a single candle is lit, and the movie lights come on, and we can see what's happening.
4. Say the character's names aloud, so we can identify them. I've actually read the books, but it was a while ago. Scene after scene characters would come on stage, and I would scratch my head asking myself "who's that?" Scene would end and I'd still not know the name. I still don't remember the name of the strapping armored lady who drives Jaime Lannister along to King's Landing.
But I do have some advice for the show's producers.
1. Get a real sound man. I can't hear much of the dialogue. The dialogue lacks needed volume, and is often blurred by the score or the sound effects. I notice that on the "commentaries" (actors voice overs explaining how cool they are) are perfectly understandable. If you can do it for "commentaries" you can do it for the main thing.
2. Don't costume everyone in the same color of drab homespun gray-brown . I know it's realistic, but when you costume everyone the same it is hard for the audience to tell who's who.
3. Turn up the lighting. Too many scenes are dark interiors, so dark we cannot see what's going on. Go back to that old Hollywood trick, where a single candle is lit, and the movie lights come on, and we can see what's happening.
4. Say the character's names aloud, so we can identify them. I've actually read the books, but it was a while ago. Scene after scene characters would come on stage, and I would scratch my head asking myself "who's that?" Scene would end and I'd still not know the name. I still don't remember the name of the strapping armored lady who drives Jaime Lannister along to King's Landing.
Veggies
All the medics and dieticians keep pushing the value of eating veggies. They are probably right, but a serving of green peas is never gonna have the attraction of a Big Mac and fries, at least for me. But, I have found a few veggie things that taste pretty good.
Lettuce. In salads. Conventional salads, chef's salads with a bit of sliced ham, and plain old steakhouse style. Just a wedge of lettuce on a plate with your favorite salad dressing poured on top.
Celery. Stuffed with cream cheese, and cut into 3 inch lengths. Crunchy.
Carrots. Raw, with ranch dip. Either the expensive little mini carrots, or just plain old carrots, peeled and sliced.
Artichoke. Steamed, with a bit of garlic. And melted butter to dip the leaves into.
Apples. I cut 'em into quarters, and cut out the seeds. Less waste than just nibbling them down to the core. With a little cheddar cheese on the side.
Apple sauce. Comes in little single serving plastic tubs. Sweet and moist, just right during winter heating season when everything gets dry. Also good with pork.
Tomatoes. Sliced with a bit of cottage cheese on top. And a dash of basil. Juicy.
Pineapple. Cans of sliced pineapple. Serve it with some cottage cheese on top.
Lettuce. In salads. Conventional salads, chef's salads with a bit of sliced ham, and plain old steakhouse style. Just a wedge of lettuce on a plate with your favorite salad dressing poured on top.
Celery. Stuffed with cream cheese, and cut into 3 inch lengths. Crunchy.
Carrots. Raw, with ranch dip. Either the expensive little mini carrots, or just plain old carrots, peeled and sliced.
Artichoke. Steamed, with a bit of garlic. And melted butter to dip the leaves into.
Apples. I cut 'em into quarters, and cut out the seeds. Less waste than just nibbling them down to the core. With a little cheddar cheese on the side.
Apple sauce. Comes in little single serving plastic tubs. Sweet and moist, just right during winter heating season when everything gets dry. Also good with pork.
Tomatoes. Sliced with a bit of cottage cheese on top. And a dash of basil. Juicy.
Pineapple. Cans of sliced pineapple. Serve it with some cottage cheese on top.
Broadband under repair
I got back from shopping yesterday, and found a bright international orange tag hanging on my doorknob. It claimed excessive radio frequency leakage had been detected from my cable, FCC part 76 violations, yadda yadda, call the cable company and get ti fixed. And my internet was dead.
So I called the cable company, and surprize, the tech showed up bright an early this morning. I gave him a cup of coffee and than he go to work. He replaced some coax going to the TV and the FM, and the modem, and replaced some connectors. All was well, Channel 6 now comes in clear instead of fuzzy, and the meter says all is quiet. So I am back on the air.
So I called the cable company, and surprize, the tech showed up bright an early this morning. I gave him a cup of coffee and than he go to work. He replaced some coax going to the TV and the FM, and the modem, and replaced some connectors. All was well, Channel 6 now comes in clear instead of fuzzy, and the meter says all is quiet. So I am back on the air.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Firefox is getting flaky
More and more, Firefox is getting flaky. Something goes wrong after some time active and it slows to a crawl. Task manager shows firefox.exe and container-plugin.exe eating up 90 percent of CPU time, and hogging hundreds of K of ram. Contain-plugin.exe is some kinda Firefox helper program. In bad cases, Task manager will report Firefox is not responding. And task manager has trouble killing off Firefox when he gets all bent out of shape. So far after a lotta tries, eventually the "kill" command works but it's getting harder and harder.
Some Googling suggested resetting Firefox. The reset command is deeply hidden (Help ->troubleshooting info->reset. ). It works, didn't break anything. Didn't really help, I still have the problem.
Interesting side note. Reset leaves a copy of your "old" profile after creating a new fresh clean one. The "old" profile is 27 megabytes, which is a lot. I can see how a single tiny error in a 27 megabyte database could throw a program into an infinite loop.
Stay tuned for future developments.
Some Googling suggested resetting Firefox. The reset command is deeply hidden (Help ->troubleshooting info->reset. ). It works, didn't break anything. Didn't really help, I still have the problem.
Interesting side note. Reset leaves a copy of your "old" profile after creating a new fresh clean one. The "old" profile is 27 megabytes, which is a lot. I can see how a single tiny error in a 27 megabyte database could throw a program into an infinite loop.
Stay tuned for future developments.
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