SPACE: 1969
Jun. 2nd, 2012 09:29 pm
The Orion ship design, as rendered for the companion book to Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV series. If I built it as a 1/72nd scale model, the result would be over six feet long.
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Crafts And Arts
Jun. 22nd, 2011 03:50 pmWent to Alcoa/Maryville to check out the new Aldi market there, and to get a paint marker at Hobby Lobby. At the latter, I also found a little artist mannekin keychain. The mannekin doesn't have much articulation, but is a useful size (roughly 1/25 scale). So I bought it and removed it from its keychain components.
I got my catalog from TEKO today (http://www.teko.it or http://tekoenclosures.com). They manufacture what are called enclosures for the electronics industries. Other people make gadgets; it's TEKO's job to wrap it up in a practical case that people can use. A lot of TEKO's cases are used in medical machinery, security alarm hardware, remote controls, scientific equipment, home/building thermostats, e-book reader units, smartphones and so on.
So why am I excited? My long-term flight sim dashboard project. I'm already seeing possibilities in console design and display integration.
So why am I excited? My long-term flight sim dashboard project. I'm already seeing possibilities in console design and display integration.
Sizes And Prices Of Toys
Feb. 4th, 2011 02:11 pmThe train of thought that went through yesterday's post about the toy Porsche 917 led me to the Laser 917 and Aztec/Avenger/Valkyrie families of kit cars, inspired by the Porsche 917 and Ford GT40 cars respectively. Both the Laser and Valkyrie kit bodies are still in production, and now I'm wondering what could be the MINIMAL changes in architecture to each body design to make them work with the current Daytona Prototype race car hardware rules.
Yes, it's easy to start with a clean sheet of paper and work from there. But what about reviving the beauty and thrills of the past? What about setting a new standard based on the best of both worlds?
I am such a Titan. I want to play with the big toys but don't have the resources. Hmmph.
Yes, it's easy to start with a clean sheet of paper and work from there. But what about reviving the beauty and thrills of the past? What about setting a new standard based on the best of both worlds?
I am such a Titan. I want to play with the big toys but don't have the resources. Hmmph.
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Revisiting The Future
Sep. 4th, 2009 03:09 pmNothing like going back to an old theme to see if it has anything I hadn't discovered the first (or second, or third) time.
In this Previous Commentary I did a look through of the 1981 Book of Predictions to see where we had been in the turn of the 21st Century as opposed to how things looked to happen back then.
Today I found the library's copy to look at predictions for 2010. What I saw in those pages:
* Nationalist "identities" being eroded by the emerging globalized culture. The cyberati/globalati find new ways to define themselves beyond where they live or local social class (or political affiliation).
* Terrorists obtain a nuclear warhead and use it on a major city. The death toll is in the millions and it prompts a global ban on weapons of mass destruction.
* Fusion energy becomes safe and reliable enough for companies to build large-scale fusion powerplants. The order of magnitude of the grid's capacity must be raised by a factor of twenty to thirty to make full use of the advance.
* Artificial Intelligence technology finds its "killer application" and is advanced to the point where AI systems frequently pass Turing Tests.
* The first segment of the first long-term space habitat is launched into orbit. Suborbital spaceflights become available for wealthy space tourists.
* Regional Economic Unions between Third-World nations proliferate as they are seen as a way out of the "continental poverty cycle". Dozens of national currencies get phased out world-wide in favor of regional ones. Where regions come together, some nations adopt two or more as official currencies as a way to reinforce global trading through their territory.
* The Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are merged as the end result of a constitutional crisis in Jordan. The new nation is ceded land from Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, and this makes a political solution with the State of Israel possible.
* "Superstructures"--massive truss-like building systems--will become the next trend in urban construction.
While there is a lot more in the book, I think more than half of it is "obsolete" because it was either predicted to happen in the years between publication and 2000, or has come to pass/been disproven by events of recent history. And much of the other material is too trivial or silly to bother with.
Just the same, I think I'm having a craving for Convenience Store Pie about now.
FP
In this Previous Commentary I did a look through of the 1981 Book of Predictions to see where we had been in the turn of the 21st Century as opposed to how things looked to happen back then.
Today I found the library's copy to look at predictions for 2010. What I saw in those pages:
* Nationalist "identities" being eroded by the emerging globalized culture. The cyberati/globalati find new ways to define themselves beyond where they live or local social class (or political affiliation).
* Terrorists obtain a nuclear warhead and use it on a major city. The death toll is in the millions and it prompts a global ban on weapons of mass destruction.
* Fusion energy becomes safe and reliable enough for companies to build large-scale fusion powerplants. The order of magnitude of the grid's capacity must be raised by a factor of twenty to thirty to make full use of the advance.
* Artificial Intelligence technology finds its "killer application" and is advanced to the point where AI systems frequently pass Turing Tests.
* The first segment of the first long-term space habitat is launched into orbit. Suborbital spaceflights become available for wealthy space tourists.
* Regional Economic Unions between Third-World nations proliferate as they are seen as a way out of the "continental poverty cycle". Dozens of national currencies get phased out world-wide in favor of regional ones. Where regions come together, some nations adopt two or more as official currencies as a way to reinforce global trading through their territory.
* The Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are merged as the end result of a constitutional crisis in Jordan. The new nation is ceded land from Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, and this makes a political solution with the State of Israel possible.
* "Superstructures"--massive truss-like building systems--will become the next trend in urban construction.
While there is a lot more in the book, I think more than half of it is "obsolete" because it was either predicted to happen in the years between publication and 2000, or has come to pass/been disproven by events of recent history. And much of the other material is too trivial or silly to bother with.
Just the same, I think I'm having a craving for Convenience Store Pie about now.
FP
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Random Ideas From the Idea Man
Nov. 23rd, 2006 01:26 am1) Manufactured Housing...I go past mobile home sellers fairly frequently around here, and I see those Colonials and Ranches and ones like those and think "You know, since the market is shifting toward immigrants, they really ought to be changing their styles. More Mediterranean Revival, more Hacienda, more Mission..."
I'm sure one or the other manufacturers will get the message, tho'. First one who does will win millions of dollars from the new customers.
2) There ought to be a TV newsmagazine devoted to general culture. By that I don't mean celebrities or sensationalism or quirky weird stuff that the tabloid shows like Insider or Inside Edition cover. I mean those topics that everybody really needs to know about in order to cope, these days.
I dread that somebody will start one, and it'll drift into the tabloid model because of those thrice-damned ratings.
3) Yes, there are sprite webcomics. Yes, I've even seen a sort of sprite webcomic where somebody took art from old war comics and added their own captions/dialogue to them...
...What I want to do is take screenshots from flight sims, plus some sim characters to match the period, and develop a story from that. Anybody try that yet? I'd link to the plotline idea I had from a previous blog...maybe I will do that as a revision here soon.
I've never been much of a graphical artist. I can design machines, but I am no good with drawing people.
FP
I'm sure one or the other manufacturers will get the message, tho'. First one who does will win millions of dollars from the new customers.
2) There ought to be a TV newsmagazine devoted to general culture. By that I don't mean celebrities or sensationalism or quirky weird stuff that the tabloid shows like Insider or Inside Edition cover. I mean those topics that everybody really needs to know about in order to cope, these days.
I dread that somebody will start one, and it'll drift into the tabloid model because of those thrice-damned ratings.
3) Yes, there are sprite webcomics. Yes, I've even seen a sort of sprite webcomic where somebody took art from old war comics and added their own captions/dialogue to them...
...What I want to do is take screenshots from flight sims, plus some sim characters to match the period, and develop a story from that. Anybody try that yet? I'd link to the plotline idea I had from a previous blog...maybe I will do that as a revision here soon.
I've never been much of a graphical artist. I can design machines, but I am no good with drawing people.
FP
Architecture and Friends of Friends
Oct. 20th, 2005 12:02 amHey.
Anybody else here habitually read the "Friends" page of any of your LJ "Friends"? I read![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevissimo's, but that's just because his circle of friends is always interesting and worth reading. I'm not into reading the Friends page of any of my other friends, tho'. I mean, I'd do it every so often, but not for all of them and not every day.
* * *
Anybody know a place online where I can find decent graphics of Durer's Triumphal Arch and Triumphal Carriage (while http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v14/bp14-07.html has an interesting history and all that, the graphics themselves aren't that useful)? It's for a long-term project I'm working on. I can scan a small picture of the Arch from my copy of The Day The Universe Changed, but I would like a better option. I don't expect just anybody who reads to know...but I'm asking just in case. I'll probably just keep digging.
PS: http://www.wga.hu/art/d/durer/2/12/8triumph/00triump.jpg is the version of the Arch that I had on the previous computer. I guess it will suffice for now. Found the "Chariot" there, too.
FP
Anybody else here habitually read the "Friends" page of any of your LJ "Friends"? I read
kevissimo's, but that's just because his circle of friends is always interesting and worth reading. I'm not into reading the Friends page of any of my other friends, tho'. I mean, I'd do it every so often, but not for all of them and not every day.* * *
Anybody know a place online where I can find decent graphics of Durer's Triumphal Arch and Triumphal Carriage (while http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v14/bp14-07.html has an interesting history and all that, the graphics themselves aren't that useful)? It's for a long-term project I'm working on. I can scan a small picture of the Arch from my copy of The Day The Universe Changed, but I would like a better option. I don't expect just anybody who reads to know...but I'm asking just in case. I'll probably just keep digging.
PS: http://www.wga.hu/art/d/durer/2/12/8triumph/00triump.jpg is the version of the Arch that I had on the previous computer. I guess it will suffice for now. Found the "Chariot" there, too.
FP
