As for work | 9 March 02010, 17:23 |
Work at NASA continues, despite all the hoopla and hand wringing. This week we have crew members coming over to the low-fidelity Orion mockup to test out some Rotational Hand Controller (RHC) prototypes. One of the prototypes is a super-expensive mockup made at Langley that's electrically functional and has the correct translation, which is kind of cool, except that the body is a very old design and not really representative of what we're planning on doing. The next one is a stereolithed model that's volumetrically equivalent to the current baseline proposal, but I've made models of all the buttons and put them on Velcro so that we can move them around and try different places (in particular there's a lot of question about where the launch abort button is going to go). (more ...)  | |
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Alice in Wonderland | 9 March 02010, 17:16 |
| Saw Alice in Wonderland last night. 3D, even. It was a gorgeous movie; the scenes of Wonderland were visually stunning (the Red Queen's castle was particularly great). Good enough to forgive some of the CG bloopers (there were a few). They also made a really good treatment of the story (The what? Who sees a movie and cares about the story?). Totally recommended.
I saw it in 3D; in general I think the 3D thing is a bit overhyped and I really don't care much about it, and in the past those things have given me a headache. In this case it worked though; at some points it seemed like they made things swoop out at the audience just because they could, but in general it was pretty smooth. Before the movie they had a preview for the NASA Hubble servicing mission movie. (more ...) | |
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The sky is right there where we left it | 3 February 02010, 16:26 |
... and I'm actually kind of excited about the new direction that we're getting. There are two parts that bother me:
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Keeping perspective | 2 February 02010, 20:45 |
| There's a lot of emotion (and some hard feelings) about the president's FY2011 budget proposal for NASA. A lot of smart, dedicated people have worked for a long time to bring the Constellation program as far as it has come, and many of those people are understandably upset that the president has called for the program to be canceled outright.
The bad feelings aren't about people losing their jobs. I'm sure that's a concern for many, but there's something else, something much deeper. Engineering isn't just the practice of cobbling something together from a collection of pieces and ideas - it's a creative endeavor, an art, and just like other artists and artisans, engineers put a lot of time, effort, and energy into their creations. (more ...) | |
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Right | 29 January 02010, 12:06 |
| Well I moved a year ago and kinda fell down on the job in terms of keeping this stuff up. Yes, it's been over a year since I posted last. Why even bother? I dunno. Might as well! Anyway, it was an ... interesting ... year, and I just never managed to get to this stuff. But I'm kinda back and the site is kinda back and maybe I'll start posting here again. I transferred some of my old posts from the old server to the new service but not all of them. Still no photos, but that will be fixed eventually. (more ...) | |
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Ike (again) | 31 October 02008, 8:11 |
| I said I would post about this, but then I didn't. Work is really hectic. So the short version: Ike was annoying; I woke up and the TV said we were evacuating, so we packed the animals and a pile of junk food and not quite enough clothing into the car and headed northward. Evacuating was fun (less fun for Clio) and I got to see new places and meet new people, then we came back (after Clio pooped on someone's rug and bit someone else we figured it was time) and didn't have electricity or running water at my apartment for another week. (more ...) | |
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Ike | 25 September 02008, 12:12 |
| If you tried to send me e-mail in the last couple of weeks, it bounced because I was without power. Now I have power and e-mail (and air conditioning, and potable water, and refrigeration, and such). I'll talk about this later; I have to go to work soon. | |
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Well crap. | 6 April 02008, 19:56 |
| I just realized it's been several months since I took that vacation, and I still haven't finished posting about it. On top of that, I can't seem to find the text I wrote.
I don't feel too bad about it because I don't recall writing very much. Basically, I had an uneventful trip to Prague, and when I landed around 3pm it was already dark outside, and very cold (though I was prepared for that). I wandered around Prague for several hours, bought some really good food at some sidewalk stands, and had some good beer (pilsner, of course) but didn't try this one. (more ...) | |
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Why yes, I am lazy! | 5 February 02008, 18:23 |
| Still haven't posted those last few vacation entries. I'll get around to it some day. It's on the list ... | |
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Almost done | 12 January 02008, 18:40 |
| I've only got a couple of vacation posts left, but every time I sit down to do this I quickly get bored. Also, I've been putting in a lot of extra time at work, so when I get home I'm not really in the mood to sit in front of the computer. Maybe I'll finish tomorrow. I really had fun in Prague, but I didn't write much about it so the editing should be quick. | |
