Month: September 2006

So I’m going to take the plunge and install Linux on my home machine. I picked Gentoo, and will go forward with it unless someone can reason me to another flavor.

My first question is this: I have 2 250 GB SATA drives on a Promise SATA controller. I can RAID them using the controller, but I’ve read that I might be better off RAIDing them using Linux RAID.

Any suggestions, hints, ideas?

Thanks Weed

Now you can play ROBOTRON 2084 online!

Plus other excellent arcade games like Joust, Spyhunter, and Rampage!

Here is the best answer to the question you’ve been asking for years… how does my computer work?

It’s finally explained here in one , easy to understand, simple illustration!

http://www.newportharbor.us/computerworks.htm

Enjoy!

JB

If I click on “My Account”, I get an error (see attached image).

Talk about killing two birds with one stone 8^>

My $.02 Weed

P.S. I prefer text smileys anyway…

Here’s a brief article I wrote in response to someone misunderstanding the effect of CG on high-speed model aircraft handling. I know regular readers of barnson.org may not be into this, but it’s a place I can point other enthusiasts to in order to correct a common misconception regarding the Center of Gravity.

The only issue i have at wot is that it wants to climb even though I’m a tad nose heavy.

No, it wants to climb BECAUSE you are nose-heavy. Think about the aerodynamics. Let’s assume you trim your bird for straight-and-level flight at about mid-throttle. I usually trim somewhere between 50% and 75% throttle. Whatever you do with trim, you want trim to be well above ‘waddling near a stall’, and well below the speed it would achieve in a power-off dive, for reasons outlined below.

Now let’s climb. Really good and high, and fairly far out. Then turn OFF your motor, and put your Stryker into a 45-degree dive either with or against the wind. Take your hands off the controls and just watch what it does for a few seconds.

If your bird is nose-heavy, in this power-off dive, it will tend to pull out of the dive fairly sharply… on mine, stock, it will pull out of a 45-degree 200 foot dive long before hitting the pavement. It seems backwards, I know! The reason for this is because at higher speeds, you elevons exert more aerodynamic force on the tail of the airplane than they do at traditional cruising speed. So since that power-off dive has it going faster than where you trimmed it for cruising speed, those elevons are pushing down harder, causing the nose to raise.

If your bird, instead, steepens the dive, you are tail-heavy. This is for the same reason as why it climbs when nose-heavy: you’re flying faster than your trim-speed, so your elevons exert more up-force, causing your nose to pitch downward. The elevons were literally “propping up” the tail of the aircraft at cruising speed.

Now, you ask, “what about my thrust angle?” Well, we can figure out if that’s your problem too, by finding a way to increase thrust from cruising-trim speed without actually increasing speed. It’s much easier to sort out motor alignment problems once your CG is correct, so fix that first. Use weights if you have to, but at the very least, remove that big screw which is under the sticker in the nose of your Stryker-C.

Do this test several times before coming to a conclusion, and then after making any CG changes, do it again several times. You’ll see the difference, and know whether more modification is needed. I actually have a small 1/4 oz lead weight near the tail of my Stryker-C to get the CG where I like it.

OK, so you’ve sorted out your CG issue, right? Put it into a power-off forty-five -degree dive, and it should VERY SLOWLY start to pull out on its own. That’s pretty much proper trim on the Stryker. It’s almost impossible for a Stryker to not pull out of a dive when the CG is correct, primarily because the airfoil is semi-symmetrical. Your goal with balancing your CG is to eliminate the elevons as a source of that differential lift.

All right, now how do we eliminate excess speed in figuring out motor thrust angle problems? Well, once again, let’s start out straight and level, properly trimmed for flight at around 50% throttle, and going farly slowly.

Now, punch the throttle on your Stryker C (about 75% to 85% will do fine on this bird, it has a thrust-to-weight of very nearly 1:1, particularly with an APC 6×4 prop) and aim it skyward at about 45 degrees. Once again, take your hands off the stick and watch what it does.

Now, ideally, the speed you’re achieving in this climb should be the same as your trim speed. Do the test several times at varying throttle settings to confirm your results before you make any changes.

It should *very slowly* lower its nose towards horizontal, at a rate similar to that in your dive test. If it drops the nose very quickly toward horizontal, or if it steepens the climb, your thrust angle is off. To remedy nose-dropping, lower the front of your motor and raise the rear (backwards from what you’d do on a tractor setup). To fix nose-steepening, raise the front and lower the rear.

In any of these cases, if your plane starts to roll one direction or the other, you have an issue with thrust angle left/right, wing warping, or transverse CG. You want to double-check that your machine is balanced laterally (wing-to-wing) on the bench, and this is very easy just by holding the nose and the tip of the prop nut (upside down, of course, since this plane is effectively a low-wing warbird). A nail stuck into the high wing balances you laterally. If you’re still rolling after lateral balancing the bird, then you have a wing or control-surface warp you need to figure out and fix.

Hope this helps. The use of some simple climb and dive tests from a cruising-speed trim really helps to figure out CG and thrust angle issues.

In short, the Stryker-C flies just fine, stock. For pilots interested in more axial rolls and high-speed upright and inverted passes without having to apply much down-stick, a small change to the CG helps sort those issues out pretty well. The downside of scooching the CG back is, as always, stability. Other pilots complain that my birds are “twitchy”, because I like a fairly far aft CG (still within “normal”, but just a bit further back than most pilots are used to) for manueverability and hgh-speed handling.

So I made a few layout changes and upgrades (notably, to Drupal 4.7; that was actually a little hairy due to database inconsistencies!). I’m going to enable file uploading here shortly in order to fulfill a request by Sammy G to be able to upload files.

I also brought back the Google ads. Initially, they brought in few bucks a day, which almost covered my fraction of the hosting expenses I have with my hosting partner, but eventually it trickled down to like 15 cents a day which wasn’t worth it. I’m giving it another shot, as I’m driving about three times as much traffic now as then! Kind of weird, that.

Anyway, I’ll post when file uploading works. Feedback on layout welcome, as I made a few layout changes to accomodate the Google block again.

–Matt B.

After a long and busy summer, I have returned to say hello.

On reflection, I actually have nothing more interesting to say than that. Hello!

Newspaper: News on Paper

I have an idea on how I would run a major newspaper.

Earlier this year, McClatchy bought Knight Ridder in a move that rattled the newspaper industry. The acquisition was called upon as an anathema by many stock analysts who continued to depress the industry outlook by acknowledging a shrinking circulation, especially by readers under the age of 30. The bears besmirched the bulls by bickering that the up-and-comings are copasetic getting their news on the internet or their PDAs instead of print.

Maybe I’m different than most people but I need my news in print. I don’t like the computer screen as the primary medium for in-depth, lengthy news. This is because the following scenarios have become “news time”:

• Scenario #1: The morning bathroom.
• Scenario #2: The morning kitchen table.
• Scenario #3: The Metro, bus or airplane ride.

Also, I’ve started to become increasingly irritated with the current newspaper format. First, they’re less of newspapers and more of adpapers. Seriously, you’ve got a front section that is 75% ads. I don’t care about the ladies’ fall shoe liquidation sale at the outlet mall. I don’t care about the new line of patio furniture. I care about the news, which happens to be stuffed into the upper corner of A4 while ads cover the rest of the double-spread. Secondly, I hate the type of paper. The paper is this drab grey with ink flecks that looks like it was put through the washer before laid out on the press. Furthermore, what’s up with the bulk? An unfolded paper takes up the size of an adult torso.

Here’s my idea, which I’m culling from an experience I had during s stay last year at an overseas hotel. It’s called the New York Times Digest idea. When visiting the Caribbean I woke up the first morning of the trip and found a copy of the New York Times Digest deposited outside my room. This thing was slick. It was a stapled printout of fifteen 8.5”x11” pieces of paper carrying slenderized, columned versions of the full daily’s top stories. It even included the crossword puzzle on the last page. I don’t care where you are in the world, you cannot escape Will Shortz!

Anyway, this got me wondering why it couldn’t be done with subscribers back on the mainland? I would much rather receive a fax or email in the morning with this version attached because I’m someone that wants to conquer the entire news on paper in 20 minutes and not feel as though I missed anything important. As a subscriber, I wouldn’t mind printing it out from a home printer each morning. I would also feel comfortable knowing that an online version is available for deeper coverage.

From a news operator’s standpoint, this layout and delivery tactic would lessen the large daily costs of maintaining a massive print, delivery and ad insert infrastructure. I would still keep the Sunday edition in print. Maybe a couple other issues a week as well? Actually, I would let readers select their mix and tier pricing that favors receiving a digitally-delivered digest edition.

Thoughts?

I never imagined myself as a Dad. Although I had been the third parent for my Brother and Sister on my Mom’s side, I just never conceived what it would be to be a dad. Here’s what I know now.

1) You’re not a dad.. you’re just you, and you’re the one who has to change the poopy, and he likes to fall asleep on you.. and you sure do love him.. and.. oh crap… you’re a dad.

2) You still have the same personal projects on your plate, and you’ll get to them.. but tomorrow.

3) Its tomorrow.. You still have the same personal projects on your plate, and you’ll get to them.. but tomorrow.

4) If you want to be on time, schedule yourself to be early. Not that it will make you on time, but you can say.. “I scheduled myself to be here early”.

5) Its not your kid, really.. its your parents’ kid.. they insist.. your wife is giving you the look.. tell them you’re the dad, and make sure they know their place.. then call them the next day and thank them for being so understanding cuz youre under so much stress.

6) Nothing is happening in the first six weeks. Not even a substitute.

7) Spit up and pee is clean, really. Its not dirty. Forget it happened.

8) Your wife can no longer eat or drink without spilling. Let it go.. she’ll get better.

9) You eat second. Your food will be cold. Learn to live with it. Let her eat.. dammit, don’t dunk your sandwich in her soup.. just let her eat.

10) The baby loves you – even though all the mean jobs have been relegated to you under the guise of “well you don’t have to feed him”.

There’s lots more, but these are the ones on my mind today.. oh, and –

11) The poopy flies at midnight.

I am here to staff our booth at the so-exciting Lamaze International annual meeting. It’s edge of your seat excitement, I can tell you.

I wasn’t at all sure if there were any folks hanging out here on the blog that lived in the Boston area, so I figured I would put that out there. And I’m also interested in recommendations on places to eat, and so on. I’ll have evenings free, but I am mercifully freed from this meeting on Saturday afternoon.

I was going to try a Red Sox game, but I figured my wife would mind me taking out a third mortgage to afford the tickets. Anyway, let me know any recommendations. Thanks everyone.