Jul 312011
 

University of Michigan is working on some interesting internet technology that should allow people to visit websites (YouTube, frex) that are banned by the countries they are in (China, frex):

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138872976/a-new-way-around-internet-censorship

So if you’re in China, and you want access to a banned site like YouTube, you just type YouTube.com into your browser, and the Telex station will see that connection, and disguise it as something innocuous. You might be watching YouTube, but to a censor, it will just seem as if you’re visiting a harmless, non-blocked site.

Neat.

And not exactly relevant, but also on the NPR website:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138639711/math-can-predict-insurgent-attacks-physicist-says

Guy predicts terrorist attacks with math. How weird is that?

 Posted by at 3:46 pm
Jul 312011
 

The hour is kinda late on this, I admit. But in about an hour and a half, the Houston Astros are scheduled to play the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin. If anyone reading along is willing and able to digitally record the game *and*make screenshots, I would be most appreciative. At least one veterans group is scheduled to serve as a Color Guard for the US flag, and I’d be interested in any and all shots of them that can be obtained. Obviously High Def would be best, but I’d appreciate *anything* that can be got. All I have is a VCR that hasn’t been used in a bit short of a *decade,* not even sure if it still works.

I would assume the color guard would do their thing *before* the game, but I don’t know the actual schedule on this.

Thanks.

 Posted by at 10:30 am
Jul 302011
 

Yesterday the crop duster went after the field just across the road. As a result, it flew really close to the house a few times. Surprisingly difficult to get photos of something trucking along at a hundred miles an hour at treetop level, coming at you from *behind* a house…

 Posted by at 11:40 am
Jul 302011
 

Twentieth in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” This is the Lockheed A-7-2 design as drawn by Ed Baldwin in January 1959. This particular drawing has a Source Grade of four:

“RAINBOW to GUSTO” is available from Amazon:

To download the high-rez version of the A-7-3 drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the A-7-3 drawing, use these:

Username: the FIRST word in the body of the text on page 141

Password: the LAST word in the body of the text on page 141

(Remember: Case Sensitive!)

ALSO NOTE: if all you get is a “red X,” that means the image is too large for your browser to display (I’ve not had a problem with Firefox, but have had with IE). In that event, simply hit the Back button to this page, and right click on the link above and save the image directly to your computer and view from there.

Up next: A-10 configuration

 Posted by at 1:22 am
Jul 282011
 

Some nights back I managed to take these craptacular photos of the one-eyed cat and two of her kittens. Scruffy also put in an appearance, and there didn’t seem to be any animosity; my guess would be that Scruffy is (or believes himself to be) the father.

 Posted by at 8:57 pm
Jul 282011
 

Nineteenth in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” This is the Lockheed A-7-2 design as drawn by Ed Baldwin in January 1959. This particular drawing has a Source Grade of four:

“RAINBOW to GUSTO” is available from Amazon:

To download the high-rez version of the A-7-2 drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the A-7-2 drawing, use these:

Username: the FIRST word in the body of the text on page 140

Password: the LAST word in the body of the text on page 140

(Remember: Case Sensitive!)

ALSO NOTE: if all you get is a “red X,” that means the image is too large for your browser to display (I’ve not had a problem with Firefox, but have had with IE). In that event, simply hit the Back button to this page, and right click on the link above and save the image directly to your computer and view from there.

Up next: A-7-3 configuration

 Posted by at 8:46 pm
Jul 282011
 

The San Diego Aerospace Museum has posted a Northrop video, “The Story of the Flying Wing.” While the video is faded and the audio is, frankly, painful, it remains of some real historical interest. This was clearly a video meant for the ignernt public, not as a promotional video to the Air Force, so it’s got a lot of dumbed-down in it, including a lot of cartoons.

[youtube c_NehU6fMWY]

I think the narrator is the same narrator from “The War Of The Worlds,” which featured a Flying Wing dropping nukular whoopass on the Martians…

 Posted by at 2:45 pm