expanding a VHD

In the past, when my fixed disk was too small, I'd create a new fixed disk and install a fresh copy of WinXP. I'm too busy for that now, so I checked Google to see if there were any hacks to increase the size of a fixed disk. I assumed to find nothing, but I found VHD Resizer. Cool.

VHD Resizer - handy tool for people to use that need to expand a VHD.

At this point, I thought that I'd be able to use Windows tools to expand the C: drive in the VM to use all the space. I opened diskpart and it found all the space but since my partition was the boot partition I couldn't use diskpart. I had to use BootIt NG for the resizing.

BootIt NG - simple partitioning tool.

Unfortunately, BootIt NG didn't come with a standard floppy image (that I could directly capture in VPC) and I didn't know how to create a floppy image so I had to search once more. WinImage was overwhelmingly popular and I tried it - worked great.

WinImage - tool for creating disk images - I used it to create a blank floppy disk to capture in VPC.

In the VPC, I captured the blank floppy image that I created with WinImage. I then used the makedisk app in the BootIt NG download to write the BootIt NG stuff to the floppy. I rebooted the VPC and used the menus to expand the partition to consume all available space and then released the floppy image. Finally, I booted the VPC again and had all the space available as I had hoped.

any 3D movie posters in Denver?

I've not seen full-color holograms nor have I seen a hologram the size of a movie poster. There are now some full-color holographic movie posters around.

Last week, 10 U.S. theaters rolled out full-color 3-D posters with motion and photorealistic detail to promote the movie How She Move. Made by Quebecois company RabbitHoles, the advertisements feature one of the film's characters tearing up the dance floor in an eight-second clip that can be "played" in 3-D by walking from left to right of the poster. Despite the images' slightly transparent quality, what you see is pretty close to the real thing.

...

To produce the imagery, RabbitHoles creates a 3-D computer model of the object that will be turned into a hologram. A virtual camera takes snapshots at different angles, and a software algorithm developed by RabbitHoles calculates how light would bounce off each angle in the scene. The result is up to 1,280 different snapshots, or frames, that not only hold color, distance and angle info, but light patterns as well.

To record the actual hologram onto a sheet of film, the data is sent to a printer that divides each frame into pixels -- a poster-size print can hold up to 700,000. The company then exposes each pixel with red, green and blue pulsed lasers.

-- from New 3-D Technique in Wired

Sounds impressive, but I'd like to see one first-hand.

Starting the kids on the XO

Yesterday was the first day we let the boys play with the XO. Today, we let them play some more and they continue to explore. Isaac and Spencer both really like the video recorder but Isaac spent a surprising amount of time calculating. Blogs and news reports say the keyboard is built for tiny hands, so here is a picture in case you haven't played with one - my hand is on the right.


Luke and I played with our XO's together yesterday and learned about sharing applications and chatting. Sharing applications is very cool, but getting chatting started seemed to be non-trivial. When the applications open, they default to private but can be changed to the neighborhood. When someone in the neighborhood is sharing an application, you can see it in the neighborhood view. For example, Luke shared the word processor app and I clicked on it to join in. We each saw our cursor and the other person's cursor and could edit concurrently.

Above is the network view showing access points and mesh networks in the area - not too exciting here since this is from home. It is an interesting view and I hope to see more systems adopting something similar.


Kinda hard to tell if Spencer is having fun or working but he's doing something and seems interested to continue doing it.

Levitt, Freakonomics

Seth Levine influenced me to 'read' Freakonomics. I actually used OverDrive to listen to the book while working at night. I didn't retain as much as I would focussed purely on a book but I didn't want to completely waste my nights working.

The best part of the book for me was that they would give some surprising or shocking conclusion to something and then they would describe how it came to be. Chapters 1, 2, and 5 were enlightening to spectacular while 3, 4, and 6 were just interesting to me. Chapter 1 was about incentives and cheating, how incentives can go wrong, who cheats, and how cheaters might be caught. Chapter 2 was about information so they detailed a key time in the bringing down of the KKK and considered real estate agent performance.

Do parents really matter? That is the question in Chapter 5 and data shows that the amount of time kids spend watching TV doesn't positively correlate their standardized test scores. In fact, a list of 16 or so issues are considered and I was surprised at others like regular trips to the museum or parents reading daily to the kids don't positively correlate.

Pika Pika

The video below is the first I've heard of Pika Pika. Interesting; creative.



Some of the stuff is clearly flashlights but other stuff looks pixelated - to the point that it seems like the photos were edited with a Koala Pad on a C64. Fun idea though!

We gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero.

I bumped into the Hero of Canton clip from Firefly tonight and it gave me some good laughs. Of course, if you aren't a Firefly fan, then it's probably not so fun.



Well done, Joss and crew - that was some great stuff you all created.

That's just freaky.

Read this Wired article: Harvard Physicist Plays Magician With the Speed of Light.

... recently she shot a pulse into one [Bose-Einstein condensate] and stopped it — turning the BEC into a hologram, a sort of matter version of the pulse. Then she transferred that matter waveform into an entirely different BEC nearby — which emitted the original light pulse.

Awesome... and freaky :)

To find out what you don't know, you have to do

Google Alerts informed me of this insightful article. The whole thing is interesting, but the clip that jumped out at me was this:

That's one of the big things I've learned over the past three years at Masten Space Systems - you never know how much you really don't know until you try to find out.

We often talk about the importance of knowing what you know and don't know, but sometimes we forget how to discover what we really don't know. It isn't just about thinking and analyzing.

Solar Power Options

A few years ago, my neighbor offered me solar panels that he wasn't using. I thought that was cool and I looked into what I'd need so I could use them. At the time, I'd need some stuff and batteries - that batteries are more important than the other stuff because they are so expensive.

If the neighbor was still there and was still offering the panels, I'd take them now because it sounds like you don't need batteries now. My understanding, based on a brief discussion with BB, is that Xcel will buy any excess electricity generated so there is no need for batteries any more. Cool - too bad the neighbor moved!

I just read about a new option today on Wired. I was actually enjoying this excellent article, Thanks to Google's Tools, I'm the Most Efficient Time-Waster Ever and then I spotted this article, Selling Homeowners a Solar Dream. Pretty interesting stuff: this new company puts everything in place and you agree to buy your power from them at a fixed rate.

Citizenrē - take a look - interesting.

XO Production Starting / Buy One Get One

I signed up to buy an XO a year or two ago and the time is finally getting close! Production runs of the XO start this month and supposedly we'll be able to buy an XO sometime around Nov 12. To buy an XO, you pay $400 which results in you getting one for yourself and giving one to a child somewhere. More info here.

Yes, they need medicine, food, etc. but help them bridge the technology gap too.

Launch Log 2007.11.03

We only had two launches, but both were great flights. Our first was an Estes Mean Machine, we call it the Rainbow Machine, on an Aerotech E15 motor. It took a second for the rocket to lift off but it then flew straight and higher than I had imagined it would. Our second flight was a Level 1 certification attempt using the Bullet (booster only) on an Aerotech H128W motor. The Bullet flew straight and deployed perfectly at apogee, but had a rough landing invalidating the certification attempt.

The unfortunate landing: by catching the tip of the fin here, it cracked the fin root and will require the joint be soaked in thin epoxy before flying the Bullet again.


Shanelle caught this pretty launch while we were there. This is not one of our rockets but it sure is a nice picture so I'm posting it.

installing mysql and sshd on Ubuntu 7.10

One of my programmers asked me how to install MySQL and SSHd on Ubuntu 7.10. I assumed that it would be Applications -> Add / Remove -> MySQL and SSHd. I learned that Ubuntu 7.10, out of the box, doesn't have the repositories configured for these servers and also that there is a little different approach for services.

Here's what I ended up doing, and I like it:

System -> Administration -> Software Sources
    Ubuntu Software
        X Canonical-supported Open Source software
        X Community-maintained Open Source software
        X Software restricted by copyright or legal issues
    Third-party Software
        X http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu gutsy partner
    Close

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
    sudo apt-get install mysql-server
    sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Good stuff.

von Braun, Space Frontier

I definitely read this book again. von Braun covered details about every aspect of space flight at the time: the reason for the countdown starts the book, details about the various types of escape rockets and how they work are covered, different styles of pumping and pressurizing liquid fuels and discussed, and all kinds of other stuff.

Rocketplane Global... XCOR Aerospace...

The two companies that have lingered on my mind since the X Prize Cup have been Rocketplane Global and XCOR Aerospace. I hope that both companies become tremendously successful, but I spend a lot of time wondering if either of the companies can find success.

On the surface, XCOR seems to me to be the most likely company in the new race-to-space to succeed. The things that I see on the surface is that they have a couple rocket planes that actually fly with the rockets, they have developed and patented technologies critical to improving the engines (and others are using the technologies), and they aren't publicly speculating / promising when flights will be available.

XCOR's Xerus should be impressive if they can pull it off. Having built and flown the EZ-Rocket 20+ times and built and flown the next generation, Rocket Racer, it seems that they are evolving and iterating fantasticly.

Rocketplane has all the right people and just dumped the Leer that they've been working on for a couple years. To me, that says that they have no hope - sounds just like a dot-com run by rich kids. On the other hand, they are contracting almost everything out except for the stuff that is truely their core competency.

No matter what happens - those people in those companies are doing some way cool stuff. Good luck to all - yes, I think that it takes some luck to make a successful company.

The purpose of the countdown is to:

Assure maximum safety for flight crews (if any), ground crews, and equipment, while the vehicle is prepared for flight.

Avoid wearing out critical flight or ground equipment by activating it too long before launch.

Enable the launch director to launch at an exact instant - corresponding, say, to a favorable position of celestial objects, or to requirements for orbital rendezvous.

Synchronize launch preparations with supporting operations, such as the readying of radars and tracking cameras, or the setting up of road blocks near the launch site.

- Dr. Wernher von Braun

I think that for many hobby rocketeers with kids, that last bit may need to be changed to, "Synchronize launch preparations with supporting operations, such as the rounding up of the kids, the covering of the little ears, readying of radars, ...".

Close to a Thor Simulation

Entering rocket details into RockSim is not my favorite task. Fortunately for me, I almost finished creating the Thor in RockSim - that means that I'll be able to start running simulations soon.



As for construction: Greg M provided the drill press and drilled the holes in the aft centering ring last night for the motor retainer. Joe at HobbyTown helped me find another forward centering ring since one of the rings provided with the kit was consumed by the motor retainer. I expect to set all the centering rings today and hope to do some glassing with Warren on the airframe tomorrow.

Clary, Rocket Man

i borrowed Rocket Man from the local library with the hope of learning a bit about Robert Goddard. The book was pretty difficult to read, so I don't expect to ever read it again. The biggest problem was that the author bounced around in time so it was confusing about what had happened versus what was going on at the time. Another confusing bit was that the author used different names for the same people, but there were so many names in the book that it became a blur.

A particularly interesting bit in the book was that they dispute a lot of Goddard's claims. Goddard was certainly an intelligent visionary, but he was exclusive and when he found people that were likely smarter or more qualified he either convinced them to work on his team or he shunned them. Goddard received more publicity than any other scientist, but he never published in scientific journals.

Launch Log 2007.09.22

We had 7 launches on this awesome late-summer afternoon. We pulled out the Renegade which hasn't flown in a while, melted the Stingray, and broke the fin on the Purple Rhino - again. Spencer wanted to fly the Firestreak SST but it has a broken fin from little boys playing with rockets so we'll have to wait for a replacement part.

• Firehawk | 1/2 A3 | straight flight, higher than usual on 1/2 A3, drifted in recovery to land 100 yards from pad


• Renegade | C6 | Isaac did most of the prep, some weather cocking, drifted in recovery to land 120 yards from pad


• Army Man | B6 | impressive flight on a B6; no weather cocking but drifted a lot in recovery; landed about 200 yards from pad - bounced in a parking lot


• Stingray | 1/2 A3 | Spencer thought about prep'ing the rocket, weather cocked just enough to land close to pad on streamer recovery


• Purple Rhino | 4 x A10 | beautiful flight - love this rocket; no weather cocking; light wind so landed pretty close to pad


• Firehawk | 1/2 A3 | neighborhood kid joined us and did the prep; chute got stuff in ejection so motor ejected; no damage to rocket (other than lost motor retainer


• Stingray | 1/2 A3 | the ejection charge blew the nose-cone off the rocket and melted / deformed the top 60% of the fuselage; fuselage and nose-cone both recovered but rocket is damaged beyond repair because of the deforming of the fuselage

Before the final Stingray flight, we attempted to launch Mighty Mouse 2. I didn't have anything to use for flash-in-the-pan ignition, so we tried using solar igniters. After 3 attempts of getting rocket to pad, count-down, fail, check connection and for shorts, we gave up. We're thinking we need to build or buy a bigger launcher (one that uses a bigger battery anyway).


Spencer can't hold down the launch key, so Isaac holds the key and Spencer pushes the button.


Team work - and the rocket lifts off. Note that it is the person pushing the launch button that does the count-down.


Spencer finishes off his launch by doing his own retrieval. Well done, Spencer.

Bullet Ground-Testing

I've been reading a lot lately that you need to always ground-test to make sure that the charge can separate the loaded rocket. I had actually planned to fly the Bullet without ground-testing but I'm ready to fly the Bullet and the next available date isn't until November so ground-testing sounded kinda fun.

I prep'd the rocket (without an engine) and fed the wire for the Main ejection canister through the static port hole. Some people, so I'm told, do their ground-testing using a tube taped to the static port hole and they suck on the tube and then when they release, the AV bay represurrized and the computer fires the charges. I manually tested the computer separately a few days ago using it's built-
in test sequences and am just testing the separation in my ground-testing here.

Isaac thought that the test failed; he knew that the rocket wasn't going to launch but he thought that the chute was supposed to open. I used the canisters that I built a couple weeks ago and calculated that I needed about 2.5 g of FFFFg black powder for the ejection charge. A failure would have either been the whole upper section shredding from too big a charge or the nose code not popping out with force from too small a charge. Looks to me like the 2.5 g was just right.

Launch Log 2007.09.20

We met up with some friends at the park at 6p to play and launch some rockets. We had 5 launches and ended the evening by losing Mighty Mouse - yes, the original. Very sad.

By the time we all ate, it was after 6:30p - that means the sun was about to go down. The field had been in use by a bunch of soccer teams, so we weren't just waiting to finish eating. We performed a rapid setup and prep on the Firestreak SST and launched it for a nearly perfect flight on a 1/2 A3.

The second flight was the Firehawk on an A3, but we had intended to use a 1/2 A3. With dusking coming and a bit of a break, we needed to keep landings close to the pad and that meant lower flights. The Firehawk is a great flyer and it went out of sight on the A3. There was almost no weather cocking so a long walk crossed my mind; fortunately, the chute only opened about 70% so decent was quick but not destructive.

Third flight was the Firestreak SST again but this time with Sam pushing the button. Another great flight on a 1/2 A3 - Spencer loves his rocket and set it asside with the intention of us launching it again right after launching the Stingray. The Stingray was unexciting on a 1/2 A3 - just too small to see in the near dusk conditions.

The Firestreak SST wasn't ready for a flight yet, so I loaded up Mighty Mouse for a flight on a C6. What was I thinking? Bad choice - so long Mighty Mouse. After spending some time looking for Mighty Mouse, we cleaned up and went home.