I was sitting around and I started to think of pizza shapes. You really only have two choices, round and four-sided. The four-sided variety can be either square or rectangular. If you are to believe Pizza Hut marketing, everyone enjoys the crust, that's why they invented the square pizza. This way you can get more pieces with the crust. The down side is that you also get a couple pieces that don't have any crust at all. The round pizzas usually have 8, 12 or 16 slices, depending on the size. The downside with round pizzas is that sometimes the center can get really gooey. You try to eat this first, and burn the top of your mouth.
If you get some sort of dip with your pizza, like Papa John's, they stick this little container in one of the free corners of the box that holds your pizza. The dip sauce is great, but there usually isn't enough of it. This got me thinking of the perfect pizza shape. Imagine if you will a pizza that was round but missing its center? Imagine a flattened donut-shaped pizza!
The advantages of this are quit plentiful. The center is gone, its edges replaced with that crunchy crust. Everyone gets extra crust! Or if you cut it like a traditional pizza and make a circular cut between the two crust edges, you get twice the number of pieces. Some pizza conglomerate can market that as some calorie-watching gimmick. Also, everyone gets a crust! The really big advantage though, now that the center is gone, you will have a larger area into which a tub of some savory sauce or dipping goo can be place. You will never run out of dipping sauce, and you will save on packaging those smaller containers. Win-win for everyone.
Just remember that you read it here first!
I just thought of another advantage of the donut-shaped pizza! You will not need that little plastic table that they stick in the middle of the pizza to prevent the box lid from sticking to all that melted cheesy goodness at the center of a traditional pizza. Cost savings galore!
Friday, December 05, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
For All Our Technology...
It seems that for all of our techonology we are becoming less able to do things on our own. I'm talking the most basic of things as related to the typical office environment. For example, what is happening right now in my office. We have two rather expensive color copiers. These scan, fax, print, make capuchino, etc. I am witness to the downfall of man as I type this.
Person A (Bob) is talking with Person B (Stan). Stan really likes the information Bob has on a particular brochure and wants a copy. Bob agrees its good for Stan to have, so both walk over to the copier. Hm, copier seems to be on the fritz, they make their way to the other copier. It seems to be misbehaving this morning as well. The duo walk back to the first copier (closet to me). They try it again, I suppose in the hopes that the Copier Fairy had magically fixed the machine while they were on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, they forgot to leave the brochure under their collective pillows, for the machine is still not working.
Not to be done in by a simple copier though, Stan and Bob begin to troubleshoot the infernal machine. They proceed to fill ALL the paper trays. I suppose as an offering to the Copier Fairy. This doesn't seem to work, perhaps they should have offered a bloody chicken foot. A quick check of the internals of the machine doesn't seem to be helping either. They discuss the ill behaving copier at length, then make their way to the second copier. They must have had an epiphany or something, perhaps the Copier Fairy favors this second machine over the first? No. The second copier is just as out of commission as the first.
This wonderful floor show has been going on for a good 15 minutes now, with no sign of slowing down. I wonder how long it would have taken Stan to manually copy the critical information from Bob's brochure? Probably less time. Assuming this duo makes $90k a year, they wasted $21.64. That's lunch for 3 days! No worries though, I took considerably less time to write this.
Person A (Bob) is talking with Person B (Stan). Stan really likes the information Bob has on a particular brochure and wants a copy. Bob agrees its good for Stan to have, so both walk over to the copier. Hm, copier seems to be on the fritz, they make their way to the other copier. It seems to be misbehaving this morning as well. The duo walk back to the first copier (closet to me). They try it again, I suppose in the hopes that the Copier Fairy had magically fixed the machine while they were on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, they forgot to leave the brochure under their collective pillows, for the machine is still not working.
Not to be done in by a simple copier though, Stan and Bob begin to troubleshoot the infernal machine. They proceed to fill ALL the paper trays. I suppose as an offering to the Copier Fairy. This doesn't seem to work, perhaps they should have offered a bloody chicken foot. A quick check of the internals of the machine doesn't seem to be helping either. They discuss the ill behaving copier at length, then make their way to the second copier. They must have had an epiphany or something, perhaps the Copier Fairy favors this second machine over the first? No. The second copier is just as out of commission as the first.
This wonderful floor show has been going on for a good 15 minutes now, with no sign of slowing down. I wonder how long it would have taken Stan to manually copy the critical information from Bob's brochure? Probably less time. Assuming this duo makes $90k a year, they wasted $21.64. That's lunch for 3 days! No worries though, I took considerably less time to write this.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Outsourcing
You hear a lot of static about "outsourcing". The first thoughts that comes to your mind are probably shipping a product design to China for manufacturing. While this is usually what happens, it is only one small aspect of outsourcing, and China is not the only place that gets our business. There is plenty of domestic (inter and intra-state) outsourcing going on as well. Toy companies for years have been shipping simple design artwork overseas, and allowing those molders to design the toy for manufacturability while still retaining the look of the original artwork. Of course you have probably noticed that some of these overseas companies are better than others due to the quality you see on our store shelves. As you can see, not only manufacturing but also design has been (and will continue to be) outsourced beyond our national boarders.
I'm not writing to praise or pounce on the virtues of outsourcing, foreign or domestic. I can't claim to know enough about the subject to make my mind up whether is it "good or bad" for America. I would rather discuss the finer details that one needs to be aware of when weighing the decision to outsource, speaking from a mechanical engineering perspective.
Outsourcing makes sense for a lot of companies. It allows a company to tap into specialties that do not reside in-house, or frees important resources for more critical actions. Have you ever hired a designer to make a business logo for you? Ever drove into one of those oil change shacks to get your oil changed? You've just committed "outsourcing" because you didn't have the required skills or didn't want to waste your time doing it yourself. Take this a step further, you are a manufacturer that makes a widget that uses hydraulic cylinders. The design of these cylinders are unique to your business (your IP (intellectual property)), and contrary to popular belief, business is doing great. You have reached capacity with your own manufacturing, and astute research by others in your organization have revealed that outsourcing the manufacturing of these cylinders makes financial sense. Outsourcing, great! Now what?
First you need to fully define your product requirements. I don't mean take a photo and email it, or crate up a cylinder and ship it off, asking your outsourcer to make "this" for you. You will need to quantifiably define the technical standards and performance requirements. Having measurable standards from which to inspect from will reduce the need to hand-hold your supplier in the long run.
Understand that internal personnel need to take on new responsibilities, or you need to hire people with these new skills if you want outsourcing to work. Your existing engineers will become project managers, system integrators, and specification writers. Your contract lawyers will become an important part of The Team. Your CAD jockeys will become the go-to people for file translation and database management. Discuss these changing roles, identify your weaknesses and plan accordingly.
Before your outsourcer gets started, have a Requirements Review meeting (or two or three) so both of you are on the same page and talking the same language about your product and expectations. Just because you specify a red coupe with shiny rims does not mean you will get a Lamborghini. Chances are you will get what was easiest for your outsourcer to deliver, a Kia (or worse yet, a used Yugo).
Hammer out a realistic Project Plan or Schedule. If you are outsourcing from overseas, don't forget to include time for boat transit time, customs, etc. Don't enter "1 day" for your internal inspection, it may take longer. Be sure to include/schedule internal review meetings. The sooner you identify where your supplier is lacking or where cost can be taken out of your product the better. Be sure to include/schedule teleconferences after you receive a deliverable so you can discuss with your supplier what they have done and what you are looking at.
Have a technical design review (preliminary, critical, etc) if your outsourced product warrants it. Double check those tolerance stack-ups, calculations, and margin analyses. Make sure your supplier conducted the proper studies and they are not over confident in their approach. Also, make sure they weren't too conservative, if they were, you just found an area of potential cost savings.
Look at the nuts and bolts, do this as a Product Readiness or Production Plan review. Are the facilities, equipment, material and labor force available to achieve this Plan? Is every adequately trained? In what quantities are you going to receive your product? A palletized gross makes no sense if your company is Lean and working one piece flow correctly. On the other hand it might make sense if your parts are small, and it makes financial sense if it came across the ocean in a shipping container. Then you should be asking who will warehouse this item, you or your supplier?
Monday, October 06, 2008
How do I DO what I do?
I was recently asked, "How do you Do what you do?" Huh? It took a moment for me to grok that question. Was I being asked about my workflow? Was I being asked to train others? Did someone think I was crazy or crazy-like-a-fox? As it turned out, the correct answer was "all of the above." I rambled through some explanation that satisfied my inquisitor, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to write something down for my own sake. You get the benefit of reading about here.
When I am faced with a design challenge the first thing I try to do is understand what the design scope is. For example, a customer might comment about a panel being flimsy.
1. They could be saying the panel is too flexible and are worried about drum-skinning.
2. They could be saying that it won't hold up in the user environment and want it more robust.
3. They could be saying that it just looks too cheap and are worried about user perceptions.
All three examples are covered by the "flimsy" comment above, and all three require different approaches in the design. Pick the wrong direction to precede and at a minimum you look like someone that doesn't know what they are doing. In the worst case, you or your employer just lost a customer. Design is a very subjective field, and the sooner a designer knows what the customer truly desires, the sooner a designer can create an item that will satisfy that customer. Of course there is a fine line between what the customer wants and what they need, but I'll save that for another topic. Ask questions, and make sure there are no Yes or No answers. Get your customer to paint a full picture for you.
When I am called to discuss a design I sit back, listen, and take notes. Usually there are others in the room that have spent a great deal on time on a project already, let them talk. They know their product or manufacturing capabilities, and combining the two can only yield one design outcome that they can see. These existing personnel are too close to the design, so close in fact they are married to it and can't see where improvements can be made. This is all right in the short term, at least they are showing some compassion for their work. Its hard to come into a situation like this, as I may be unfamiliar with the industry or the unique challenges that are encountered. The best thing to do is listen to all the arguments being presented, draw on my past experiences, and formulate something that tries to address all the issues. I'm there to provide a new perspective on the problem, collectively being known as "thinking outside the box" and "ideation". Sometimes a successful design might require suggesting a manufacturing method that is not common in the customer's industry. Sometimes I have to literally "turn the world on its ear" and suggest a different assembly process that gets the design back to familiar and manageable territory. You can't get faulted for paying attention and listening, just be sure you stay focused on the task and are ready to provide solutions when its your turn to speak up.
When I am developing the design, I am considering the entire system. How will my widget interface with other items? How will manufacturing produce it? How assembly build it? How will end users interact with it? As I develop my models in SolidWorks, I try to envision what the final assembly will look like. This will lead me to where the assembly origin should be, and in turn tells me which components are the critical driving factors for the design. This also gives me further insight into how each part should be modeled, as in when a part should be a revolved feature or multiple extruded bosses. From the base sketch, should I extrude in only one direction in the plane, or should it be a mid-plane extrude. The proper model construction should be intuitive at higher levels of the model. It should make sense that if I want to grow a particular feature that I should only have to select that feature and modify it, not find myself in a cascading chain of changes.
When I am faced with a design challenge the first thing I try to do is understand what the design scope is. For example, a customer might comment about a panel being flimsy.
1. They could be saying the panel is too flexible and are worried about drum-skinning.
2. They could be saying that it won't hold up in the user environment and want it more robust.
3. They could be saying that it just looks too cheap and are worried about user perceptions.
All three examples are covered by the "flimsy" comment above, and all three require different approaches in the design. Pick the wrong direction to precede and at a minimum you look like someone that doesn't know what they are doing. In the worst case, you or your employer just lost a customer. Design is a very subjective field, and the sooner a designer knows what the customer truly desires, the sooner a designer can create an item that will satisfy that customer. Of course there is a fine line between what the customer wants and what they need, but I'll save that for another topic. Ask questions, and make sure there are no Yes or No answers. Get your customer to paint a full picture for you.
When I am called to discuss a design I sit back, listen, and take notes. Usually there are others in the room that have spent a great deal on time on a project already, let them talk. They know their product or manufacturing capabilities, and combining the two can only yield one design outcome that they can see. These existing personnel are too close to the design, so close in fact they are married to it and can't see where improvements can be made. This is all right in the short term, at least they are showing some compassion for their work. Its hard to come into a situation like this, as I may be unfamiliar with the industry or the unique challenges that are encountered. The best thing to do is listen to all the arguments being presented, draw on my past experiences, and formulate something that tries to address all the issues. I'm there to provide a new perspective on the problem, collectively being known as "thinking outside the box" and "ideation". Sometimes a successful design might require suggesting a manufacturing method that is not common in the customer's industry. Sometimes I have to literally "turn the world on its ear" and suggest a different assembly process that gets the design back to familiar and manageable territory. You can't get faulted for paying attention and listening, just be sure you stay focused on the task and are ready to provide solutions when its your turn to speak up.
When I am developing the design, I am considering the entire system. How will my widget interface with other items? How will manufacturing produce it? How assembly build it? How will end users interact with it? As I develop my models in SolidWorks, I try to envision what the final assembly will look like. This will lead me to where the assembly origin should be, and in turn tells me which components are the critical driving factors for the design. This also gives me further insight into how each part should be modeled, as in when a part should be a revolved feature or multiple extruded bosses. From the base sketch, should I extrude in only one direction in the plane, or should it be a mid-plane extrude. The proper model construction should be intuitive at higher levels of the model. It should make sense that if I want to grow a particular feature that I should only have to select that feature and modify it, not find myself in a cascading chain of changes.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Careers
I applaud everyone that has found their careers, I'm still searching, probably because I haven't been in one of those "turning point" jobs. I have never held a typical minimum wage job. In early high school I bagged groceries for "tips only", averaging $6hr when the minimum wage was $3.25. Later in high school and after I was working in an architects office, moved up from plot plans and floor plan layouts (all board drafting) to marker-rendering elevations.
After 3 years of that I joined the Navy, and was duped into an electronics career path. I say duped because I wanted to join to be an illustrator (DM rating) but was told that I couldn't go into that field directly, I would have to cross-rate into the position. In tech school (A school) I asked to cross-rate, they said I needed a portfolio, I made one. They said I missed the review cycle, wait till the next one, I waited. When that time rolled around I was in my specific tech school (C school) and they couldn't let me cross-rate because my rating (FC) was undermanned and they had too much money invested in me. I enthusiastically completed my contract and got out. Grrr!
After 6yrs of that I joined Corporate America as a SolidWorks user and mechanical designer, and have jumped from manufacturing, to medical devices, to aerospace. I've been lucky in that for the past 12yrs I have been solely involved with design and R&D, working closely with engineers, master machinists and "lowly" drafters and CAD operators. Much like a few others I know, mechanical design just came intuitively to me, like my artistic talent being natural. I could never understand why others couldn't just sketch what their eyes were seeing, and couldn't understand why people didn't see why a particular design wouldn't work well.
This has held me back from going to school to get that coveted degree, because I don't know what degree(s) I should go for. Do I go into engineering and neglect my artistic side? I already know what to expect in that field, and could make a "real" career out of it. Do I get into art classes and neglect my rational and analytical side? I've thought of it, probably more now than I have ever in the past. I have a problem with getting a degree like that, paying an instructor to tell me about things I intuitively know. Who knows, maybe I'll just open a small tiki bar on the beach and call it a day.
After 3 years of that I joined the Navy, and was duped into an electronics career path. I say duped because I wanted to join to be an illustrator (DM rating) but was told that I couldn't go into that field directly, I would have to cross-rate into the position. In tech school (A school) I asked to cross-rate, they said I needed a portfolio, I made one. They said I missed the review cycle, wait till the next one, I waited. When that time rolled around I was in my specific tech school (C school) and they couldn't let me cross-rate because my rating (FC) was undermanned and they had too much money invested in me. I enthusiastically completed my contract and got out. Grrr!
After 6yrs of that I joined Corporate America as a SolidWorks user and mechanical designer, and have jumped from manufacturing, to medical devices, to aerospace. I've been lucky in that for the past 12yrs I have been solely involved with design and R&D, working closely with engineers, master machinists and "lowly" drafters and CAD operators. Much like a few others I know, mechanical design just came intuitively to me, like my artistic talent being natural. I could never understand why others couldn't just sketch what their eyes were seeing, and couldn't understand why people didn't see why a particular design wouldn't work well.
This has held me back from going to school to get that coveted degree, because I don't know what degree(s) I should go for. Do I go into engineering and neglect my artistic side? I already know what to expect in that field, and could make a "real" career out of it. Do I get into art classes and neglect my rational and analytical side? I've thought of it, probably more now than I have ever in the past. I have a problem with getting a degree like that, paying an instructor to tell me about things I intuitively know. Who knows, maybe I'll just open a small tiki bar on the beach and call it a day.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Return of the Living Tiki
Its funny how some things are present your entire life and you take them for granted. Growing up on the Space Coast of Florida, I took rocket launches, sunrises over the Atlantic and blue skies for granted. Soething else I took for granted were tikis. As a kid I had a pendant, probably of Ku, with red rhinestone eyes. I was always interested in primative art, tribal masks, and tiki gods. I find it strange that something like that could just fade from my memory over the years. I wonder what memories covered my tiki memories, covered them like a layer of dust that just got thicker and thicker over the years. It got so thick that I no longer acknowledged those memories, or at least didn't give them much consideration.
That was until about 18 months ago, probably February 2007. That is when I did my first acrylic painting, and the subject matter was a tiki. From that point on, the dust and cobwebs of my memory began to stir. That sediment that hid such an important part of my life had broken loose, allowing me access again to something important to my life. I know all that dust will have to settle somewhere, but I'll worry about those other lost memories in due time, when I am ready to rediscover them.
I have discovered that I am not alone in my love of tiki. My roommate, Greg, shares the same interest. Another friend Jason has recently rediscovered his (with our help). What I find interesting is that there are even more people out there that have the same and even deeper interest, and all of those people can be found in one convinient location: Tiki Central.
www.tikicentral.com
What bothers me is that it took me so long to rediscover tiki, and I'm talking real tiki. You see, there is a difference in what people consider tiki, and that difference is geographical. If you grew up on the East Coast of the USA, you were probably influenced by the Caribbean, parrots, pineapples, and toothy-faced tiki carvings. If you grew up on the West Coast of the USA, you were probably influenced by Polynesia, primitive art, Don the Beachcomber, pineapples and real tiki. At least, as real as real tiki can get since it is a post WWII import and interpretation. I've experienced both now, and I'll take the West Coast version, thank you very much.
That was until about 18 months ago, probably February 2007. That is when I did my first acrylic painting, and the subject matter was a tiki. From that point on, the dust and cobwebs of my memory began to stir. That sediment that hid such an important part of my life had broken loose, allowing me access again to something important to my life. I know all that dust will have to settle somewhere, but I'll worry about those other lost memories in due time, when I am ready to rediscover them.
I have discovered that I am not alone in my love of tiki. My roommate, Greg, shares the same interest. Another friend Jason has recently rediscovered his (with our help). What I find interesting is that there are even more people out there that have the same and even deeper interest, and all of those people can be found in one convinient location: Tiki Central.
www.tikicentral.com
What bothers me is that it took me so long to rediscover tiki, and I'm talking real tiki. You see, there is a difference in what people consider tiki, and that difference is geographical. If you grew up on the East Coast of the USA, you were probably influenced by the Caribbean, parrots, pineapples, and toothy-faced tiki carvings. If you grew up on the West Coast of the USA, you were probably influenced by Polynesia, primitive art, Don the Beachcomber, pineapples and real tiki. At least, as real as real tiki can get since it is a post WWII import and interpretation. I've experienced both now, and I'll take the West Coast version, thank you very much.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
July 4th, 2008
We just managed another successful Independence Day celebration at my friends house in Palmdale. The $2000 fireworks run in February (to Pahrump, NV) paid-off in a big way. We started the neighborhood show around 9:30pm and finished up around 10:30pm... just in time for the police and code enforcement to park at the corner to observe "nothing" happening at the house. There were fireworks going off all around us, but we were by far the loudest and most active the entire night.
No one got hurt or arrested, and no fires started, it was a great night.
I understand the reasons for fireworks being illegal, but we should have the right to celebrate our Independence! Sparklers and Smokin' Snakes just isn't going to cut it. Many people just use this day as an excuse to BBQ, drink and blow stuff up, but for me it goes deeper than that. Imagine the colonist and how they felt when it was announced that we were officially cutting our ties with Great Britain.
John Adams himself wrote about Independence Day, "It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."
No one got hurt or arrested, and no fires started, it was a great night.
I understand the reasons for fireworks being illegal, but we should have the right to celebrate our Independence! Sparklers and Smokin' Snakes just isn't going to cut it. Many people just use this day as an excuse to BBQ, drink and blow stuff up, but for me it goes deeper than that. Imagine the colonist and how they felt when it was announced that we were officially cutting our ties with Great Britain.
John Adams himself wrote about Independence Day, "It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Recovery is a long and twisting road
Well, it has been several weeks since my last post. I am still in Florida, and my father is still in the hosptial. I missed out on the details for the first week, but I can recap what I know. He was admitted on 01MAR08, complaining of abdominal pains, nausea, etc. He managed to call 911 himself, and was taken to the emergency room. From what I can gather, he was given "too much" delotted, and pain killer, and went into respiratory arrest. This is not the same as "coding" which is cardiac arrest.
I arrived on 06MAR08 on the red-eye flight our of LAX. His respiratory problems lead to the diagnosis of pulmatory fibrosis. The doctors say it is a condition he has probably had for a long time, just never discovered till now. This is a condition you can find more info on your own, you know Google and Wikipedia should be your friend. He was intubated 09MAR08.
He was extubated on 17MAR08. During this entire time he was feeding thorugh IVs and finally a tube in his nose. He had no real solid food since 08MAR08. He did not get any solid food until 19MAR08, when his speech therapist indicated his swallowing was adequate. He aspirated some water, and was given a barium swallow test, which he failed. The solid foods were removed from his diet, and he was placed back on the IV. I requested another barium test due to his sedated condition. His primary doctor agreed, and the following day a second barium test was successfully passed. Solid foods return.
Now there are still giving him some antibiotics due to some fluid in his lungs, but they are not ready to call it what it is yet. His liver enzymes are also elevated, and they do not know the cause. They indicate they are only elevated, not rising, so I suppose that is a good thing. Today we should learn if they will move him to a normal hospital room.
I arrived on 06MAR08 on the red-eye flight our of LAX. His respiratory problems lead to the diagnosis of pulmatory fibrosis. The doctors say it is a condition he has probably had for a long time, just never discovered till now. This is a condition you can find more info on your own, you know Google and Wikipedia should be your friend. He was intubated 09MAR08.
He was extubated on 17MAR08. During this entire time he was feeding thorugh IVs and finally a tube in his nose. He had no real solid food since 08MAR08. He did not get any solid food until 19MAR08, when his speech therapist indicated his swallowing was adequate. He aspirated some water, and was given a barium swallow test, which he failed. The solid foods were removed from his diet, and he was placed back on the IV. I requested another barium test due to his sedated condition. His primary doctor agreed, and the following day a second barium test was successfully passed. Solid foods return.
Now there are still giving him some antibiotics due to some fluid in his lungs, but they are not ready to call it what it is yet. His liver enzymes are also elevated, and they do not know the cause. They indicate they are only elevated, not rising, so I suppose that is a good thing. Today we should learn if they will move him to a normal hospital room.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
My Father
I just learned that my father has been in the surgical intensive since Friday evening. Its a shame that I live in California and he lives in Florida, it would have been nice to find this out sooner than half-way through the week. Many thanks to my father's friend, Skip Bolinger, as he was able to track my number down through my father's cell phone.
I have been expecting my dad to pass for sometime now. He's 75 and never took great care of himself. My mother passed away in April 1995, and had read that most spouses tended to pass within 5yrs of the other passing. So I consider my father having lived a full life, and has managed to beat my expectations. Of course now that he is even closer to death, I am greatly saddened.
My dad has always been there for me. He instilled some great values in me, either through direct teachings or setting indirect examples. I am at a loss of words for now, I will just say that I may have to fly to Florida on a red-eye flight. he has requested me to be there, and I shall go.
I have been expecting my dad to pass for sometime now. He's 75 and never took great care of himself. My mother passed away in April 1995, and had read that most spouses tended to pass within 5yrs of the other passing. So I consider my father having lived a full life, and has managed to beat my expectations. Of course now that he is even closer to death, I am greatly saddened.
My dad has always been there for me. He instilled some great values in me, either through direct teachings or setting indirect examples. I am at a loss of words for now, I will just say that I may have to fly to Florida on a red-eye flight. he has requested me to be there, and I shall go.
My Father
I just learned that my father has been in the hospital since Friday evening. He lives in Florida and I now live in California.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Gary Gygax Dead @ 69
Man, news travels fast and bad news travels faster. I just learned that Gary Gygax has passed away. For those that do not know, he helped create the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Together with Don Kaye, Gary published the first D&D books for TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) in 1974. The rest as they say, is history.
I have such fond memories of playing D&D with friends as a kid. My first game was in 1979, I was 10 years old at the time. The neighborhood kids use to gather at each other's homes for a game session, though most of the time we ended up at my friend TC's house. We played about every weekend, every free moment we had as kids. My first ruthless DM was Vincent, and he looked a lot like Tom Hanks in the CBS movie Mazes & Monsters. I use to save every scrap of my allowance and visit the neighborhood book store (Little Professor) almost daily, just waiting to see if they had anything new from TSR. Memories now, all good.
I owe a lot to D&D. I improved my math and reading skills, and my imagination and comprehension. I also learned a lot too, about friendship, lost acquaintances, anger, fear, betrayal, love, forgiveness.
Twenty-nine years later, I find I am still involved with D&D. I manage an online community of gamers (http://www.gathis.com). I'm sure if nothing else, our love for the game that Gary built unites us all across race, sex, politics and national boundaries.
If you haven't played in a long time, you'll find the rules have changed, but the fun is still there.
I have such fond memories of playing D&D with friends as a kid. My first game was in 1979, I was 10 years old at the time. The neighborhood kids use to gather at each other's homes for a game session, though most of the time we ended up at my friend TC's house. We played about every weekend, every free moment we had as kids. My first ruthless DM was Vincent, and he looked a lot like Tom Hanks in the CBS movie Mazes & Monsters. I use to save every scrap of my allowance and visit the neighborhood book store (Little Professor) almost daily, just waiting to see if they had anything new from TSR. Memories now, all good.
I owe a lot to D&D. I improved my math and reading skills, and my imagination and comprehension. I also learned a lot too, about friendship, lost acquaintances, anger, fear, betrayal, love, forgiveness.
Twenty-nine years later, I find I am still involved with D&D. I manage an online community of gamers (http://www.gathis.com). I'm sure if nothing else, our love for the game that Gary built unites us all across race, sex, politics and national boundaries.
If you haven't played in a long time, you'll find the rules have changed, but the fun is still there.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Cans of Corn & Energy
Everyone knows if you drop a can of corn on your bare foot from the kitchen counter, it can hurt. Everyone knows if that same can of corn was dropped off your roof it would hurt more. Drop it from a bridge? Yup, that equals more pain, bare-foot or not. This is a pretty simple example of turning potential energy into kinetic energy.
Everything has potential energy; air, water, cheese, Parcheesi dice. Some folks think of this potential energy as "free energy". Nothing is free, except maybe choking on your tongue while you are sitting on the porcelain throne ... even that situation takes money, so I'll stand by my words- nothing is free. It amazes me that there are people out in cyberland that try to prove to others everyday that some things can be free, such as free energy.
People try to use the concept of utilizing potential energy as a source of free energy. If I walk that can of corn to my roof or the top of a bridge, I had to exert some amount of energy to get there. That spent energy costs something- a hot dog, a slice of Spam, a few Skittles. The higher I try to get that can of corn, the more energy I'll require. The bigger the can of corn, the more potential energy, but again, the more energy I have to exert to get it higher to release that potential energy and turn it into kinetic energy.
potential energy + time = kinetic energy.
In the example above, the component of time takes the form of the can accelerating through the air as it plummets towards your foot. I'm not sure where I am going with all this, just be careful of things that sound too good to be true. If someone is claiming something amazing, you'll hear about on the news.
Everything has potential energy; air, water, cheese, Parcheesi dice. Some folks think of this potential energy as "free energy". Nothing is free, except maybe choking on your tongue while you are sitting on the porcelain throne ... even that situation takes money, so I'll stand by my words- nothing is free. It amazes me that there are people out in cyberland that try to prove to others everyday that some things can be free, such as free energy.
People try to use the concept of utilizing potential energy as a source of free energy. If I walk that can of corn to my roof or the top of a bridge, I had to exert some amount of energy to get there. That spent energy costs something- a hot dog, a slice of Spam, a few Skittles. The higher I try to get that can of corn, the more energy I'll require. The bigger the can of corn, the more potential energy, but again, the more energy I have to exert to get it higher to release that potential energy and turn it into kinetic energy.
potential energy + time = kinetic energy.
In the example above, the component of time takes the form of the can accelerating through the air as it plummets towards your foot. I'm not sure where I am going with all this, just be careful of things that sound too good to be true. If someone is claiming something amazing, you'll hear about on the news.
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