Suits

Wire-wrap Tool

Sorting through piles of old junk, dutiful daughter pulls out this wire-wrap tool. Wire-wrap is a technique to construct electrical circuits. It was fairly common in 1980's. It was quick and easy and didn't require soldering. I didn't use it much, but there was one instance that stood out.

Back around 1980, Intel Corporation started building RAM disks for IBM mainframe computers. They set up their production facility in Deer Valley, a suburb on the north edge of Phoenix, Arizona. I got a job there in 1985 supporting Intel's real-time operating system for their 8086 microprocessor.

1984 VAX Assembly

By 1985, the RAM disk business was dying and the RAM disk crew was casting around for something new and they hit on the idea of making an IBM channel to Ethernet adapter. One of their first installations was at a bank in San Francisco where it was going to bridge the gap between their mainframe and a DEC VAX machine. Connecting to the VAX meant installing an Ethernet card and that required installing a wire-wrap jumper between two pins (out of several hundred) on the card cage backplane.

I was elected to install that jumper, so I went out and bought a suit. This was my first trip out into the field. I wasn't in the habit of wearing suits, and since there seemed be a great deal resting on this installation, I thought it might be a good idea to show up looking like I was a professional, or serious, or something. I'd read an article about suits in Playboy, and so I thought I knew what I was doing. Probably bought it at J.C. Penny.

Flew out to San Francisco, spent some time in the computer room with a couple of other technical guys. The IBM mainframe was the size of a locomotive, or so it seemed. The bank's computer guy stopped the mainframe while we hooked up the channel adapter. Stopped it in it's tracks. After we had made the connections, he flipped the switch and the IBM system resumed execution on the next instruction. No shutting down and rebooting, just stop and then resume.

We're out in the hall and a bigwig comes by to say hello. He was a big guy, but what made him big was the suit. I had never seen such a suit. My own suit paled in comparison. I cannot tell you why I felt that way. I mean an impartial observer would have said you have some guys wearing suits. I think there must have been some subconscious social conditioning at work. It was just the weirdest experience.

The Nation Continues To Creep Left

Introduction from The Election Was a Tie. Now What? on Mises Institute by Ryan McMaken

Election Day 2020 finally arrived, and it looks like it’s going to be a long process before the official winner is finally determined. There will be lawsuits over which ballots will be counted. Both sides will be accused of fraud and of other misdeeds. In the real world, there is always a gray area as to which votes are legit, and which are not. Determining the winners in elections is not a simple matter of just counting every vote. Very close votes are effectively tie votes. 

And when it comes down to it, the final outcome will depend on thin margins in several states, and there will be doubts about the honesty of the count in each case.

But no matter what happens, Congress will have to certify and make a final determination as to who received the win in the electoral college. It is quite possible that only then will there be a known and settled winner.

Via Tyler Durden on ZeroHedge

Gladitorial Combat

Pollice Verso, an 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme

If we avert our eyes from the electoral battle on the blood-soaked sand of the Coliseum and look behind the screen, we find the powers that matter are not elected: our [owned by a few big banks] Federal Reserve, run by a handful of technocrats, and the immense National Security State, a.k.a. the Permanent Government. These entities operate the Empire which hosts the electoral games for the entertainment and distraction of the public. - Charles Hugh Smith

Via ZeroHedge by Tyler Durden

Engine

I turn Fridge Compressor into 4 stroke Engine
Lets Learn Something

This is a gear head fantasy - let's make an engine out of a bunch of junk! Compare and contrast this project with The Silicon Greybeard's engine building project. We have two techniques as different as can be, but still working toward the same goal. 

This guy doesn't use any machine tools, a drill press and an angle grinder are his tools of choice. The TIG welder is biggest gun in his arsenal. When he gets to setting up the ignition system, and he starts pulling out what look like new parts, it's almost like he's cheating. But all those electrical parts cost like next to nothing compared to anything made out of metal. They only become expensive when you happen to need the exact one necessary for your 2019 Super Whizbang, and that's only to pay for the warehouse full of parts and the clerk that are sitting there waiting for you to need what they have.

This video has been out less than a week and it already has over two million views. Looking through my YouTube history, the only ones that have those kind of numbers are music videos.

Me, Rambling

Blackboard full of mystical squiggles

The longer I am around, the more I tend to think that mathematical ability is inherited. Not to say that someone whose parents are both of a non-mathematical bent, could not have the ability. Genes combine in new ways and who is to say whether any particular combination could result in a brain with an attachment to math.

So I hear people complaining about math: 'I don't use it', 'it's too hard', 'boring', and I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't force everyone to take math classes. Save us all a lot of grief. But then I got to thinking that by forcing everyone to attend these classes, they are at least being exposed to the terminology, so when someone uses a mathematical term like 'addition', they'll at least know that it's a math term and should be suitably cowed. Assuming they were suitably devastated when they failed that level of mathematical education.

A more lenient version would be that they would simply recognize the math term and allow better communication.

Queen Mary Bridge - Thomas Woolworth

Our world runs on math, but the controllers run on emotion. We have built, at great expense, a giant ocean liner. It's as big as a continent and holds the entire country, and we are cruising at tremendous speed, straight ahead through time. Through the magic of engineering and government contracting, we have a nice gold plated dial to control the direction of the ship. Turn the knob to the left and the ship veers left. Turn the knob to the right and the ship turns right. Easy-peasy.

But which way should we turn the knob? Or should we turn it at all? Or has it been turned so far that we are going backwards? (That's entirely speculation, I don't think it has, but there are any number of conspiracy theories that would support that notion.)

Naturally, everyone has an opinion about which way to turn the knob,  and those who care the most about it are pushing their way to the front so they can put their hand on the knob. 

Whoever actually gets to turn the knob has to be careful that he doesn't turn it too far. Remember, he is in the center of a crowd of people, all hollering at him to turn the knob! If he turns the knob too far in either direction, he is going to piss off a group of people somewhere in the crowd, and they are going to start pushing a lot harder, forcing their way closer to the center, and the guy in the center is going to feel it.

Here it is, two days after the election and we still don't know who won. I think RobertaX says they have nine days to count the ballots. This all seems very weird to me. Seems like when I was a kid, the results of the election were known that night. Of course, it might have been that in all those elections the winner was clear.

So maybe these hotly contested elections are a result of more people pushing in toward the center of control. There must be some reward for getting closer to the center. It could be financial, or it could be moral: you are doing the right thing, those other clowns are immoral goat fuckers. Nothing drives people like anger. Demonizing your opponents enables you to hate them, which will invigorate you and give you the energy you need to push for what you want.

I've been kind of hoping that Trump would win, not that I especially like Trump, it's just there are some Democrat actions that strike me as irresponsible. I suppose what bothers me most is the way some blue states have run up huge debts and are on the hook for huge pensions. Now that I've said that, I'm sure someone is going to point out some red states that have similar, or equally egregious, examples of irresponsible financial shenanigans.

Trump. Boy howdy. I don't know if there is anything to like about him, I've never listened to him. I've seen a few of his tweets, mostly ones that were quoted by someone else. They might be cute little phrases, but they aren't going to really tell you anything of substance. What I do like about him is that a large number of people detest him. Anybody who can make that many people hate him must be doing something right.

You know, Trump might have done some things right. There is the recent peace agreement in the mideast. Whether it will last is debatable. There have been numerous peace agreements there before but they never seem to hold. There may be some other stuff, I haven't noticed.

What I have noticed is COVID-19 lockdown and multi-trillion dollar emergency relief package that the congress passed in reaction to the lockdown. The nationwide lockdown is complete bullshit. Near as I can tell it comes from Dr. Fauci (did I spell that right?) and he reports to Trump. The relief package was aimed at people who should have had enough money in the bank to weather the storm, but did absolutely nothing for the lower class who got slammed into the ground by the lockdown.

Liquid Manure

The powers that be don't give a shit about the lower class. They make lots of mewling little noises about how this program or that is supposed to help poor people, but they are more likely to just throw them under the bus. But maybe that's the nature of politics, you are in a war against your mortal enemies and in a war, you can't always protect everybody from everything. Sometime sacrifices have to be made. I understand that, but do they have to lie all the damn time? It's the unending stream of liquid manure coming down the wire that disgusts me.

Regard

USS Constitution Gun Deck

I'm reading the Ionian mission by Patrick O'Brien and on page 177 Killick (the captain's steward) and the ship's carpenter come into Jack's cabin because they're clearing for action (i.e. packing up all of Jack's stuff and carrying it down three or four flights of stairs and storing it in the hold, and then knocking down Jack's apartment walls to make room for the gun crews to serve the pair of six thousand pound cannons that share his apartment with him).

'Just let me down this cup, Mr. Watson,' said Jack, drinking the last of his ill tasting coffee, 'and the place is yours. You will take particular care of the Doctor's - the Doctor's object will you not?' he added, pointing at Stephen's dressing-case, now doing duty as a music stand.

'Never you fret, sir,' said the carpenter, pointing at the joiner in much the same manner. 'Pond here has made a special case for it, lined with junk.'

'It is not an article that should ever have gone to sea,' said the aged joiner in a discontented voice. 'Still less into action.'

Stephen, being who he is, is probably totally unaware of the amount of trouble the captain and crew go through on his behalf. That they do all this without complaint and without even mentioning it tells you how highly regarded he is. 

P.S. 'Clearing for action' is like an everyday affair aboard Jack's ship. Repeating the same procedure over and over again is no doubt tedious, but practice makes perfect, and if you ever need to do it in a crunch, which is generally the only time it really needs to be done, it's best to have the procedure down pat. Crunch time is not the time to be figuring out where to store the commander's favorite bowl.

SpaceX Raptor Engines

SpaceX Raptor Rocket Engines
Engine for atmospheric operation on the left
Engine for vacuum operation on the right

This picture shows how much bigger the nozzle on the vacuum engine is. The mechanical bits at the top are very similar, if not identical.


How SpaceX's New Raptor Vacuum Engine Is Different From Previous Raptors (and Other Stuff)
Scott Manley

In this video Scott Manley gives a pretty good explanation of the issues involved in designing rocket engine nozzles for different conditions.