Capstan Drive

High precision speed reducer using rope
Aaed Musa

Very cool.

Hoovie buys 1959 Plymouth Fury

I bought a bargain Mopar that everybody has forgotten about. 1959 Plymouth Fury with a dark past?
Hoovies Garage

Ah, the 50s, when the population of the USA was half what it is now, real men drove real Detroit iron and finding a place to park on the street in downtown was still possible. Have cars improved? Well, yes, in many ways, but they have also gotten much worse in all the important ways. Sad, very sad.

YAKOVLEV Yak-18T

YAKOVLEV Yak-18T (N8018T) over New York Harbor

This is not your run-of-the-mill small airplane:

The Yakovlev Yak-18T is a four- or five-seat fully aerobatic utility aircraft developed by Yakovlev. Introduced to train Aeroflot pilots, it has gained some popularity as a sportplane both inside and outside the former USSR. It is powered by a 360-400 hp Vedeneyev M14P radial engine, and is designed for stresses of +6.48/-3.24 g.

Introduced in 1967, Yakolev built 700 of them.

Do-It-Yourself Self Driving Car

Okay, it's not really a self-driving system, it's an 'advanced driver assistance system'. I dunno, I kinda think they are just useful enough to be dangerous. If they do a good job of driving the car you are very likely to be lulled into complacency and then when something unexpected happens, are you going to be alert enough to react? Seems to me the only way to maintain constant alertness is to do your own driving.

Computers can be very reliable, certainly more reliable than people. But a system for driving a car needs to be able to avoid, or at last cope with, impending disasters. The question for most people is: are these systems going to better than a good driver? Being better than an average driver might be good enough for insurance companies, but everyone who thinks they are better than average (which is everyone) is going to want a system that is statistically better than good.

There are some poor drivers out there, and there are some people who don't like driving and for them these fancy gee-gaws might be useful. Can't imagine that anyone would not like driving. I mean, isn't that what makes us Americans?

Whatever: here's the read.me file from github:

openpilot

openpilot is an operating system for robotics.
Currently, it upgrades the driver assistance system in 275+ supported cars.

Docs · Roadmap · Contribute · Community · Try it on a comma 3X

Quick start: bash <(curl -fsSL openpilot.comma.ai)

    

To start using openpilot in a car

To use openpilot in a car, you need four things:

1. Supported Device: a comma 3/3X, available at comma.ai/shop.
2. Software: The setup procedure for the comma 3/3X allows users to enter a URL for custom software. Use the URL openpilot.comma.ai to install the release version.
3. Supported Car: Ensure that you have one of the 275+ supported cars.
4. Car Harness: You will also need a car harness to connect your comma 3/3X to your car.

We have detailed instructions for how to install the harness and device in a car. Note that it's possible to run openpilot on other hardware, although it's not plug-and-play.

To start developing openpilot

openpilot is developed by comma and by users like you. We welcome both pull requests and issues on GitHub.

• Join the community Discord
• Check out the contributing docs
• Check out the openpilot tools
• Read about the development workflow
• Code documentation lives at https://docs.comma.ai
• Information about running openpilot lives on the community wiki

Want to get paid to work on openpilot? comma is hiring and offers lots of bounties for external contributors.

Safety and Testing

• openpilot observes ISO26262 guidelines, see SAFETY.md for more details.
• openpilot has software-in-the-loop tests that run on every commit.
• The code enforcing the safety model lives in panda and is written in C, see code rigor for more details.
• panda has software-in-the-loop safety tests.
• Internally, we have a hardware-in-the-loop Jenkins test suite that builds and unit tests the various processes.
• panda has additional hardware-in-the-loop tests.
• We run the latest openpilot in a testing closet containing 10 comma devices continuously replaying routes.

Licensing

openpilot is released under the MIT license. Some parts of the software are released under other licenses as specified.

Any user of this software shall indemnify and hold harmless Comma.ai, Inc. and its directors, officers, employees, agents, stockholders, affiliates, subcontractors and customers from and against all allegations, claims, actions, suits, demands, damages, liabilities, obligations, losses, settlements, judgments, costs and expenses (including without limitation attorneys’ fees and costs) which arise out of, relate to or result from any use of this software by user.

THIS IS ALPHA QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A PRODUCT. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLYING WITH LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

User Data and comma Account

By default, openpilot uploads the driving data to our servers. You can also access your data through comma connect. We use your data to train better models and improve openpilot for everyone.

openpilot is open source software: the user is free to disable data collection if they wish to do so.

openpilot logs the road-facing cameras, CAN, GPS, IMU, magnetometer, thermal sensors, crashes, and operating system logs. The driver-facing camera is only logged if you explicitly opt-in in settings. The microphone is not recorded.

By using openpilot, you agree to our Privacy Policy. You understand that use of this software or its related services will generate certain types of user data, which may be logged and stored at the sole discretion of comma. By accepting this agreement, you grant an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to comma for the use of this data.

Via Detroit Steve

Citroen Xantia Activa

The Sleeper That Cornered Faster Than A Ferrari - Citroen Xantia Activa
Number 27

Bose (yeah, the loudspeaker people) made an active suspension system some time ago. It worked great, but it took enough power to run it that your mileage was reduced by a couple MPG.

Gossip

In Black Sails, season 1, episode 2, pirate Captain Flint pays a visit to Richard Guthrie, the pirate's fence and face to the legitimate business world. Royal Navy Captain Hume shows up unannounced and we have this bit of dialog:

Servant: Captain Hume of His Majesty's Ship the Scarborough.

Richard: Captain Hume. You've caught me at business. I must ask you to return another day.

Hume: My apologies, Mr. Guthrie. May I ask what sort of business? 

Richard: I'm sorry?

Hume: I asked what sort of business you're conducting with these men.

Richard: Sugar merchants from the colonies with business I'd just as soon conclude without interruption. So please, if you'll excuse us.

Hume: Tell me something, Mr. Guthrie. Do you have gossip here?

Richard: Gossip?

Hume: I've often wondered if it can survive in so remote a location. You see, gossip is what holds civilization together. It reinforces shame. And without shame, well, the world is a very dangerous place.

Don't think I've ever heard gossip described in a positive light. People do thrive on it, some more than others. If you are running a political campaign you need to take it into account. Probably why I'm not out on the campaign trail. I avoid gossip so I expect most people find me anti-social, and they're right.

Oh yeah, the scene? It turns into a melee when Hume attempts to arrest Richard.

P. S. I started looking for this scene on Netflix, but then I wondered if maybe a transcript was available and there is. Shoot, there are mutiple websites that have transcripts for shows. I'll be durned.

Black Sails - Netflix Series

Black Sails First Trailer
IGN

We started watching this series the other night. It looks promising. We've got some familiar names like Silver and Flint, convincing looking sailing ships (they might even be real), bloody piratical violence, horny women, and shabby looking pirate towns. Flint is obsessed with a Spanish treasure galleon that should be enroute to Spain, but where is it? Supposedly there is a schedule with a list of dates and locations, but how accurate / useful could such a schedule be? I mean, they are sailing ships, they are totally at the mercy of wind and weather. It isn't unusual to be becalmed for days or even weeks in the doldrums. But hey, somebody wrote the schedule down and somebody hid it and somebody else found it and Flint would move heaven and earth to find it if that would help. It won't. I expect it will fall into his lap any - minute - now.