One year ago today: June 14, 2014, ah, pasta fazul.
Five years ago today: June 14, 2010, moving day.
Six years ago today: June 14, 2009, the Dante Fascell?
MORNING
Needing the down time, I biked over to Panera with my newspaper puzzles. On the way over, I pedal past this scene on a south Florida byway. Look closely, especially anyone from the south east end of most cities to the north. You got a stop sign, a mattress, and a spot under a shady tree. We don’t want any one jumping to conclusions, but we don’t want anyone jumping out of their car, either.
And that’s what I see when I hear about cab corporations trying to outlaw Uber Taxi and now I read the travel industry is pressing for operations like tripAdvisor to pay “tourist taxes”. That’s the kind of distortion in the system that I hate. Many of these startups have as their very business model the avoidance of the unfair price-gouging of existing going-ons.
How can these new businesses thrive if laws are bent or created to force them to comply with the practice of tacking on charges? The very nature of these new on-line shops means (to me) that they are not covered by existing laws. Now the SEC wants to tax crowdfunding as income rather than loans from shareholders and co-owners. Ah, you might say, I would hardly like it if some upstart computer-using company down the street undermined the business which I’d spent years building. Not necessarily so. If you look closely, I’m only against twisted law. That’s where existing businesses collude with government to pass fees and charges onto the consumer resulting in higher prices than the product is really worth. I'm against corruption, not compliance.
Corruption? Like, why must I pay a county tax on a hotel room? Or a transit tax on a bus ride? Or a departure tax at the airport? I receive nothing direct in return for these taxes. These extras smack of corporate self-interest and I welcome any innovation that comes along and offers the public an alternative. I’m saying if the cost worked out the same, I’d rather pay the money to a new company that doesn’t have hidden fees. But I cannot side with any party that suggests new businesses are “getting away” with not paying their fair share. Fair share is an opinion.
One cannot help but notice another common theme, an element that is the same in each objection. It is that the “solution” always, always involves some method of monitoring the income of the new business in some way that does not exist at the time. That can be difficult to follow, but if you think it through, once again the future will prove I’m right about that for sure. I’m okay with businesses improving themselves, but not with the practice of regulating competition. I don't have time to spoon-feed the situation, but you know.
NOON
“Learn three clean jokes.” --Texas wisdom
Here’s another Florida third world scenario. Sidewalks paved around a string of utility poles. It’s hard to get much more “Mexico City” than that, if you’ve ever been there. We also have those sidewalks and bicycle paths that end in deep pits of gravel and cactus two feet short of the adjoining walk. A contract is a contract, you stupid Americanos. Where do you think we learned that?
The problem is, that (a Palomar) knot will not work on any construction that does not have a “keychain” type end. An instance of such is the little metal loop at the non-business end of most fishhooks. We require a knot that doesn’t work loose when tied perpendicular to a cylinder. And we are still looking. I am quite impressed by the performance of this 50-lb line, even if we are not done testing it yet. (The 80-lb test line is the next step up and it sells for $30+ per spool. No thanks.)
The meeting was long despite the summer heat. We examined how the club welding machine is set up and ready, but how it has never been systematically used for the intended purpose. That was to teach us how to become expert welders of small articles. Instead, it has been sitting there for months. It isn’t the best design for novices but that is hardly any excuse for us not using it except to weld bicycle parts after all this time.
NIGHT
I would still, in a pinch, be more inclined to give the cash money to an independent driver, and the main objection I have to Uber is that they determine and collect the fare. Hence, it is not a cash transaction and it should be. The world is bad enough without strangers keeping track of your name, address, and where you ride a taxi.
Here’s an unusual picture of used bicycles outside the clubhouse. Members are allowed conduct repairs and such, this is kind of an assembly line of spare parts. Normally there are two or three but today it was nine. I rode my own bicycle, the famous Jamis, eight miles today. That’s slightly more than my median.
Blog says to mention extremes and today we sent through four quarts of iced peach tea. The point is, we were indoors most of the time and still went through four quarts. Stay out of Florida in the summer if you have the choice.
ADDENDUM
Testing the flight controller has been a hoot. I had to design calibration routines for the potentiometers and servo motors. These things don’t calibrate themselves, you know. The trick is to find and mark the center positions before you start. Then you begin to find out that half of your off-the-shelf gear is wired “backwards”. I don’t physically rewire such components, which can get messy, rather I reprogram the code. At the same time, I understand most people would rather hit it with a hammer than start changing code to match reality.
Part of the reason is that there is no Arduino emulation platform. That is, other than checking if the code compiles, there is no software that lets you run the program “on-screen” so you can watch it operate. If I knew how, I’d write that and make money. Meanwhile, every change in code has to be painstakingly uploaded to a fully configured Arduino and tested that way. But let’s get back to my fun project. This is maddening if you only have one Arduino.
How faithful do these calibrated components perform? That surprised me. Not only is it accurate (within limits), but it is actually remarkably realistic. I say that because I don’t even have the model connected yet and I get the sensation of “flying” by watching the screen printouts of the servo readings. For example, flying straight and level is boring. Everyone likes the banking turns.
So I had to reinforce the axis on that potentiometer to take the extra usage. I further installed governing pins to limit the turn and dive angles to realistic margins. That’s the sense in which I mean realistic. What an amazing learning project this continues to be.
Last Laugh
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