November 5, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 5, 2018, unsuccessful console design.
Five years ago today: November 5, 2014, bought the oscilloscope.s
Nine years ago today: November 5, 2010, always broke-greedy.
Random years ago today: November 5, 2006, checking out Opera 9.0.

           Unbelievable. The dogs got out again. Same technique, this time bending a metal bar that most humans could not with both hands. This is seemingly impossible, I may rig up the camera to see how they do it. Both bars bent and the same spot, and it doesn’t take them very long. The neighbor brought them to the door around 15 minutes after I let them out in the back. Time to call either Guinness or the Olympic Committee.
Since I had to do a shop, I made the extra trip to the hardware store for a larger metal rod and eyebolts.

           Ratzoid, I got millennialized again. I drill the pilot holes and go to install the eyebolts. I open the package, which says hooks (plural), so okay whatever. But inside it is hook. These things are always sold in pairs, then along comes Tyler Jacob with his side part and trimmed beard to redesign the package. It is actually quite difficult to tell there is only one bolt inside until you open the thing.

           As I’ve said, people who pull this crap think they are clever—until everybody else is doing the same thing. Almost every other generation could claim at least somewhat that their problems were inherited. These guys created their own. Gen Y, the millennials, define one of their top ten characteristics as “multi-tasking”. I call it walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time, except not as complicated.
           The problem with living in a cocoon is they emerge at the mercy of the environment they ignored. I have my own conclusions why suicide and mass shootings are on the rise. The true failure rate of crowd-funding is so pitiful they had to redefine success. Now, I either let the dogs out or make a second 12-mile round trip for that bolt—and these millennials wonder why you won’t give them the time of day.

           Are your favorite birdhouse colors pale yellow and lawn-swing brown? Good. That is all that was on sale. I’m having better luck with those small plastic cans of sample paint that people return. I had to do another major cook for the pets, so that gave me time to review something I’ve been putting off. On the few videos I’ve seen of Iron Dome, I noticed something. Iron Dome is the Israeli anti-missile system that tackles the small short-range rockets now being launched by their enemies.
           The Patriot doesn’t work well except against ballistic missiles which take a high arching path that is easy to predict. The smaller missiles, beginning with the Scud around 1990 have a flatter trajectory and much shorter flight time. Iron Dome is a bank of Katyusha-style launchers with an incredible kill ratio, something like 90% claimed. This is what caught my attention. Quite a number of amateur videos show a rocket plume that got my attention. It’s the old zig-zag interception pattern that I toyed with on the Arduino in 2012. The military system is far more elaborate and can even prioritize targets, for example, to ignore a munition that will land in an unpopulated area. Then again, each launch costs ten times more than my total budget.
           I found the actual pattern of interception amusing. Most of the trails show one zig-zag to targer. It’s the ones that show more that got me watching. Each turn is close to 90°, with the turns getting closer and tighter. Why, they are using the same primitive but effective algorithm I toyed with. You have two dots on your screen or radar, and you make the choice that steers them closer together until you get proximity. Impact is not necessary. The US is involved because we still cannot freely develop ABMs by treaty. This turns Israel into a test lab, since the US increasingly needs to protect it’s overseas bases. I hope for the day I can work with electronics again instead of raking leaves all day. No that there is anything wrong with raking leaves.

Picture of the day.
Toothpaste stuffing machine.
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           Let me explain something that’s changed. In the generation before me, there were beatniks and dropouts. The difference was, America was a place were a ninth-grader could still find a job decent enough to raise a family. Up until around 1985 it was fairly impossible to get past that grade unless you could actually read and write. But twenty years earlier there was a steady erosion of educational standards thanks to ill-thought liberal policies of equality that led to the No Child Left Behind situation of this century. The only way to make everyone equal is to drag the winners down to the level of the losers. And that is what happened.

           Around the same era, the illegal immigrants began to take away all the lower end jobs, suppressing wages until it was impossible to raise a family on a single income. The media can sweeten this pill a hundred ways, but the fact is employers quickly caught on there were no consequences to breaking the law. It was a simple matter of watering down most every job and what’s available on the market today for graduates reflects the drop in standards. There was never any unemployment among skilled labor until the present day. This tips us off the problem is not the job market, but the meaning of skilled.

           And here is a picture of Turtle World since I don’t have anything else to show you for today.

ADDENDUM
           A correction is due on my report of the Heinkel 162. I quoted the ejection seat as primarily a safety feature, and it was not. Listen to interviews from the pilots, the seat was not original equipment. It was added at the bases when the seasoned pilots needed to operate the jet were being killed by the engine if they baled out. I am still of the opinion it was a formidable design and at the projected production of 500 per month would have quickly put a stop to the bombing raids.

Last Laugh