Doug's Sounding Board

1) As I watched them set up the difference engine I pictured a more practiced person setting it up in maybe half the time. Operators being a skilled profession in a world where the machines were completed and used in Babbage’s time. Cities would have computational centers that people send their work to.

2) The half-time show at the roller derby was horrible. The Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra came out and played the same rhythm for a few minutes while the leader was slowly introducing the members through a megaphone that distorted everything to the mostly unintelligible. They had a variety of things scavenged from all over but none of it was put to good use. Having tuned paint cans is a fine idea if you’re going to actually do more than play on a couple of them, ignoring their tonality. Eventually my brain was able to tune them out as white noise effectively enough that I didn’t know they finished until Nicole told me they finished and no one clapped. People noticed they were done and clapped, allowing them to exit and the roller derby to start again.

Saturday we went to the Computer History Museum to see the opening of Babbage’s Difference Engine exhibit. It’s the second one that’s been built and it’s impressive in person. After wandering through the rest of the museum we arrived at the difference engine in time to see them setting it up for calculation of an 8th degree polynomial. The setup took 5-10 minutes, first setting up the odd factors and then the evens before finally cranking away. We were surprised that engine is quiet while it runs aside from the periodic clunks as the rods shift. During setup there was a person explaining that the crank speed has to be fairly constant and if it’s too slow there isn’t enough momentum to operate correctly. As much as I liked the calculating part I think the printer output was just as impressive. Pulleys move the appropriate digits into position, an ink roller inks the digits and then the paper is pressed to the digits.

Saturday evening was another Santa Cruz Roller Girls roller derby match, this time between Fistful of Dollies and Beach Flat Betties. These two of the three local teams that the all-star team draws from to play against teams from other cities.  The Dollies ended up winning by about ten points but it was pretty close all the way though. Robin Yo Life joined the announcers which was nice for clarifying what was going on at various points and amusingly it sometimes turned into comments that were meant more for coaching what was happening at that moment. Next match in Santa Cruz is on June 28.

Sunday we went to Bay Meadows for the final day of live racing and it was really crowded, both from people there for Mother’s Day and people there for the last day. For the first half there was a lot less smoking going on than normal, but then the parties with mothers thinned out some and the smoking kicked it up a notch. The horses ran, we lost money on our small bets, we ate junk food, it was a lot of fun.

I didn’t think about the connection before, but Monday morning when I came in to work the power strip in my cube was dead and one of the bricks plugged into it didn’t survive either. I’m thinking whatever was the fix took out my power strip in the process.

Unrelated to that but still odd is that this weekend the garbage disposal started turning itself on randomly. I think the fiber-optic switch on it is somehow triggering incorrectly. The first time we were watching a movie in the other room, the second time was at around 3AM. Both times the cat was sleeping on the bed. For now we’re leaving it unplugged when not in use.

We went on Sunday and after finding parking and then waiting in line for tickets finally made it to the the stuff. The main hall had the stuff from previous issues of Make and Craft magazines. Having kits for sale for the more popular items was a good idea. The stage was little crowded so we couldn’t get close enough to hear anyone talk, but talking to the people who were manning the booths was more fun anyway.

Next we went throught he Disney section which was surprisingly cool. Seeing how they mock up attractions and with a model and a camera, and seeing early stage animatronic models was nice since I didn’t think that stuff really escaped the back room. A few years ago I read that someone had come up with a new hologram process that really made things look 3D. I hadn’t heard anything else about it since then but I’m pretty sure that’s what they were using for the Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey. There was no electronics involved, just a hologram in a frame, but the image stood out in front of the frame. Moving from one side to the other I could go from seeing the front of Mickey’s ear to the back. People kept touching the frame because they kept moving closer in an attempt to touch the image.

After that we went to the big hall where we saw the robotics and other things that needed space and more commercial areas. We got to play with what was called “Galaxy Goo” but Crayola calls Modelling Magic. It’s easy to manipulate but then you let it sit for a weeks and it turns hard, no more going back to soft. It feels solid like a plastic but light like a foam when it’s dry. I want the 3D candy printer. We sat in the Tango electric car and then learned that it’s WAY too expensive.

After a lunch break we wandered outside, saw the Burning Man metal sculptures burning, the human beat box, a demonstration on methane from algae as a fuel source, and the QuickCamper. The QuickCamper folds up to act as a shell for a pickup truck but can expand to allow access to a queen size bed, a sink, a stock, a refrierator/freezer, and sitting space (where the bed would be). It’s not in production yet.

We wandered over at the right time to see the Diet Coke and Mentos guys doing their show and selling their nozzle kits, checked out the steam punks, and then wandered the craft hall, picking up cards for later purchase possibilities. I thought the clothing swap/redecorating stations were a good idea, but there wasn’t enough room for the tables selling stuff.

Finally we wandered into the fabrication room and saw several ShopBots in action. Surprisingly they are fairly quiet. There were automated toold for foam, vinyl, plastic, wood, probably other stuff I’m forgetting, There were some trying to start a 500 person co-op where so you wouldn’t have to buy all these things on your own. I started thinking about that and I think it’s a good idea, but I don’t have time for a remote co-op space either.

As we were walking towards the exit we got to see the giraffe bot ambling/rolling along.  Now we look forward to next year.

The bathrooms where I work are shared among a several offices. The 30-foot journey to relief brings with it a large charge differential so that when you touch the bathroom door handle you get a large shock. Going out the rear entrance has similar issues. Strangely, the reverse trips don’t have the same issue. Over the weekend something has changed or been fixed because now there is no more shock! It’s funny how much a minor and infrequent event can change your happiness throughout the day. Tension associated with the bathroom that I didn’t even know was present is now gone and the day feels more free.

27 Dresses – A fun comedy. I hope Katherine Heigl makes continues with the transition from tv to the movies. She was great to watch and her reactions felt very real even as the situations weren’t very likely.

1408 – I wasn’t expecting much from this and I got a good bit more. John Cusack is very good which is essential since it’s often a solo performance. When things are starting to get going there is some good tension build up but then it transitions to the abstract. If Rod Serling were making long Twilight Zone episodes today, I think this would be among them.

The Apartment – This movie matches a lot of what you see in Mad Men about the 60s. Shirley MacClaine and Jack Lemmon both portray complex characters and make them feel real, especially MacClaine. The whole movie still plays well today and it seems that you could drop the whole thing in a modern setting barely changing a thing. I wonder if that’s why it hasn’t been remade yet.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith – Such an entertaining backdrop to look at relationship issues. Doug Liman has a skill with showing action that I enjoy greatly. And while the action was great, I thought the re-exploration of their relationship in that context to be probably my favorite part.

The Forbidden Kingdom – Jet Li & Jackie Chan, fun story, cool fu! If you haven’t seen this yet, what’s your problem?

DCI 2008 Countdown – Since I’m a band geek I tend to go for these drum & bugle corps shows. This was a theater event showing the best shows of recent years and some things to look forward to from this year’s shows.  Unfortunately it was filmed in standard definition and then blown up so it was fairly blurry. It was still mostly good enough and I am looking forward to the upcoming season (The Blue Devils are putting together marching mini-taiko drums!).

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium –  This movie was fun and afterwards I learned that the writer/director, Zach Helm, also wrote Stranger Than Fiction. Knowing that you start seeing similarities between the two: an accountant that is being troubled by the super-natural, Dustin Hoffman, and a slender woman with short dark hair.

Lars and the Real Girl –  This was good but it wasn’t the comedy that the trailers made it out to be. Sure there are humorous bits, but most of it is a fairly serious journey.

This past Saturday was the second match for the Santa Cruz Roller Girls and it was clear that they practiced a lot on their weak spots after the first match. For the first half Candie Hooligan and Heather Headlocklear were the jammers most of the time which makes sense since they ended up being the strongest jammers in their first bout. The biggest improvement was in the pack though. From start to finish the roller girls controlled the speed and who could get through. The Beavers were kept to a crawl most of the time and prevented from getting into a scoring position. The second half Santa Cruz switched to mostly playing the alternates since they had an 80-point lead and it was nice to see other members of the team out there and still dominating.

I was glad to see the track was bigger so the skaters got to get up more speed. The half-time show was kids from a local dance studio and of those I think the pop-lockers were the best.

The only negative from the night I think was the officiating. There were a number of penalties that weren’t called against Roller Girls and at one point the Angry Beaver’s jammer called off the jam but referees weren’t paying attention. As a result one or two Beavers ended up in the penalty box for play that was continuing that shouldn’t have and the Roller Girls, I think, got some points out of it that they shouldn’t have.

I look forward tot he next match on May 10.

Yesterday a different contest popped into my head, one between Brocolli Obama and Celery Clinton. I was surprised to find no reference to it on the internets.

I tried Trader Joe’s but they had nothing but drinking chocolate. Then I remembered Staff of Life and decided to try there so we went there this morning. On the bottom shelf of the baking section are cans of cocoa. Those are sweetened or natural cocoa. Looking over to the right one shelf (still on the bottom) in a wicker tray are bags (hand-filled) of cocoa with and without alkali. So there is dutch-processed/alkali cocoa in Santa Cruz. It has no stated brand, it was filled from some bulk source though it was not available in the bulk bins as far as I could tell, and apparently it has an expiration date of July 5, 2008.