Will Knott

As we all know, the future was supposed to be full of flying cars, and that simply didn’t happen.

Maybe they were too busy thinking “jet cars” to think “sail boats that fly”.

Industrial designer Damien Grossemy designed a hypoththetical flying electric vehicle for Renault that is simply beautiful. The “Zep’lin” has a mostly vertical structure, a large part of which can be covered with solar panels, that resembles the offspring of a seed pod and a sail boat. Its actually possible to imagine that this is a genetically engineered type of maple until you see the elegant rudder / engine combination. True, I don’t see this doing a tight turning circle, and I’m not too sure how it would perform in a high wind take off to work, but it needs no dedicated infrastructure to land.

To park might be another matter.

And I wanna try it out.

It sails rather than powers from one location to another. The promotional video implies a potential around the world Zep’lin race for rich playboys. Which, if the design works, is not as infeasible as an around the world yacht race. So he has his early adopters identified, and can use their attention seeking antics to market the thing while their payments pay for the development of a commuter model.

And they look beautiful.

You may need to click through to see the embedded video.

Apparently the solar panels can tilt toward the sun, but looking at more of the designs I think its the solar equivalent of tacking, getting power in the sail from one angle, while traveling in another.

Renault spent 2 months designing a scale model, and we’ll see if it eventually becomes a working design.

take care,

Will

Barcamp Cork III was on last weekend. Gordon Murray, Ciara Feely, Ciara Crossan did a brillian job, and the conversations alone are a good reason to go. the Talks are the icing on the cake. I did get there, and had a great time (take a look at Martha Rotter’s review for a better idea).

Why was I late?

Well.

Or was it something else? You decide.

I’m not the type to fill in those “what type of X are you” surveys, but when Sean McNamara wrote about his programmer personality type I thought I’d give it a shot. The output is similar to the Myers-Briggs Personality Test but I think the questions are a little too simplistic.

Anyway here are the results of my programmer personality test.

Your programmer personality type is:

DLTB

You’re a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

–Will here. The alternative to a doer is the planner. I will plan but sometimes a prototype is needed to make sure that you are doing the right thing. Personally I’d do after I make sure the requirements are in place. And that’s just the prototype that’s willing to be changed. I suspect I’m right on the edge of the two states in this case.

You like coding at a Low level.
You’re from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don’t mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.

– I’m comfortable with high level coding and scripting but that last 5% is a bit on the mark. There is an old quote which goes “Art is never finished, its just abandoned”. The same is almost true of software. The almost is because software has a “next version”. Getting something working out there is one if the basics of rapid prototyping. Technology changes, requirements change. Having said that, there is a point when a new feature shouldn’t go in, but become a new tool. Keep an eye on that.

You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it’s parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.

– I like working with people. Solo works for me when I’m deep in a function, doing that 5%. The rest of the time I like to be able to bounce ideas. Software needn’t be lonely.

Besides, I do believe in code reviews. You tend to be too close to the code to see something is missing or wrong based on the reqs. Other eyes make sense. That way you can ensure the comments match the code if nothing else, see below.

You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We’re not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.

– This is a mix of a learned and an acquired taste. Write a piece of un-commented code. Leave it alone for six months (or six days). Then come back and look at it. Unless you’ve written very accurate function names and variable names, the code will take a while to sink in. Its better explaining in the code (as comments) what you want it to do, in case someone else thinks its meant to do different, and how it works. Its the team programming thing mixed with the big bus theory (which roughly goes as “Splat! Oh noes, that’s the only one who can fix the code”.) And remember to change the description if you change the functionality of the code.

Its also that if you are indispensable, you can’t be promoted.

If you are a coder, or a tech person who has to write at least one script, give the test a shot yourself.

In Ireland we end up with the politicians we elect. That sounds perfectly logical and democratic; suggesting anything else would be, well, non-democratic.

However this means 3 things, firstly a TD needs to make a lot of people happy to be elected and re-elected. All politics is local, but a large amount of a local TDs work is giving their constituents the things they are already entitled to. National politics can be scuppered due to local pressures.

Secondly a TD tends to be a certain type. The talking professions such as teachers and lawyers (and one or two professional PR types) account for most of the Dail. The corporate types (who understand standard expenses claims systems) or small business people tend to not run as they don’t have the time. That and family ties. If their mother/father/close relation was a TD, there is a high chance that they will give it a shot too. Of course there are the party lines being followed.

And thirdly, a TD usually wants to be re-elected. Which means caution and conservatism.

So why not try something out. Dail reform is being talked about so lets add a radical element. A National Lottery. We already have the “millionaire raffle” so why not offer a more desirable prize; a job. Also having the National Lottery run this makes sense as they have all the infrastructure in place.

I know it sounds dumb, but how many people have said “I could do better”, so lets let them. Its one way to get a random person in there. The seat would have to be non-local, as its a national lottery, anywhere could have a winner. There should be some criteria for eligibility, I assume that the standard types for a TD would apply (age limit, Irish citizen and not in prison etc) but with a few additional catches. Current public servants would be ineligible as would currently sitting TDs and Senators. This is important; the winner cannot win next round.

Why, well its a random element. One person who is (at the start anyway) whip-less. He or she need not follow a party. This person will, statistically, not have the standard background of a TD. Could be a Moore Street trader, or a Cavan farmer or a new citizen in Mullingar. And as he or she is not incumbent to a constituency, then they can think a little more nationally. Naturally he or she will have a local focus, but those strict constituency lines may not apply. And there is nothing to stop this person trying to run as a standard TD, and declaring his or her constituency (probably local for them) next election. But they cannot try to enter again next time. And the next person to get the job will also be a random (self) selection.

Anyway, it would be an experiment. And could shake up the ruling class.

Does it make sense?

I said that there are competing standards in 3D TV. Hatchai Full Parallax 3D Display seems to be up and running (I assume the Hitchai is the phonetic spelling in Japanese) and showed off their screen at the Ceatec Japan 2009 show. The news is via Gigazine and SDR News.

As you can see from the above video, you get a 3D parallax view, something you don’t get from the cinema, giving a holographic view. You also see that its working great for still objects, just like holograms. No details on how it works with moving objects, or indeed if it can work on a landscape. The secret (I’m working off a machine translation here) seems to be using multiple projectors, more projectors mean more 3D objects; which implies you could have a 3D newsreader in your living room, but a panel might not be possible.

Early days yet.