Terminal Velocity

There's a bit of a lull in the fires here at work, so I was reflecting back on a conversation I had with someone (I don't actually remember who) about terminal velocity, and there was a lot of misinformation from their side.

Early in the conversation they mentioned the experiment that Galileo performed, and that the feather fell at the same rate as the ball. This is a common misconception; the experiment featured no feather (that was David Scott on the Apollo 15 moon landing), but a great illustration of the misunderstanding of terminal velocity.

Before I begin, it's worth defining the term. Terminal velocity is the maximum speed an object can reach under given conditions.

Firstly, it's important to understand that the presence of gravity (and it's effect) does not imply terminal velocity. Terminal velocity is achieved when the ACCELERATION due to gravity (32 meters/second²) is balanced by the RESISTANCE of the substance the object is falling through. Most of the time, that's air.

So, say a feather and a baseball are dropped from a hot air balloon. As they start to fall, they will both accelerate at a rate of ~32m/s² (apprx due to distance from center of Earth), but their rate of acceleration will immediately begin to decrease as they air they are falling through applies its resistance. Surface area and shape play a huge role here as well; the ball's acceleration will decrease slowly due to its more aerodynamic shape, whereas the feather will rapidly cease to accelerate and start to flutter.

This is where it starts to become obvious that there is no universal "Terminal Velocity." An even more compact example is a sky diver with a winged suit. Wings in, the sky diver has less surface area and a higher terminal velocity.

But, what happens when an object isn't falling through a substance? This is where we head back to the moon. Dr. Scott was in, more or less, an environment void of atmosphere; anything he dropped would be exposed to negligible external resistance, and so would be at the mercy of gravity alone. And he tested it. When he dropped a hammer and a feather they accelerated at the same rate throughout their decent and landed simultaneously.

To pull things back a bit farther; that baseball from the hot air balloon would hit a certain speed and stop going faster; that is, it would reach a terminal velocity. If Dr. Scott could have gotten further away from the surface of the moon before he dropped his items, that feather and hammer would have hit the moon going limitlessly fast. Well, limitless until you consider the gravitational pull of the Earth, the realistic distance at which the moon would apply its gravity and the strength thereof (bear in mind, the acceleration due to lunar gravity is only 1.6 m/s²)... so, you know, "nearly headless."

The Conversion

To begin, for those who haven’t heard, I ended my 6.5 year career at Nintendo at the end of May. We parted on good enough terms, and over this first week of transition I’ve even exchanged a few emails to help with projects I left behind. Where did I go? Well, not too far at all, actually! I went from one of the oldest entertainment companies in Japan to one of the oldest entertainment companies in America; I’m now working for Disney, albeit as a contractor for now.

But this post isn’t about that. No, this post is about a lack of communication, a change in the status quo, and what it means to me personally.

It begins with the miscommunication, as these stories generally do; no one ever asked me when I started what sort of computer I wanted. I didn’t even think to mention it as every IT shop in the world runs Windows, right?

Well, that’s apparently where the change in status quo comes in. For the last year, nearly every employee my new manager has hired has wanted a Mac, and sixth months ago he decided he was sick of getting a PC, then needing to put in a request for hardware, then wait 2 weeks, and then have more down time while the employee sets up the new Mac. So, he just started defaulting to it.

And me? I never asked, so here I am, telling you about my first week… from a Macbook Pro. And let me tell you, I’m definitely seeing why folks want this setup.

First of all, it’s cheating. I didn’t have to choose between Windows and OSX; I get both via Parallels, so if something is easier/better in Windows, I just hit ⌘Tab and go to town. While I’m there, Option + Tab serves as Alt - Tab, and hitting ⌘Tab again brings me right back out to OSX for what I’ve found it does best.

And that is command line. Back when Mr. Jobs & Company changed from OS9 to OSX, dropping PowerPC, signing up Intel, and swapping the core of the OS over to a Unix-based platform, I was just graduating High School. In college and beyond, I never used a Mac again, but I did use Linux. And now I’m glad I did; there’s some real power in the CLI on OSX.

All that said, however, there is one thing I’m still getting used to. OSX makes it much harder (natively) to maximize windows, dock them to the sides of your screen, and do other “structured” operations with windows, which I thought was odd at first. As I’ve used it, however, I’ve realized that maybe I’M the one who’s been doing it wrong.

I’ve started letting windows take up their minimum space, and letting the screen naturally fill with tasks, ebbing and flowing as my day goes. The Parallels window breaks the flow a bit (as having a 1/8 screen VM isn’t all that useful), but otherwise it’s been enlightening.

So far, I haven’t found anything that’s dramatically harder or easier between the two platforms. Finding some software for OSX ( e.g., a specific version of the JDK from 1.6) has been challenging at times, but most of it is from the era before the change in the quo.

In all, I like the change for getting things done. However, it’ll be a while before I drop my native Windows OS machine due to hardware costs and software (game) support. Apple is getting close, though, and this experience has gone a long way in convincing me of that.

Dream Car

A few weeks ago I was driving home and a shiny, low-profile, silver car zoomed by me in the opposite lane. I instinctively turned my head and watched it pass, only having a split second due to the fact his direction was clear, and mine was less so.

It was then that I thought "I think I know what my dream car is." After Googling for a while, I confirmed that I'm not alone, and that some people have even taken that thought to the next level.

I want a Delorean, but I don't want a real one. I want a car with gull-wing doors, an electric/hybrid motor, modernized headlights, modernized interior, modernized suspension and modernized handling.

Back to the Future

Don't get me wrong; I'm not hating on this kind of machine. In fact, I wanted something like this for a long time! There's obviously the nostalgia element, but when you get right down to it, this isn't what I want to drive to work every day.

Aston Martin Bulldog (Concept Car)

Seeing that nice, clean, silver bullet shoot past me in traffic, I realized something like this is more what I'd like to spend my time driving. Sleek, sharp lines, no gimmicks or extras on the outside.

Obviously, the Bulldog isn't modernized, so lets bring in something that is. I've seen Audis with this style of headlight, too, but I can't deny the envy I feel when I see these in my rear-view:

Tesla Model S

This vehicle also has the advantage of representing one of my other desires: it's electric.

Random Delorean Concept

As I've said, I'm not the only person who dreams of gullwings and stainless. Here's a concept art that wraps the current "Honeycomb" grill trend in with some of the "modern muscle car" lines.







So, anyway, I look forward to when I become rich and can afford to have a team of engineers design and build me a Revival Delorean. I hope by then I can actually articulate what I want instead of buzzwords and images slapped onto a webpage :)

A Little Ditty

To the tune of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J9KRZ0PnAs

Ted Cruz despises Obamacare
At least all his people tell him so
And while he agrees with Affordable Healthcare
He's sure Obama's not way to go.
But a lifeline of campaign funds is a great form of attraction
It's great not having to think anymore

Ted Cruz is Ted Cruz crazy
Just be glad it's him not you
If you had Ted Cruz's troubles
You might be Ted Cruz crazy too
You'd flash your big white shiny smile
You'd buy expensive shoes
But you'd be the only man on Earth
Who always believes Ted Cruz
Oh yea, you'd always believe Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz is always getting bolder
He knows he'll never answer for his sins
And when Ted Cruz looks back over his shoulder
He sees the Tea Party screaming again
He knows someday he'll get to play
A young and hopeful prospect
While someone older plays his wise aid.

Ted Cruz is Ted Cruz crazy
Just be glad it's him not you
If you had Ted Cruz's troubles
You might be Ted Cruz crazy too
You'd flash your big white shiny smile
You'd buy expensive shoes
But you'd be the only man on Earth
Who always believes Ted Cruz
Oh yea, you'd always believe Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz hopes somewhere there's a place for him
'Cause he's not of this world anymore...

In DC in a spotlight of his creation
Ted Cruz stands yelling at the wall
And the outside world means nothing in delusion
He'll tell you anything at all
There are millions who know his name
Some people believe him
Why is it they never learn?

Ted Cruz is Ted Cruz crazy
Just be glad it's him not you
If you had Ted Cruz's troubles
You might be Ted Cruz crazy too
You'd flash your big white shiny smile
You'd buy expensive shoes
But you'd be the only man on Earth
Who always believes Ted Cruz
Oh yea, you'd always believe Ted Cruz

Programming a Human

I think in strange paradigms. This morning I reflected that when Lucas was born I said things like "I wanted a kid so that I could program him!" This elicited comments like "The launch OS is a little buggy, needs to reboot a lot" and "what language do you program a baby with?" Obviously, the answer to that is "I'll be using a lot of java, and he'll get some byte code."

Anyway, after a moment, I realized that I HAVE been programming him, but the difference between him and a normal program is that I've been creating a machine that can program others.

Or, at least, exploit the programming of others.

Humans have a concept of social norms, things that offer nominal or no value to the creation or rendering of goods or services, but have a huge psychological impact on us. For example: "Please" and "Thank you."

"Please" offers very little in the way of advancing the topic of conversation forward, but is a psychological hack that people utilize to get what they want. Think about it; how often have you used the word "Please" after making a demand so that the other person feels like they have a choice?

"Thank you" is a bit different; when my dad and I went hunting, we'd handle very sharp knives, occasionally with gloved hands. When we'd hand a knife to one another, "Thank you" would be the expression we used to signify that "I have control of the knife now, you can let go." In addition, "Thank you" can be used to signify the end of a conversation, or the termination of a message.

But it's also a hack. One can say "Thank you," and turn away from another before they've had a chance to retort, or even reply. The listener might feel slighted, but less so than if "Thank you" hadn't been said.

Why am I talking about all of this? Back to Lucas; he's aware of these words, and uses them frequently, along with a few other normative expressions like "Sorry." These are some of his first concepts, the building blocks he'll develop the rest of his communication on.

I'm raising a little social engineer, and I'm a proud daddy.

My First Political Post

Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate cannot be "Fired" or in any way removed from office. Americans have only two legal mechanisms to remove any politician: a process called "Recall Election" and a process most Americans are vaguely aware of, Impeachment.

Impeachment can only be brought upon: "The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States." There is conflicting definitions on whether or not Senators or Representatives even qualify as "Civil officers," and additionally, only The House of Representatives can submit claims warranting impeachment, and only the Senate can try/convict. Normal Americans have very little, if any, ability to initiate or even call for an Impeachment.

Recall Elections are very limited; it is only allowed at the state level in 18 states and at the local level by 29 states. This means that it is impossible to petition for a Recall Election of any Federal-level politician.

What does this mean, exactly? It means that the Senators (100) and the Representatives (435) cannot be removed from office, and realistically neither can the President (1), Vice President (1), and the Cabinet (15) are also basically untouchable.

So, these 552 folks that basically have nothing to fear about their position for at least 2 years, and as many as 6 for Senators.

That sounds a little scary, but we can trust these people, right? We VOTED for them! They're the best, brightest, and most equipped for handling things that, potentially, impact every other American!

Well, maybe. But they're human, and humans have flaws, not he least of which is Greed. Lets take that number and extrapolate a hypothetical.

I'm a corporation with a quarterly earnings of $6.9 billion, and I'd like to ensure that I have the ear of a few politicians. Nothing ILLEGAL, mind you; just that when I call and want to talk about the weather, or how their family is doing, or how that latest bill is looking to impact my industry, that they'll have some time for me! What would it cost me if I wanted to contribute $1 million to a few of those 552 people's campaign efforts?

8% of my QUARTERLY earnings. FOR EVERY.SINGLE.POLITICIAN.

You know, nothing major or shady about that; it's just a million bucks! I mean, that Barely buys a prime-time comercial these days!. I should know; I'm a multi-national corporation! However, maybe if a few candidates are REALLY nice to me, I can throw in a free commercial on my affiliate network, or tell my news company that you're a stand-up guy!

Now, I'm not saying that happens or anything, but I'm saying that... oh, what is a Special Limit? And is there a limit they can give to a National Party Committee member? There's a lot of Greed out there, and not a whole lot of people are immune.

552 people control every federal law and regulation. What was the size of your graduating class?

A Parental Post

This will have nothing at all to do with technology, games, or anything else I usually post about. This is about being "Dad." One of my friends from work hosted his son's birthday party at a place called Wiggleworks tonight. He reserved the party area, but the play area was still open to the public, so I don't know exactly which kids were part of the party, or which were there to play. But holy moly, did I realize how lucky Lis and I are. I've never been more proud of my kid than tonight. From the time we arrived until the time we left, you'd have thought that Lucas was the Patron Saint of Saintliness. He took turns with the other kids, he played on his own in the areas Lis and I couldn't go, he helped other kids take their turns, he didn't yell or scream when another kid took his balloon or ball. When it was time for cake, he stopped playing and came with us to the kids table, sat quietly and ate his snack while everyone else was running around, throwing chairs(!!), screaming, and stealing his food. No shit, not once but twice another kid came up to him, took a grape off his plate, and scurried off with it. I asked both of the kids if they wanted grapes as they were walking away, and they looked at me... and just paused. I'm no child psychologist, but their reaction told me MY reaction was not what the expected. They waited for another second for me to react, or grab them, or yell, or something, but finally they just shook their heads "no" and walked away. Both kids, same reaction. Interesting. Lucas, however, was unphased. He noticed, absolutely, and watched the kids as they walked away with his snack, but he had more, and Daddy was talking to the other kid, so he was cool. He drank from his juice box like a BOSS, no squeezing or spilling (and he hasn't had one in MONTHS), and when it came time to eat his cake, he used a fork, ate in pieces, and stopped before he gorged himself. Except for the birthday boy, who was also a well-behaved BOSS, Lucas was well beyond his years. Oh, Lucas isn't 2-years-old yet. I'm super duper proud.