Comments for Learn Something

Comment on I love it when a plan comes together by Steve Doyon

Steve Doyon — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:56:49 +0000

Doug, congratulations! That’s fantastic news. It so happens that I spend time in Mojave, as that is the site of our largest windfarm (the largest in the US). We started developing it in 2008, and now have over 1000 mw’s generating clean energy just west of Mojave. We have a great relationship with Stu Witt, CEO of the Space Port(all of our turbines were shipped through the Mojave Space Port); Dick Rutan has also been a supporter. If you haven’t already, try the Voyager restaurant at the Space Port – best breakfast in the area. Also, check out their model of SpaceShipOne – my company was a contributor. Let me know when you get settled, we’ll have to get together on one of my trips.

Comment on Shock and Awe by Doug Weathers

Doug Weathers — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:47:49 +0000

Thanks for the comment. I’m glad you had a chance to share that speech with your daughter, while the fact of Steve Jobs’ death gives weight to his words.

I wonder if he planned that? He seems to have prepared Apple very well for his passing. Why not a 15-year-old, or a class of Stanford grads, or anyone on the Internet who reads his words?

…on the devices he gave to us?

Comment on Shock and Awe by Forgotten Apple Innovations | Learn Something

Forgotten Apple Innovations | Learn Something — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:07:28 +0000

[...] Learn Something One man’s attempts to improve himself Skip to content HomeArchivesGalleryKoLFarmerLostGhia EVSpecsConversion JournalEV LinksDownloadsgeshi-testResumeAboutAbout Me ← Shock and Awe [...]

Comment on Shock and Awe by Steve Doyon

Steve Doyon — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:27:05 +0000

P.S. Above comment, and this one, posted using my iPad 2.

Comment on Shock and Awe by Steve Doyon

Steve Doyon — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:25:35 +0000

Great post, I share your sentiment. I pulled up the text of his well-known 2005 commencement address at Stanford and made my daughter read it – it’s hard for us old guys to make an impression on a 15 year old, but that speech sure did.

Comment on A Different Kind of Pi by Doug

Doug — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:12:39 +0000

That makes sense to me, thanks.

I convinced myself of it after staring at the “Bresenham circle” and figuring out it could be rearranged into an “integer-ized” octagon and then doing some geometry, which I always enjoy.

Comment on A Different Kind of Pi by Steve VanDevender

Steve VanDevender — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:11:16 +0000

There’s a basic geometric reason that the midpoint circle algorithm plots r*sqrt(2) points in a quarter-circle. First notice that the Bresenham line algorithm plotting a line between (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) will plot max(abs(x2-x1), abs(y2-y1)) points, no matter what the slope of the line; that is, it plots a point at each integral value of x or y along the line.

The midpoint circle algorithm (as pointed out, it’s not due to Bresenham, although it’s based on the ideas in the Bresenham line algorithm) is normally used to generate the points along one-eighth of the circumference of a circle with the rest of the points obtaimed by symmetry. So it may typically generate points at integral values of x and y from the point (x=r, y=0) to a point pi/4 (or 45 degrees) along the circle from there, which is the point (x=r*cos(pi/4), y=r*sin(pi/4)), or in numeric terms (x=r*sqrt(2)/2, y=r*sqrt(2)/2). So one-eighth of a circle requires plotting r*sqrt(2)/2 points, and by extension one-quarter of a circle requires plotting r*sqrt(2) points, or the entire circle 4*r*sqrt(2) points.

Comment on Day 1 of ISPCS 2010 by Doug

Doug — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 04:52:48 +0000

Oh, I plan to visit the Mojave Spaceport. It’s kind of the Mecca for Space 2.0 enthusiasts. I’m going to try to get an internship there this summer.

Speaking of models of SpaceShipOne, up the road in Alamogordo the Space Museum has a full-scale mockup on display.

Comment on Day 1 of ISPCS 2010 by Steve Doyon

Steve Doyon — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:35:12 +0000

Sorry, misfire on my previous post – I saw spaceport and assumed this was at Mojave Spaceport. Anyway, if you ever get a chance to visit Mojave Spaceport, its worth the trip. They have a scale model of SpaceShipOne that we (Terra-Gen) funded.

Comment on Day 1 of ISPCS 2010 by Steve Doyon

Steve Doyon — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 23:12:18 +0000

Doug, sounds like you had a great trip. If you ventured any distance from Mojave, you probably saw a whole bunch of wind turbines towards the northwest (Tehachapi) – many of those are turbines owned by my company, Terra-Gen Power. We are in construction out there on the largest wind farm in the US – its pretty impressive if you have another chance to go up there. We know Stu Witt very well – he’s been a supporter of our project. What a small world!