Let's Compute

NERDTASTIC: Last night was the first Thursday of the month, and that meant it was free admission at the Living Computer Museum in the stadium district in Seattle, and it also meant that it was movie night. We RSVPed weeks ago to get in on the fun.

I'll let the kids tell you a bit more about it, Annabelle first. .. 

On August 6, I went to the Living Computer Museum to see part one of a mini series from the 90s called "Triumph of the Nerds". The first part was called "Impressing their friends". It was about how the PC industry grew. One of the first personal computers was called the Altair 8800. It was revolutionary that a computer could fit into that small of a container at the time, but it hardly did anything except adding, and even that was very hard to do. But one computer hobbyist found a way to program the computer language BASIC onto it- and his name was Steve Wozniack, the co-founder of Apple. Wozniack founded Apple with Steve Jobs, and they soon came out with the Apple 1, and soon after, the Apple 2. Soon enough, they were selling millions of computers and the industry skyrocketed. That was all that was included in the first part, but part 2 is supposed to be about the "copy" companies that emerged. It was interesting to listen and watch and I am looking forward to part 2.

And here is CJ's account ... 

On August 6th, 2015, we went to the Living Computer Museum to see "Triumph of the Nerds," which is the first of a 3-part mini-series made in the 1990s about computer history since the mid-70s. The movie showed that nerds, or, as one interviewee put it, are "The people who use the telephone to talk about telephones" made up many of the pioneers of the computer industry. The movie showed how some of the first computers, such as the Apple 1, were made with impressing the creators' friends in mind.

One very important computer we learned about during the movie was the Altair 8800, which came in mail-order from different magazines in 1975. What came were multiple parts that you had to assemble yourself into the actual computer. The results (if you built it properly) were at best, a box with flippers and lights on the front. According to the movie, even trivial equations, such as 2 + 2, became a tedious series of lever-flips that you had to get all right.

Once upon the time, there was the HomebrewComputers' Club, which tried to find a use for the bricktair. It was difficult to get it to do anything beyond very rudimentary tasks, but one day, a transistor radio was brought into to club, and, after hooking it up to the bricktair, managed to generate some tinny tunes with it. Suddenly, the Altair 8800 was no longer just a box with flippers on the front. Eventually, they also hooked up a keyboard and a monitor to the Altair, and taught it a mini-computer version of BASIC.

Overall, I think that Triumph of the Nerds was a very interesting movie, and I look forward to seeing the next episode of the series.

(If someone was interested in watching it, it's worth noting, many, many people (who do not own the rights to it) have posted Triumph of the Nerds on YouTube.)

In the movie screening room, there were a number of relics on display, including this great old tube tester. 

Christian mentioned that he remembers seeing tube testing stations in stores when he was a kid. 

There was also a microprocessor designed by Homebrew Club member George Morrow. Above is his 64k static 2716 memory board from 1981. 

GARDENING HIGH AND LOW: Our tomatoes are coming on so strong, we can't keep up. Easy problem to manage, however. We just share. 

Meanwhile, on the ISS, they've got their own bountiful garden growing!

      Image credit: NASA

They've been growing plants on high for years now, but to date, they've always just harvested them and sent samples back down to Earth to study. However, on Monday, Aug. 10, that's about to change, as astronauts will eat some of the space-grown leafy greens on station!

The plan is for them to harvest a crop of "Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce from the Veggie plant growth system (pictured above).

Before eating them, the astronauts will clean the greens with citric acid-based, food safe sanitizing wipes.

This NASA video includes an interview with Paul Zamprelli of Orbitec, the company that developed the Veggie greenhouse. While it's in use on the ISS, the system was developed with supporting future deep space missions beyond Earth orbit in mind. https://youtu.be/c1Gxn_nfgWA

Anniversaries

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY:  It's hard to believe it has already been three years, but sure enough, three years ago tonight we were all holding our breath, watching and waiting for Mars Science Laboratory to land on the Red Planet.

We cheered like crazy when it landed intact and ever since then, it has been doing amazing things on Mars.

Since it landed in 2012, "the Curiosity Rover has been seeking to determine if the Red Planet ever had conditions to support life," notes a NASA news release today. One of MSL's nifty tools is a Canadian-made geology instrument called Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). It allows the rover to determine the chemical composition of the rocks and soil on Mars, "and has contributed significantly to some of the mission's top science breakthroughs, including the discovery that ancient Mars could have had the right chemistry for microbial life," shares NASA. Fortunately, the Canadian Space Agency invested to support the operations of APXS and its science team for two more years, which means we can look forward to more research and discoveries!

To celebrate the three year mark, we enjoyed playing around with "Experience Curiosity," NASA’s new program, which simulates Mars in 3-D, based on real Curiosity data! You can check it out here: http://eyes.nasa.gov/curiosity/ . You really should give it a go!

MEANWHILE, HURTLING TOWARD THE SUN:  Another important anniversary today  - the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission celebrates one year at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. An astoundingly ambitious mission - imagine sending a spacecraft and lander off to rendezvous with a moving target! It was the first mission ever to orbit a comet and the first to soft land a probe (Philae) on a comet's surface. Amazing!

About a week from now, Rosetta will make its closest approach to the Sun. 

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Celebrating_a_year_at_the_comet

Things we've learned from Rosetta so far include the discovery that the comet’s water vapor "has a different ‘flavour’ to Earth’s oceans, fueling the debate on the possible role of comets and asteroids in delivering water to our planet in its early history," per the ESA. Also, the first detection of molecular nitrogen in a comet has provided important clues about the temperature environment in which the comet was born.  

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Every year, the Smithsonian headlines "Museum Day Live," an event allowing people all across the U.S. access to museums for free! This year's event is on Saturday, Sept. 26. If you f

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/tickets/?utm_source=dedicated&no-ist

A list of participating museums can be viewed here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venues/

The Museum Day Live! ticket provides free admission for two people. (If you're a family of four, Mom and Dad can each get a two-fer ticket, allowing everyone in for free!)

Check it out early, as space is limited at many venues.

TRASHY: On our morning walk yesterday, we strolled up Thorndyke Avenue, the west border to our neighborhood. 

That route took us past a non profit's receptacle for used clothes and shoes. Without fail, there are ALWAYS items dumped around the area. 

We weren't surprised to see a ditched mattress and box springs there. There's almost always those strewn around there. However, what's that? To the right of the receptacle?

Oh, look. It's a PIANO. Guess they couldn't fit it in the clothes slot.  Good gravy. :/

We have been keeping our eyes on it, with a mind to go pick it up if it weren't gone by tonight. I was ready to re-purpose it into a "piano bar." However, when we drove by tonight, a couple was dismantling it. Hopefully they have good intentions and will turn it into an art piece and keep it out of a landfill for the foreseeable future.  

Blockheads

PARTY PREPPERS: For the past couple of days, we've devoted some time to getting ready for our neighborhood's annual block party.

We made signs for street poles and posters to put over sawhorses, which we used to block off the street at each end. 

And, of course, we made food. We test-drove a new-to-use mac-and-cheese recipe. It was amazing (thanks, in large part, to using pounds of Beecher's flagship white cheddar cheese).

And we made some cute little caprese salad bites in the form of ladybugs. 

They sat on a base of fresh mozzarella topped by basil we grew from seeds, some grape tomatoes sliced at an angle with a black olive sliced to nestle against the tomato. The heads are held on with little dollops of cream cheese, and we tinted some cream cheese black and piped on the spots. Fresh and fun and healthy!

Of course, we also made some cupcakes (strawberry lemonade, one of my favorite recipes ever), and then there was the matter of whipping up a few rainbow star pooping magical unicorn cookies ....

I saw a tutorial featuring these cookies a couple of months ago, and had wanted to give them a go ever since. We figured the block party was a good enough reason.

The first (of many, many) steps involved making six colors of dough. They had to be chilled for six hours, with the centermost one in the form of a long rope, as it would serve as the core for the log.

Then, one at a time, each other color was rolled out and wrapped around the rope. Obviously, the rope grew thicker and more colorful with each addition.

Then came time to cut the unicorns out. Take a look at the colorful leftovers! I made some tie-dyed t-shirt cookies out of them.

The cookie cutter we have has such spindly legs and a thin horn and tail, it's not easy to get the unicorns to keep their exact shape, which is important, as each finished cookie is really three individual cookies, stacked.

In the photo above you can see the three components - a left and a right side, as well as a (legless) middle. The middle part has a little void in it, to hide the magical surprise. 

I held the layers together with some royal icing. The photo above shows the bottom and middle layers ready for the final side. (Notice the star 'stuffing'.) Getting all they layers to line up was tricky, but I got better at it as we went along.

And finally, after many hours over a couple of days, we had magical unicorn cookies!

 A friend even gave me some amazing rainbow unicorn themed boxes to put them in for people who wanted to take one home!

Here's a little video of Annabelle demonstrating their magical 'power.' https://youtu.be/bjrnrbunXH0

COOL VIEW: Neat new animated video from NASA today! It uses actual satellite images of the far side of the moon, illuminated by the sun, as it crosses between the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard the DSCOVR spacecraft, one million miles from home.
https://youtu.be/DMdhQsHbWTs

It's cool seeing the (illuminated!) “dark side” of the moon that's never visible from Earth, isn't it?  In the images, taken overnight on July 16, the North Pole is in the upper left corner   
In case you're wondering, DSCOVR's primary mission involves real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

CERTIFIABLE:  Today, we thought to check in with edX to see where our certificates for a class we completed weeks ago, "The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture." Usually, we get an email or something letting us know they're ready, but not this time. 

However, we were happy to learn we each got 100 percent for the course, and the certs are now filed away in the kids' portfolios.

GONZO: So, CJ's bike has been stolen. It was parked in our carport, entirely under a tarp (but not locked, sigh). 

He had pretty much outgrown it, but we'll still miss it, of course. It was a sweet, vintage Sears Spyder complete with sissy bar and banana seat.

I filed a police report on the off chance that someone, somewhere connects some dots, but I don't expect any real help from SPD as it says in bold letters on their Web site "Most cases will NOT be investigated."  (Christian was told the same thing when we had a car stolen too, by the way.)

That's right, folks, it's always open season in Seattle, and the criminals know it.

Needless to say, the purchase of a good lock will precede the purchase of another bike.

Boxer Day

SHIP SHAPE:  Saturday, we tried to visit the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault vehicle temporarily docked at the foot of our hill for Seafair. We drove down the vicinity of the ship and found out that parking was going to cost us $10. Cheapskates that we are we said, "Forget that!" and headed home, formulating a Plan B for a Sunday visit.

Sunday morning, about 11:20, we drove our car to the top of our hill and parked at Ursula Judkins park, at the south end of the bluff. From there, we walked down, down, down the Galer Street Bridge to Terminal 90, a bit of a hike, but one with a gorgeous view. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:40, and then the wait was on. Standing on hot asphalt in unseasonably hot weather. 

To pass the time, we watched a pair of osprey who seem to call the terminal their home. They had 'satellite' perches atop light posts ...

 but their big nest was on a multi-headed light stanchion. 

 Beautiful birds, they were. 

Speaking of flying things, we also got to see some Blue Angels while waiting on line for an hour. One of my favorite moments was having the Angels and an osprey in the same frame. 

Eventually, we FINALLY got on board the ship. 

How about I let Annabelle tell you a little bit more about it ... 

On August 2, 2015, I went to terminal 90 on a tour of the USS Boxer, an amphibious US Navy assault ship. The USS Boxer is very big, and I got a chance to tour almost the entire thing. The first thing I noticed about the Boxer is that they had a lot of vehicles on display. They also had a lot of rifles that you could pick up and examine. One of the things I saw was some fire equipment, in case of emergency. They even let you try it on to see how heavy it was. After looking around the main deck, we briefly headed down to a lower deck, where they stored more vehicles. After that, we went up to the flight deck, which was in my opinion, the best part. I thought it was the best part because we got to sit in an Osprey, which is a hybrid of a helicopter and a plane. Our tour ended after taking a look around the flight deck. The tour was fun but I wouldn’t go again.

Having been there, I can totally understand and agree with Annabelle's assessment about every doing it again. It was a tremendously (needlessly) long wait to get on board, and once we were on board it was pretty much a free for all - frankly dangerously so, IMHO.

For instance, while CJ and Annabelle were up top a Humvee, some other young tour taker STARTED the damn vehicle. For real. I don't pretend to know if military Humvees have keys or what kind of ignition system, but I'm thinking ones in the belly of the ship, open to tour should not be 'live.' And speaking of live, there were many, many weapons for tour takers to take a look at ... and handle. I really wasn't keen on kids/adults/anyone hoisting enormous arms (we're talking bazookas/grenade launcher size and more) and pointing them at my head and my kids' heads or anyone's heads and taking selfies and/or pretending to shoot them. That is SO contrary to safe arms handling. Ugh.Horrible. 

But other that that, it was swell ... :/

We certainly did appreciate the chance to check out an Osprey up close!

 And we even got to go inside!

 CJ's version of our visit ...

On August 2nd, 2015, we went on a tour of the USS Boxer, which, according to Wikipedia, is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship of the Navy. When we visited, the Boxer was docked at Terminal 90. Inside the main room, there were several different, mostly triangular flags hanging from the ceiling. When I asked one of the servicemen who worked aboard the ship if he knew what they represented, he said he honestly didn't know.

During our visit, we where shown multiple vehicles used by the Navy, including different tanks and planes. In one of the tanks, we were allowed to climb in, and we were able to hold an (obviously turned off) gatling gun mounted on top. I asked one of the servicemen if it would be possible to take it off the tank and hold it. He proceeded to tell me that although it couldn't function on its own, it could be taken off and mounted on anything that had the appropriate mount. Afterwards, we were brought to the top of the boat, where we got to sit in some helicopters, including the Osprey.

One detail I noticed about the Boxer was there were multiple different colored "E" symbols on the ship. The different colors on the Es represent different categories, and the stars above them apparently represent how good it is in that category.

Overall, I think it was very interesting visiting the USS Boxer.

Whirlwind

HOPELESSLY BEHIND: It has been busy, Busy, BUSY for us for the past week plus. Friday I neglected to post because it was the kids' last day of music camp  ...

and we had to run straight from there to a wedding, literally changing clothes in the car along the way.

A wedding highlight for the kids was taking a 'shot' of Skittles. Taste the rainbow!

Saturday we took a nice walk in Discovery Park, keeping on the interior trails in the shade, because it was another scorcher out.

We worked around our yard afterward, and started a bit of prepping for the annual block party, which we're helping organize this year. Annabelle designed some flyers and we posted them around the neighborhood.

That afternoon, we took a break from all the work and action and played a couple of games, including the fun Sleeping Queens (which I won two out of two times, I think it important to point out, ha!).

Sunday, we spent most of the day visiting a Navy amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, which was docked at the bottom of our hill.

I'm going to save most of the reports and photos about the Boxer for a future post, as the hour is late, our Internet was down all evening, and I'm exhausted from making 3D rainbow unicorn pinata cookies for tomorrow's block party. 

Until tomorrow ...