Lindy Hopper through and through.

Frankie Manning passed away last month, just a month short of his 95th birthday. You can find more information about Mr. Manning elsewhere on the internet, but in brief, he was an entertainer in the 30's-50's, performing the Lindy Hop professionally, serving in World War II, and finally settling down to a job as a post office worker until the 1980's, when he retired to spend the last 30 years of his life traveling the world teaching Lindy Hop.

I recently had the good fortune to be able to attend what would have been Frankie's 95th birthday, but turned into a general massive celebration of Lindy hop and those who do it. Hosted at the Hammerstein Ballroom, part of Manhattan Center just next to Penn Station, it was among the coolest events I have had luck to attend. I was only able to attend the late night dances, which was fine by me, and I spend four days in a row dancing from midnight to 4 AM.

The point here is that more people need to do this regularly. I'm not a bar guy; I really don't like drinking, and I'd much rather go find a place playing blues or swing and dance. Sharing a good swinging song with a good spring-loaded partner is one of my true deep pleasures, and being able to share the sensation with so many hundreds of other people was a very good experience.

Most styles of dance that we know now were picked up by people stealing and modifying other dance's steps. There have been a number of great books written on the history of dance, but the theme of these works seems to be that most new and fun partner dance styles have not arisen from training in dance studios and the like. They originate on the dance floor, when people figure out themselves what steps go with which beats of the music. Frankie mentioned this when he taught master classes, and brings it up in one of his last interviews before his death which can be seen here.

Go learn a style of dance, to a type of music which moves you. When I say "moves", I mean makes you want to dance, even without the aid of alcohol or other substances. When I hear good gospel, swing, or blues, and even some forms of classical music, I have a hard time sitting still. It's like I just want to get up and start dancing. When I first really started learning swing at University of Illinois' swing society, I learned an important set of lessons about how to teach this kind of dance: It's not really about the precision of the steps, like your feet must be here and here and here on these beats, but it's about the alignment of the music.

That being said, getting the lindy swingout into your muscle memory is nice, but it really only gets fantastic when you are able to stop thinking about "1-2-3-4-" and start hearing "bum..uhuh..bumbum" type rhytms in your head. You hear this a lot when you start learning from other swing dancers. They stop teaching and explaining in terms of numbers and counts, and start teaching in terms of rhythmic ideas.

This could go on and on about all these things, and the style of music I like, and all the rest, but I had such a great time dancing with so many people at Frankie's 95th that I would like to encourage everyone else to do the same. Go learn how to swing. If swing dancing isn't for you, find a style of music that makes you want to get down, and go get down and dance.

I've been rather lucky to have fallen in with the Ottawa swing scene, which has been a very fun outlet for me, and one of the things which helped me enjoy my experience in Potsdam getting my graduate degree.

Automotive downturn could be good for Renewables?

Here's a thought for everyone out there. If people are not buying cars, a potential solution would be to build something else that people do want to buy. Say what you will about cars. Eventually, folks will be buying cars again, but folks are waiting. I would wager that there will be a surge in businesses that deal with car repair, spare parts, and the like, as if people are not buying new cars, then it stands to reason that they are most likely fixing their present cars to keep them for longer.

That being said, I wonder what we could do with all this massive capacity and skilled talent in building lots and lots of inexpensive, quality things? Perhaps it may be a valid time to build Solar balance-of-plant equipment on a massive scale. Sure, the solar panels themselves may not be scalable to auto-industry style manufacturing, but certainly a fair amount of "balance of plant" equipment- Things like the frames that hold the panels up, the motors that point them at the sun, and the boxes containing the electronics and control gear, are certainly things that the US auto industry and its parts suppliers could manufacture.

The Auto Industry, say what you will, have really become experts at making vast, vast quantities of things for very low cost. I was impressed recently that a replacement starter motor for my Celica cost only $48.00 or something like that. A similar size DC motor, at least similar size by mass and physical dimensions, is what is used to operate very large dual-axis solar trackers. Therefore, it stands to reason that with some small engineering changes, the Motor Division at Delco or whoever could be cracking out motors to point solar panels.

The body and welding plants that stamp out car bodies could certainly be applied, with some vigorous engineering, to manufacturing the actual cases and packages used for solar systems. Most tracking solar arrays use some kind of metal back-pan to hold all the magical optics in alignment. They have to be low cost, precision, and cheap as nails, since in order for solar to be affordable, you have to effectively crack out millions of these things. The Auto Industry is VERY good at cracking out millions of cheap things.

The frames and poles that hold these things up are certainly no more complicated than auto bodies. Let's get some of the auto-style engineering into Solar, and really have a go at mass producing solar equipment.

When I talk about "let's get" and "we should" I'm referring to us profit minded entrepreneurs. Under no circumstances should the government try and spearhead any such effort, unless only through grants and tax breaks. We don't want any kind of "Solar Czar", as that could only complicate matters. The trick is to get some serious solar plants installed now, while all these manufacturers are potentially looking for other things to build to keep their assembly lines running.

Finger pointing and the economic downturn: education is the answer!

I listen to a lot of radio, and read a lot of news. The current theme amongst talk radio hosts seems to be "whose fault" is the economic downturn. Real estate people are pointing at banks, banks are pointing at home developers, home owners are blaming banks, banks are blaming home owners, democrats are blaming republicans, congress is blaming the federal reserve, the federal reserve is blaming congress; it's just this big mess.

I'd like to simplify it by saying: The fault of the current economic downturn is shared by everyone. People in general tend to fall into this endless feeling of "spend now, don't save" which creates all kinds of trouble. I myself have much more credit card debt than I feel is appropriate, on account of trying to start SolarSCADA as well as various trips for fun. However, my credit card debt absolutely pales in comparison with friends of mine who are sitting on $500k mortages, $20k cars, and $10k of credit debt. I propose that the the American People as a whole bear the responsibily for this whole mess. We are a "free market democracy" after all, so who else is there to blame?

I'm not anti-American; Far from it. Once again, I need to state: I love this Country, and feel we need to behave as if we are the big ballers we think we are. However, we have this problem, that happens to repeat every 70 years, where people get comfortable, start buying too much stuff, think that "Oh, the market for X will go on increasing forever!" Never mind that, if home prices keep increasing at 15% a year, a $250,000 will cost $500,000 in only around 5 years. Sounds good if you own the home, but what happens if you want to buy the home in five years? What does this do to inflation? How does this effect international debt markets? What does this do to your credit rating?

Very few people understand the connection between all of these issues, made ever more worse by the fact that most Americans haven't got a clue about real world economics. I'm not talking "Let's plot supply and demand curves and find market equilibrium points". I'm talking about stuff like "How much does a credit card REALLY cost if you have $2000 on a credit card with a 21% APR?" and "What the hell is APR anyways?". What about buying a car? Buying a house? How many Americans go into their first new car purchase or home purchase having any experience with such things? Far too few.

I took economics in high school. That's where I learned about equilibrium supply and demand. But what about buying a house? What's the proper process to sell or buy something that expensive? What's a "reasonable" interest rate? When would I want to lease a car or buy a car? What is a 401k, exactly? What does social security do, and how much do I pay for it?

What about insurance? The radio and news articles are filled with people saying "I had no idea health insurance is so expensive!" Why not? Should this be a topic taught in schools, since at some point in life, everyone is going to need to think about insurance for health, car, home?

Most Americans are not prepared to answer most of these, and lack even the basic fundamentals of practical economic knowledge; myself included. The amount of things I don't know about insurance, home buying, bank loans, and credit cards is simply appalling.

Therefore, how can we be surprised that good, hard working Americans got taken advantage of in some cases by folks selling "Adjustable arms with ratcheting rates"- That sounds like something I would use to fix a car, not buy it. Furthermore, how can it be surprising that credit card debt is ever growing, if Americans don't appreciate or understand all the implications of buying a $2000 plasma TV on a 21% credit card with a "six month grace period"?

The key to fixing a lot of this stuff is getting more educated consumers who can appreciate the realities of what is going on. It pains me deeply to see the US government trying hard to try out the 1930's Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act again, which essentially precipitated a trade war with Canada and decimated US exports. If the people making these suggestions were schooled in such things while still in high school, as part of a larger general course on the actual realities of economics, things would be better now.

An informed consumer is an empowered consumer. If someone going in to get a home loan knows what the hell a "ratcheting arm" is in the world of banking, they are in a much better position to say "Mr. Banker, won't this mean that my monthly payments will jump up to $7820 per month in two years?". Passing laws to mandate that Mr. Banker tells consumer about all these things will only encourage Mr. Banker to think of new, more complex, and more esoteric ways to get more interest out of consumers. Besides, the government mandated "disclosures" that come on the back of credit card bills and insurance agreements are basically unintelligable to most consumers anyways, as they never learned what most of the stuff means anyways! An intellectually armed consumer is a shady bank officer's worst nightmare, as they can get called on their bullshit if they aren't being truthful.

I propose that every school district should take it upon themselves to offer a class in which students participate in mock stock market purchases, buy and sell virtual cars to each other, and try and sell various forms of insurance to each other. It would be kind of of an interesting class, as you would see some students taking advantage of other students who didn't do their homework. The finishing grade could be based on what we use to judge people as "successful"- The amount of debt, the number of virtual houses and cars you own, how much of your virtual children's college you were able to pay for.

The class would start with each person earning a virtual income of $28,567, and living at home with understanding parents. Then, through the semester, students would make decisions based on what is happening, with real world things simulated by a once-a-week dice roll, which would be things like "You need to get stitches due to a kitchen accident- That costs you $5k unless you have insurance, in which case it still costs you $1k for the deductable.", or "unintended pregnancy- You need an extra $2500 a month in child care costs".

If there are teachers out there offering these kinds of classes, I would love to hear about them, and congratulations on teaching things which are sorely needing in the United States today.

Please stop driving into my parked car.

I drive a 1990 Toyota Celica, with a small engine, two doors, and windows that are operated with handles. It has 216,000 miles (388,800 km) on its odometer, and has spent a fair amount of its life outside in both Illinois, and now Northern New York. It is old enough to vote, and will soon be able to drink legally in the United States. I like my car, and I'd appreciate if you all could please stop driving into her while she is parked.

This car was the car I learned to drive stick on when I had my learner's permit back in the day. This car was bought new by my folks when I was but a child, and has been with me through much of my life. The Celica loves the open road, and has toted me, my family, and my friends to hamfests, dance contests, a cappella fests, and on several random road trips since I was eight.

The clutch on my Celica has 175,000 miles on it, mostly in suburban Chicagoland. The car has lived long enough to have required several sets of tires, at least six batteries, three starter motors, one radiator, four mufflers, one head gasket, and nearly 50 oil changes. Despite all of this, she still gets 35 mpg during highway driving and just over 30 in city driving. Even her cute little flippy-up front headlights still operate reliably, after getting one replaced due to a deer accident which left her otherwise unscathed.

There's a reason why the Linder family has spent money replacing these parts and keeping the Celica as a valued part of the family, and it's not so you and your ilk can use her as bumper practice when she isn't moving. Alright, I understand the occasional fender bender type things, and she's gotten her fair number of scratches over the years, being operated by clueless children learning to drive stick, and turning donuts in snow-covered parking lots by her now twenty-something owner. However, when parked, I'd appreciate it if you all could please respect the engineering, happiness, and both monetary and sentimental value of my nearly 20 year old car, and stop driving into it.

The "getting driven into while parked problem" started as a young car, when getting my learner's permit in high school. The Celica was in the parking lot in my high school, blinkers on, unmoving, with me at the helm when she was sideswiped by a bus. The front fender was injured, and had to be replaced. Other than that, the Celica has had no body damage, save for the deer accident and the type of damage that comes from driving on salty roads for nearly two decades.

When operated by me, on the open road, such things are inevitable: Rocks fall off trucks and scratch things, ice and snow causes her intimate pieces to rust, and my lack of cash prevents proper repairs on her body, having to settle for quick epoxy and paint fixes instead. But please, when she's parked, it's not that difficult to not drive into my car.

In the last six days she has been hit twice while parked. On the first occasion, I was sitting in the Celica reading a book awaiting a meeting, when a large truck decided to back up in the spot across from where I had parked. The trailer hitch receiver left a square-shaped dent in her foam-filled bumper. No permanent damage done, just more squishy foam no longer available to squish in the future.

Today, after getting back from lunch with Local Hot Amy, I find that someone had driven a truck over the Celica's front bumper. Damage was not extensive and her lovely eyes still come up on command. However, a good portion of her plastic front trim was shattered and her bumper shows the big yellow scratches of whatever evil vehicle pushed her down.

The Celica and I have a lot in common: our willingness to work, respect for longevity, high performance against odds, and care and support for one another. I'd appreciate it if you could all please stop driving into her while she is parked. If I am at the helm and we are both moving, and you decide to drive into her, I may be able to avoid you by swerving, passing, or braking. But when parked, with no pilot, she's essentially helpless, just napping peacefully in the snow. Please stop driving into my car.

And if you do drive into my car, please tell me who you are. I'm not rich enough or greedy enough to go after you for ridiculous compensation, but being able to call up and at least get a "Gee, I'm sorry I backed into your car" would make both me and the Celica feel better. She likes feeling love, just like any other anthropomorphized long-cherished possession.

I'm sorry Celica that people are so rude and insensitive as to crush your bumper and plastic trim without even letting you have any fun. We'll get you in for your 51st oil change this week.

New SolarSCADA.com web page.

Not only is the thesis running along well, but so too is SolarSCADA:

http://www.solarscada.com/

now has a video and a product offering.

Poop Tour '09:

It's that time of year again: Time for more sample gathering. First off, my thesis is coming along fairly well. I've got 100 pages "in the can", so to say, and have a clear set of data for the last few phases:

First off, what happens when you start putting multiple generators on rural power systems? The folks at National Grid have been very helpful- They have given me the engineering details of the power lines that serve our two farms of interest, so I can finish my modeling.

Second, I have all the failure data from the hand-written logbook associated with one of the digesters up here. The handwritten notes will be used to refine the automatically logged data on the system, so I can get together an actual view of the generator's reliability.

Finally, the data from the second part will be used in the model of the first to figure out what happens when, for example, your neighbor installs a digester and needs to warm it up from zero. This means lots of big loads for a few months, until the generator kicks on to start supplying energy.

However, there's some levity in this as well. My primary goal of going after on the Poop Tour '09 was to get access to one of the farmers' logbooks, so I could copy down details from each of his failures. Turns out this particular farmer is what I would call a "digester nerd", and takes a pretty deep interest in all things mechanical and otherwise associated with the digester. Turns out that lots of farmers are this way, as they need to be to keep their farms going.

Anyways, as a Digester Nerd, he keeps good records. I sat there and copied things out of his notebooks all day into mine, while the other members of my away team went to visit other farms. While away at the other farms, one of our enterprising grad students discovered a new way to get samples from a tanker.

Rather that find another way to get a sample, this enterprising individual decided that climbing up a ladder and presenting a 1 liter sample bottle under an 8" manure loading pipe was a good way to fill the bottle. Well, it is, so long as you're armed with a raincoat to dodge the rest of the material emerging at 1000 gpm from the 8" opening. I got a text message from another member of the away team saying, "Enterprising Student just got a shower". Oops.

The fun never stops.

The PHX Business Trip- Part 1

I'm on my way to Phoenix, in true innovator style: Armed with a giant box containing a hand-built prototype, a backpack, and a laptop computer, I'm heading off to demonstrate my prototype hardware (see SolarSCADA.com).

This trip has began the way that many entrepreneurial spirited enterprises have: with me being largely broke. As it turns out, spending several thousand dollars developing developing a prototype solar field controller is not the best idea when living on a grad student stipend. Of course, designing prototype solar control hardware while also attempting to write a respectable MS thesis on an unrelated topic may also not be the best idea, but that's the way I'm doing it. The more of this I do, the more I realize that I really am an entrepreneur and independent inventor, something which fits my demeanor, behavior, and very odd sleep schedule quite well. But I digress; more on this at a later date.

I didn't want to carry on the prototype, as heaven knows what the security people at the gate would think. Hancock Airport is small enough that they aren't totally swamped, and the security people tend to be very friendly and talkative, at least when compared to O'Hare's largely surly and angry security screeners. As such, I hung out around the Super Big X-Ray machine used on checked luggage as my hand-packed box went through. Inside the box is two pouches of tools (one with my DMM and some other things for electrical testing, the other with hand tools), and the Prototype intself, fashionably mounted inside a red toolbox which contains all the bits required to operate most currently available solar tracking systems. I put the box down by the security station, and said "This box has got some strange things in it-- I'm gonna hang around here in case you have any questions".

After the box exited the Super Big X-Ray Machine, the security screener commmented "Whoa- You're not kidding...". However, he was good natured about it, and after a few minutes more of questions, looking, prodding and explosives swabbing, the box went down the conveyer into the bowels of the airport. Hopefully, the box will emerge undamaged at the other side.

It's a good thing I build things like I do. The prototype is appropriately "Linderized", a phrase started during high school which was applied to set pieces which I inevitably overbuilt. The goal of the overbuilding, of course, was so that the set piece in question could withstand a so-called "jig test", a term which I believe was invented by Ogle to describe whatever crew people were around jumping up and down on the recently constructed piece and clapping. If it didn't wobble or collapse, it was deemed "jig tested" and approved for use. Nothing ever failed a jig test.

So the flight to Philly is supposed to leave at 11:28, and I should be in Phoenix at 1900. I'm gonna sit here for now on the floor of the terminal, reveling in the odd beauty of enourmous runway snow removal equipment.