Aerial Photography

27-Dec-2012 (KOA)

Yesterday was the day once again for an annual aerial photo flight at Kona.  I’ve gone up every year between Christmas and New Year’s since 2004.  In the beginning these flights were only done at Kona to capture the crowded conditions we see on the ramps during the holiday break.  Eventually a separate annual flight was scheduled at the Hilo airport too and the photo library became a useful tool for recording conditions and changes over the prior 12 months at both airports.  We also learned how to leverage the pictures for reports or whenever a case had to be made for project needs.  Images really do trump words every time.

2012 Video of the Year

It's tough to top a kitten being a kitten.



Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Senator Daniel K Inouye

Today Hawaii and the entire United States lost a true American hero, Sen. Daniel K. Inoye.  In ways that will go far beyond politics, the State of Hawai‘i, including the military, airline, travel, agricultural, aviation, science and high technology industries all gained much from the senator's tenure in office and his senior ranking on several of the most powerful committees in government.

The senator was a true American hero. He was a World War II veteran, a soldier in the 442nd, "Go For Broke", Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit for its size and length of service, in the entire history of the U.S. Military.  He lost his right arm in combat near San Terenzo, Italy and earned the highest military honor the country awards, the Congressional Medal of Honor.  He served in the Hawaii Territorial legislature after the war, and went on to represent Hawaii in Washington, D.C. when statehood came in 1959.  He was the most senior member of the Senate and third in line to the US presidency. 

I was fortunate enough to meet Senator Inouye on several occasions in connection with Hawaii Airports Division projects, including the siting and construction of the new FAA air traffic control tower at Kona, during a dedication for new ARFF vehicles at Kona, and at a briefing I prepared and delivered to him and his staff once during a Hawaii visit. 

Sen. Inouye was often a man of few words, but when he spoke they all had meaning.  When he listened he did so quietly and respectfully and you always knew he missed nothing.  He however, will be missed by many.

"Aloha" to you and RIP, Senator.

TS Repair Pau

All together again!

Today was the day to finally complete the table saw repair.  The major part of the work was the removal of all the miscellaneous parts... things like the rails front and rear, the motor, and the base section.  That provided access to the arbor assembly where I could unbolt it from the table top and rethread the screw that rotates the blade for bevel cuts.

Table Saw Repairs

Table Saw Inverted

A week or so before leaving for AU this year (more on how that all went in a future post) my trusty Rigid TS3650 table saw broke down.  It has worked flawlessly since it was new 10 yrs ago, but time caught up and the doctor needed to make a call.  What actually happened was that the threaded rod that rotates the arbor for bevel cuts popped out of its "catch" in the arbor assembly.  What I hadn't really noticed over the years was that the sheet metal siding was slowly being pushed out of shape, and the additional length inside the assembly finally wasn't enough to keep the rod in place.

HDR Timelapse

I do love this sort of thing. Be sure to play it full screen.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I've always liked cats more than dogs. And because they've traveled a longer evolutionary trail I just think they have to be smarter. Cats don't need anyone but themselves - and they certainly don't need a dog, or a pack of them, to get where they want.

Enjoy!

>

Office Build Update

Table top edging installation

After a few weeks off the project to take care of other things like work, Ironman (more on that in an upcoming post), and a broken down table saw, I'm back on it again.  The two primary table surfaces were completed a few weeks ago and the edging pieces ripped and rough cut, but when it came time to cut the miters the bevel adjustment on my table saw broke down.  The saw is now in pieces in the shop waiting for me to get it fixed and put back together again.   In the meantime I decided to finish things up using the chop saw... which for what I have to do now works just as well.

So this past weekend I cut, mitered, and fit the edging for the smaller of the two tables, and tonight glued the long pieces on.  In any one-man shop work on large and heavy pieces is often tricky if not downright difficult.  These tops are now too large and heavy for me to lift onto sawhorses so I've laid 2x material with carpet scraps over them so work can be done on the floor.  What isn't shown in the images are temporary support pieces I clamped at each of the corners to support edging while they were being glued on and the clamps set.

Tomorrow night the end pieces will be glued on.  That clamping setup will also require a bit of trickery because the top is longer than any clamps I own... including my long pipe clamps.  But I've been faced with this before so I know the drill.

Slowly but surely this project moves forward.

Edging installation

Edging is deliberately over sized so that it can be trim routed flush later on.

Office Build Update



Completed Bookcases

Since the bookcases portion of the project is probably the most complex and time consuming we'll say that the office build project has now passed the halfway point.  Today everything got a good rub of Johnson Paste Wax making them complete and ready for transport out of the shop.  Work on the table tops will begin tomorrow.

The finish on these is a wipe-on mix of Danish oil (cherry) and spar varnish cut with mineral spirits followed by several wipe-on coats of spar polyurethane and finally wax.  If that level of effort doesn't prove to be durable enough for a government office nothing would be.

Today is 4 weeks to the day into the build.

Hand Crafted

Branding

I've been building things in my garage/shop since I bought my house in 2003.  It was the first chance I'd ever had where I owned the property, knew there wouldn't be a move in 18-24 months, and room was available to accumulate tools and equipment and make sawdust.  Over the years I've built all my own shop cabinets, workbench, materials rack, and numerous cabinets and pieces of furniture for myself and others.  But I never had a way beyond a Sharpie or ballpoint pen to mark my work.

Now I do.  It came today... a full two weeks ahead of when I expected it.  Just in time too.

AutoCAD 2013 SP1.1

No posts all month and then two within a half an hour.  Go figure.

But I just became aware that Autodesk re-released updates today for the packages that failed a few weeks ago immediately after they were posted.  32-bit and 64-bit versions of the new Service Packs can be found here:

AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1.1
AutoCAD LT 2013 Service Pack 1.1

A couple of things to note about these:

1. They are for AutoCAD only and will not work on any of the vertical products.  Separate SP's for vertical products will be created and issued as appropriate. 
2. Also, if you previously applied the original SP1 before it got pulled you can simply install SP1.1 right on top of it.

As always, be sure to go thru the ReadMe file that accompanies any update very carefully and follow all the directions.

I'll be watching the boards closely over the next few days to see how the user community is reacting to this repair package.  If the feedback looks positive I may take a dive back into 2013 waters myself.  We'll see.

Making Sawdust

I haven't had much time recently to add a new blog posting because I've been working on these and the plans for a new stand up workstation at my office.  The suite will include these two bookcases made of American Cherry and Red Oak, three torsion box table top work surfaces (two each about 3 ft wide by 8 ft long and one shorter one to form a "U" shape) and a small case to hold the computer unit under the table.  Basically I got tired of working in a conventional fashion and decided it might be better for me long term to stand instead of sit.

I got the original idea from a colleague and an article I stumbled onto online.  So in late August I began drawing up detailed construction plans, a cost estimate and made the pitch.  Once the boss granted approval and gave me funding for the materials it was full steam ahead.  Construction started in my shop at the start of September and has been pretty steady since.  The schedule is to get everything complete and installed before I head off to Autodesk University (AU2012) in late November.

A complete set of progress images of the build are being posted on my PBase Woodworking pages.  These include an abbreviated set of the drawings I put together for the project.  Entries  here may become a little sporadic while this goes on.  I'm enjoying making sawdust again.  :)

AutoCAD 2013 SP1

You had to be *really* fast today because if you blinked, you missed it. Yup, Autodesk released AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) into the wild on this date (22-Aug-2012)! Or did they? It turns out they both did and they didn't because almost as soon as it was set free Autodesk pulled it, ney, they yanked it like a bad tooth... because it was apparently. If you go to the Autodesk Service and Support site now (as this is being written) this is what you'll see:

AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD 2013 has been temporarily removed due to a newly discovered fatal error. The AutoCAD team is actively working on resolving this and a new service pack will be posted here as soon as it is available.

The words, "fatal error" always catch my attention. Maybe it's just "fatal". Anyway, that word in anything will make me sit up and get focused. The boards are still somewhat quiet (stunned?!) about all this so I'm not quite sure what any of it means other than:

1. It's becomming more important than ever to wait a few days (weeks, months, etc) before ever installing a new AutoCAD release; and,
2. It's equally worth your time, money, and sanity to wait a few days (weeks, or months, we'll see, etc) before ever installing a new Service Pack.

Whack-A-Mole anyone? Stay tuned!

AutoCAD 2013 Update Redux

The vast majority of visits to this site since it has been up have been to the various AutoCAD 2013 postings, and particular to the one titled, "AutoCAD 2013 Update".  There's no doubt that countless users are anxiously awaiting the first Service Pack or Hotfix or anything really that will make this first release of the 3-yr cycle work without issues.

Sadly, this isn't the page you're looking for.  Trust me... I'm waiting for the same thing you are.  But for those wondering how long Autodesk usually takes to issue updates I've spent a little time going back through their records to find out.  And it seems that it sometimes takes a while.  Normally the new versions of the program (over the last few years at least) have been sent out into the wild on or about the last week of March.  This year 2013 was released on March 27th.  It's now August 14th.  Let's see what the history is with respect to update releases.

The following list is not entirely comprehensive.  Left off are numerous language-specific fixes, and many for vertical products such as Revit, Inventor, and others.  I've picked out primarily the major updates and those that apply mainly to the base AutoCAD program itself.

	2013
03/26/12	Autodesk IPv4 Network License Manager for Windows
03/26/12	Autodesk IPv6 Network License Manager for Windows
06/04/12	Hotfix – Persistent System Tray Sync Error:
	2012
04/01/11	Content Explorer Hotfix:
06/13/11	Block Editor Save Corruption Hotfix:
09/27/11	Service Pack 1:
12/13/11	SP 1 Ribbon Hotfix:
12/08/11	Content Explorer Hotfix:
03/13/12	SP1 SMB V2 Hotfix:
06/11/12	Service Pack 2:
	2011
04/27/10	Info Manager Hot Fix:
10/13/10	Materials Library Update:
09/06/10	Layer Manager Hotfix:
09/16/10	Update 1.1:
05/30/11	Update 2:
01/04/12	Hotfix for Complex PLine:
	2010
06/19/09	Startup Error & Text Editing Hotfix:
06/24/09	MeasureGeom Hotfix:
08/21/09	Scale List Cleanup Utility:
08/21/09	Regapp ID Cleanup Utility:
10/01/09	Update 1:
05/11/10	Update 2:
	2009
05/21/08	Render Hotfix:
05/27/08	Solid Filled Object Hotfix:
07/30/08	Update 1:
08/28/08	Open Close Save Hotfix:
09/08/08	P&ID Hotfix:
10/30/08	Update 2:
06/08/09	Update 3:
	2008
05/23/07	Hotfix-Live Update:
09/14/07	Service Pack 1:
11/01/07	Hotfix-Linetype display:
05/02/08	Raster Issues after installing Service Pack 1:
11/04/08	Open Failure from Windows Explorer Hotfix:
01/30/09	Live Update Hotfix:
02/09/09	Hotfix-Autodesk Activation Update:
05/05/09	Plot to PDF Not Centered with Custom Margins Hotfix:
	2007
04/24/06	Hotfix-New Features Workshop Update:
06/14/06	Hotfix-Fatal Error During Save:
06/20/06	Hotfix-Cut & Paste:
04/05/07	Service Pack 1:
09/25/06	Hotfix-Regenerating Drawings Containing Text:
09/25/06	Hotfix-Plotting to Raster Files Performance Improvement:
10/19/06	Hotfix-Closing Drawings:
11/20/06	Hotfix-OLE Error:
04/19/07	Service Pack 2:

As the list shows, sometimes it can be a long wait, especially when it comes to fixes for the first version of a new cycle (2007, 2010, and now 2013).  It’s really not too surprising that nothing of substance has been issued for 2013 yet, and it could well be a while longer.

Only time will tell.

 

Olympic Memories

Perhaps a replay will help us wait another four years...

Brick by Brick - Olympic Beach Volleyball

So, your recorder failed the other day and you missed the XXX Summer Olympics final match of women's beach volleyball, eh? No worries, mate. We've got the replay for you right here! Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Curiosity

Is this all far too complicated, or not? We'll see. Mars has not been an especially good host to Earthly visitors in the past. The latest chapter is about to be written.

So be sure to watch the evening news tonight. One way or another *something* is going to happening way out there today!

UPDATE: Curiosity Has Landed! As crazy as the idea was the nerds at NASA made it work!

London 2012

On the eve of the Summer Games, Well Wishes, London!  We all look forward to 17 days of sport in its purest form, at the highest levels, and in one of the great cities of the world.

Let the Games Begin!

Vog

(A current animated version can be viewed -Here-)

What is Vog?  The University of Hawaii's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (UH SOEST) defines it as follows:

Vog is primarily a mixture of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas and sulfate (SO4) aerosol. SO2 (invisible) reacts with oxygen and moisture in the air to produce SO4 aerosol (visible). SO2 is expected to be the main problem in areas near the vent (Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, Pahala, Na`alehu, Hawaiian Ocean View Estates) and SO4 aerosol is expected to be the main problem at locations far from the vent (Kona and farther north and west).

In LA or NYC they'd call it Smog.  The sources may be slightly different, but the effects on people and plant life are largely the same.  In Hawaii it's a natural process and results from eruptive activity at the Kilauea Volcano.  As the graphic above shows, the areas most affected by the vog here are those immediately west of the eruptions themselves that lie on the path of normal trade wind patterns.

Over the years I've posted a number of photos showing what the sky looks like at sunset when vog is particularly evident... but until you see where it comes from and where it goes it's kind of hard to grasp what the effect is here.  The SOEST graphic above is updated frequently and is part of an ongoing Vog Measurement and Prediction Project.  It shows output in graphical form from the HYSPLIT dispersion model.  Those who live here really don't need a reminder.  We've seen it just about every day since Halemaumau blew up in April 2008.

"vog" sunset taken above Puako Mar 7, 2008

Shooting Fireworks

(Click for an even larger view)

You never know when you might see a fireworks show. It could be on the 4th of July in the USA, Bastille Day in France, Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, or after the Friday luau at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, Hawaii. Whenever it happens if you want to take good photos of it you need to know how. You can watch videos on YouTube, find a magazine article, or go on a Google search and end up here. Shooting fireworks effectively is the topic this week.

Adaptive Lens Corrections

Russell Brown is the Sr. Creative Director at Adobe Systems and a great innovator in the use of Photoshop. Until I discovered his new video above I wasn't even aware that Photoshop CS6 had the capability of adaptively correcting lens distortion. I frequently shoot various wide angle lenses and have long been a devotee of panoramas, but this will take future creations to an entirely new level.

Have a look at what Dr. Brown has done here, and if you have CS6 be sure and give the new Adaptive Wide Angle filter a try. This video is sure to help you learn how to process images with this amazing filter correctly!

Enjoy!

Higgs Boson

Oh, great.  Now everybody is going to want one!

The Higgs Boson is no longer the theoretical particle of the Higgs mechanism that physicists have believed would reveal how all matter in the universe gets its mass.  Physicists at CERN pretty much confirmed today that their experiments have found the particle.  They did it with the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland... otherwise known as "the Big Bang machine."

Most amazingly, Peter Higgs, the theoretical physicist from England who predicted the particle in 1964 in a paper that was rejected by an academic physics journal edited at CERN, was on hand in Geneva today when the formal announcement was made.  The guy who admitted to being "incompetent" in science in the lab was just surprised to be alive when his theory was proven correct.

You can get your very own Higgs Boson particle at the ParticleZoo while they last.  9.95$US plus shipping... Fair warning tho': They tend to live very short lives! :)

Still don't know what any of this is all about?!  Me either.  But the video below might help.  These guys do know!





Enjoy!