The original Space Race
The 1960’s space race must have been something. Nothing seemed to have energized a country as Sputnik did. Although watching Disney Plus’ The Right Stuff, there was a lot of skepticism about the NASA program. If you believe the fictional show, Kennedy, regardless of his 1962 speech at Rice University to put a man on the moon within the decade, didn’t see a lot of political upside in NASA. Eisenhower would get the credit if it went well. Kennedy would get the blame if it failed. I wonder if it is similar to how we look at the Space Force today.
Recent fictional TV shows, such as the Right Stuff, or Apple TV’s For All Mankind, have peaked my interest in the original Space Race. I almost missed new year, while listening to the BBC’s 13 minutes to the moon podcast. I was glued to my earbuds, the same way my parents and grandparents must have been to their black and white television in 1969.
The heroic stories about the engineering to get a man into space, let alone land on the moon were incredible. They provide a great backdrop to today’s Crew Dragon missions from Space X or Blue Origin’s New Shepard mission. Yep, it is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space. And now I know a lot more about it thanks to The Right Stuff. The character which intrigues me a lot is Gordo Cooper, an enfant terrible among astronauts.
I am giddy I wrote this blog entry, as I just discovered there is a second season to the BBC podcast. This time they are covering the doomed Apollo 13 mission, sans Tom Hanks. I may miss Thanksgiving.
November 11, 2020
One more thing: a new keyboard?
Today Apple made a slew of big announcements as part of its One More Thing event. Apple will reserve that moniker for big announcements.
Today’s announcement was all about the transition from Intel to Apple ARM-based silicon. This transition has been years in the making, and will last another 2 years.
The Apple ARM-based M1 Chip
Little know fact is that my first out of school job was at VLSI Technology. VLSI was, together with Apple, and Acorn Computers a founding member of the Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, or ARM joint venture. That was in the early nineties.
I also remember the transition from the PowerPC chips to Intel chips. It was an important change. For years, Apple computers were different from WinTels, both because of the chips and because of the operating systems. The CPU battle was between Motorola and Intel, which Intel won. The transition was so well executed. I expect the same thing to happen here, with Universal Apps able to run on either chip, and Rosetta 2 emulation layer, allowing Intel applications to run on an ARM machine. Even iPhone apps can run on a Mac.
MacRumors coverage of the event has all the highlights
These Macs are incredible machines. I can not think of a similar complete system which is not a Mac.
And yet, while scrolling through the coverage was, all I could think of was … “What about the keyboard, Tim?” “Tell me about the keyboard!”.
Apple messed up rather big when the keyboard on their previous laptops failed. Indeed, I type this from my mechanical keyboard, connected to my MacBook Pro, as its keyboard is giving me grief. Keys no longer press down easily, and others just hang.
So much greatness packed in a new family of M1-based machines is undone by a single faux-pas in the previous system, on something as simple as a keyboard. Make it right, Tim! Give us all a discount on our M1-machine.
November 10, 2020
Shall my next car be electric?
My son is on the road tonight with my trusty old tank, our 2005 Volvo V70 station wagon. With almost 200,000 miles on the odometer and some peeling paint near the roof rails, the car is doing overall quite well for its age.
Today, one of my friends is the proud new owner of a 2020 Golf SE Turbo. Another gasoline car.
This made me ponder whether my next car shall be electric, gasoline or a hybrid model.
My first consideration is whether the new technologies will be as reliable. I don’t think I will ever fare as lucky as I have been with my Volvo. The car has been solid. It has a true and tested power train. It is simple and lacks a lot of the electronics of today’s cars. And probably because of it, it has been such a great and reliable car.
My wife’s new car, a 2019 Honda Accord Hybrid, is full of electronics and software. I hold my heart for its reliability. There is just too much new technology in the Honda to make me feel comfortable. The same is true for the new hybrid Volvos I suspect.
Therefore, when I ultimately have to retire my tank, it shall either be a similar true and tested gasoline powertrain, or a simple new electric car. An older model Volvo, Mercedes, or Honda will serve me surely for a few years. Or, I will look at a Tesla Model 3 or Y. Sure the battery technology is key. Yet, the mechanics inside a Tesla are simple. They stand in stark contrast to what sits underneath the hood of our Honda Accord Hybrid. I hope I still have a little time to figure this out.
November 9, 2020
The right thing
It is 8:45am Pacific Time on Saturday November 7th. We are four days after the US election.
I am catching up on email and twitter when the news finally hits: “CNN predicts Joseph R Biden Junior as the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the first woman and person of color as vice-president of the United States.”.
My English breakfast tea whispered to me:
“Winston Churchill once famously observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”
When more than 70 million Americans voted for lies, my tea is clearly wrong. That’s what you get when you commit the ultimate British faux-pas and make tea in the microwave.
When Trump won in 2016, I got the impression he was as surprised as many of us “Shit, I really won. Now I got to go to work.”
However at least Trump inherited lots of goodness. Not the least, president Obama had rebuilt the US economy from disaster. They had done in a very short time an incredible job. A solid foundation was laid, the walls were up, the roof was being put down. The only thing missing were the roof tiles. That’s when our so called president-builder came in to claim the keys to the front door.
It does appear to me that the Democratic presidents and vice-presidents should rebrand themselves as “The cleanup crew” or “The repair pair”.
Don’t underestimate the immense task ahead of our next president: a broken economy, a pandemic spinning out of control and a divided country. Tonight’s celebrations are less “woohoo we won” and more “let’s go to work!” What a contrast.
November 7, 2020
Bonarda, it’s here!
Today we opened up a bottle of Santa Julia wine, a mix of Malbec and Bonarda. The first time I heard about Bonarda was a few years ago, while visiting the Mendoza area of Argentina. The hush hush was that winegrowers were planting the Bonarda grape in great quantities. We should be on the look out in the future for Argentina Bonarda. It will become Argentina’s next red.
Argentine Bonarda
Apparently, Argentine Bonarda isn’t the same as Italian Bonarda. The Argentine grape is different: Douce Noir, similar to a grape from the Savoie in France. Some argue it comes from California’s Charbono.
Bonarda wines are at first very fruity on the nose, with notes of black cherry compote, fresh blueberry, and plum. Then, they become more complex, giving off nuanced aromas of violets, 5-spice, allspice, and peonies. Finally, depending on whether or not the wine was oaked (though most aren’t), they may have slight smoky notes of cigar box, sweet figs, and chocolate. On the palate, Bonarda has an initial burst of fruitiness, a medium-body, juicy acidity, and a smooth, low-tannin finish.
I expect a lot more Bonarda to show up now. If there only was a way to invest in the Argentina’s next red.
The Santa Julia wine tasted great for a Friday-pondering-election-results.
November 6, 2020
Bubble bubble bubble
I am caught up on the current state of the presidential election. All eyes are on Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. The fact that Georgia is this close is a surprise to me. I would have expected Florida to be in this list as well.
The bigger surprise and sadness however is how many Americans still support this president. We can disagree on policy decisions: tax-cuts or no tax-cuts, affordable care act or not.
However, I don’t consider this election about policy. This is about whether we accept a blatant liar in the White House.
The fact that so many people still voted for this president illustrates also a lack of my understanding of the rest of the country. Living in the Bay Area, I have been living a sheltered US existence: lots of job opportunities, mostly white collar jobs, a large diversity including from many different countries and cultures, and overall a good response to covid-19 pandemic. As soon as this pandemic is over, let’s leave our bubble and do a cross country road trip. We can start in the South and travel the mid west. As a matter of fact, the blue-red colored map is a nice roadmap.
November 5, 2020
The day after the evening of
I was very successful avoiding any election night coverage. As a result, I fell asleep very swiftly.
This morning, it is very hard to avoid any commentary about how it is going.
“I am glued to the NYT coverage for any new updates.” (So, it much be close. Biden must have lost Florida. It must be about Pennsylvania and similar states.)
“Hey, how is it going? Are you following what’s going on?” (Could be mayhem in the streets, or lawyering, or both).
“Unlike Trump, Biden didn’t announce victory yet, but already started talking about healing the country.” (Trump must have given an election night victory speech, but nothing is sure yet. Now it will be about suppressing the mail-in vote. As expected.)
That’s about the coverage I want to be exposed to today. I won’t be tuning into any news coverage. Yet, I can come out from underneath my rock or covers.
November 4, 2020
A Peaceful Election Night
For months, I have been following the political campaigns. Trump v Biden, Gideon v Collins, Graham, McConnell. I watched the debates. I read Nate Silver’s website. I watched Cuomo, Oliver, Buttigeig, Maddow, Tapper, sometimes even FoxNews. I donated and even joined a phone bank. “Hi, how are you? Have you already decided who you will be voting for in the presidential election?” I commented on the Belgian coverage of the US elections. I commented on Twitter. I was in it.
But not today. Not tonight. All day, I didn’t log onto Twitter. I didn’t tune into any news channel. I didn’t listen to single political podcast. I asked my family not to discuss any politics at the dinner table.
The way I see it, tonight there are two options. Or Biden wins big, e.g., Florida. However this is is not likely if you read the polls leading up to today. Or it will be the beginning of a long drawn out count-recount-lawsuit-argument-counter-argument session. Tonight I didn’t care for any of that spectacle. I wanted peace and quiet.
If I could, I would go into hibernation for a week and resurface when the political jousting has settled. Unfortunately, that’s not in the cards. So I wanted at least tonight to be calm and peaceful.
Goodnight my dear political wonks.
November 3, 2020
A month ago I did a major twitter purge and unsubscribed from a large number of people (or bots). I noticed I was living a bit in an echo chamber. When the Lincoln project posted a new video, my entire feed became one giant retweet. I wasn’t learning anything new.
Now, my twitter feed is a bit too lean. I do have a few people I definitely recommend on twitter:
Nevertheless, I am in need for new insights and interesting twitter handles to follow. Any recommendations?
October 25, 2020
