Jon Goff is a friend of mine. I’ve known him for six to eight years.
He started off talking about what his company Altius does. They build (mechanical) Tractor Beams.
Their core technology is something they call Sticky BoomTM.
Earth based science can iterate in days or weeks. Space based science can have a single iteration of six months. With Sticky BoomTM it easier to approach a space facility, and leave. For example can use it to push a rocket away from something like the International Space Station which would make people safer about rockets getting close to the ISS. This could make the discovery research interation go faster.
The last year has been exciting. They have been able to test some of their product on the vomit comet.
They have some internships for the summer.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Scott Tibbitts, eSpace, "From the Hardware Store to Pluto: Adventures in Space Entrepreneurship"
Scott told how he fell into the space industry in the 1990s. People started buying from his company. He is from Boulder, Colorado. One of the values of the company was to have fun. Another core value was to make sure their products never failed in space.
They got to test their products on the vomit comet. He showed a video of one flight on the vomit comet. Over time the word got out and people wants to work for them. They got stuck in their growth because they were only making paraffin-powered mechanism for spacecraft. They ended up buying a company and could now making mechanical solutions for spacecraft. Now they were growing at 50% a year.
They had parts in the Martian rover. They were very excited. The company logo was shown in the pictures from Mars!
They learned not to use O-rings in devices.
At one point they were upside with a loan. The bank wanted six million dollars. He got two options, one to stay with the company as CEO, but still have loan issues, or sell the company. He struggled but sold the company.
His last story was about how one of his favorite memories was a trip with his son. He made the point that family and relationships are important.
Scott is a good story teller.
Stratofox Aerospace Tracking & Recovery Team, Ian Kluft
Ian told some fun stories about Stratfox Aerospace has recovered several rockets. They had a ballon which left from California and went all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
National Space Society - Paul Damphousse, Executive Director
Their vision is to help humans to settle space. Their membership is about 8,000. Individual membership is $20. They produce the “Ad Aster“ magazine. They have an International Space Development Conference this May, in Washington DC. He listed the speakers and topics which would be at the conference.
Spaceworthy, Ed De Reyes, "Roadblocks To Licensing and Permitting: We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us"
Ed De Reyes is a consultant. He will help with filing applications. He said the FAA is not trying to stop people from flying, but to make sure rockets fly safely. Ed encourage people to consider using people who have experience and know the FAA processes and know the people. He says too often small rocket companies think they are better off not having experience with the FAA. The best approach is to try and avoid problems. Good to talk with the FAA early and often. Don’t wait until the last minute. Be prepared to answer a lot of questions and have a detailed plan. Show you have a team in place. Always tell the truth. Good to ask, frequently, “What do you need for me?” Good to be polite.
Rick Maschek, Sugar Shot To Space
It appears you could build a five stage rocket using sugar that would be able to make it to space. (Who knew?)
Rick showed us some videos of SugarShot testing. They would burn in two stages. The first stage would burn just fine, but then the second stage would always have problems. He showed a dozen or so videos, and there was often an explosion.
Here is a flight where the first burn when just fine, but the second burn was at an angle. Note this is using sugar:
Dallas Bienhoff, "Payload Requirements For A Low Cost Reusable Launch Vehicle"
He had a list of customers and possible payloads. Wayne Gretzky says he is a great hockey player because while other skate to where the puck is, Wayne skates to where it will be. Dallas reviewed what we currently have and talked a bit about where we are headed. Most of what we have in space now went up as less than 10 meters long and 5 meters wide. And most of it weighs less than 6,000 kilograms. He listed some of the current flights and what might look at.
Space Studies Institute, Gary Hudson, President
Gary talked about becoming the President of Space Studies Institute (SSI). Gary decided they needed a bold project. Their goal is to make permanent human settlement of space. He reviewed some of their previous projects which lead to the lunar rover and an ongoing space manufacturing conference.
The path forward is focused on technical discussion and enable human settlement. They are trying focusing on what others are not doing. These projects may be managed by SSI or by others. The Great Enterprise Initiative is a road map, but doesn’t purport to be complete. They have five areas: Transportation, Resources, Environment, Society and Economy. They think Environment is not being studied enough so they will focus on human biology and other biology.
Gary is announcing the first two projects: G-Lab and E-Lab. After all the work we have done in space we don’t know if a female human can give birth to a child in space and can the baby grow up in space. The G-Lab is going to try to answer this question. E-Lab is a more general focus of looking into environment issues.
Gary says we have a little data on what happens at zero gravity and lots of data for one gravity, but little in between. The project goal: The question is to answer is “How many gravity does the human body need to live space?” SSI plans to build a lab near the International Space Station. He reviewed some of the possible benefits.
Bruce Pittman, NASA Ames, "Barriers And Opportunities For Reusable Launch Vehicles"
Over the last twenty five years there have been lots of attempts to develop business markets in space. A reusable rocket would save money. But developing a reusable rocket also costs money. It costs money to retrieve the parts. The whole process would take more time. Bruce showed an economic return on investment equation.
Even just ten flights a year makes a huge difference in the price. Elon Musk is looking at daily flights. A reusable Falcon 9 flying each day could take five million pounds a year into space. Who will be the customer for all this capability? In the 1800s railroads worked on building the transportation infrastructure, but they also worked on building the demand side by encouraging people from Europe to move to the United States and growing crops which would need railroads to move their crops.
Bruce reviewed several potential markets. Once a there is an ability to move a large volume into space there will be a lot of markets which could develop and grow.
NASA is hosting a business plan competition with a prize of $100,000, and there is a New Space conference this July.
Ed Wright of Citizens in Space, on “Citizen Science: ‘Pump priming’ For Suborbital
Space Tourism – too small to take seriously
Institute science – more money, tend to think NASA is the answer
Ideal Science Customer: Plentiful, Open to new ideas, little to no bureaucracy, minimal handholding, not dependent on NASA or the Federal government
The answer: Citizen Science – new term, old idea. This is the way science used to be done, for example Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Gregor Mendel, Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Here are some areas where this is fruitful: Amateur Astronomy, bird watching, plant collecting, geology, Zooniverse, Do It Yourself Biotech, Maker movement.
Trying facilitate “Citizens in Space.” Have a contract with XCOR for 10 flights. Looking for Lynx Experiments. May be able to do 10 to 12 experiments on each flight. Will have an experiment contest.
Check: www.citizensinspace.org
The Rocket Company – 10 Years After
David Hoerr is the author of The Rocket Company. It was fiction, but may have some lessons we can learn from it. In the book there was a space enthusiasm bubble. 250 space transports were built with 6000 flights to LEO each year. The vision was to sell many vehicles.
He challenged us to think big. Some possible projects: First lunar base, “Spaced-base G5”, Asteroid mining, space colonies, first Mars expedition. As reduce price per pound will open up more options.
Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Alex Saltman, Executive Director
Alex Saltman is here to talk about the non-engineering issues of getting into space. A lot of those issues are political in nature. There are currently 45 companies. Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) has been growing.
One of the goals is to make launches boring. Currently thousands and maybe even millions will watch a launch. CSF want to change the focus to the mission of the launch. They work with NASA to encourage it to be friendlier to private business. CSF is also trying encourage the government to simplify regulations. He talked in detail about how they work with the government.
John Schilling, "Halfway to Anywhere, Part II: Groundwork For Going Beyond LEO"
John says getting to LEO is only half the job, and not the hard half. Our destinations all have issues. He explored some types of rockets. Then he talked about having a LEO Operation Base. It would be nice to be able to resupply a rocket. John says it would be good to have multiple suppliers. It would be good to have small engines. He likes the current set of propellant tanks that we have. He feels that the current plumbing systems could be greatly improved.
Liftport, Frank Smith & Ben Stinnet
Earth space elevator would be very hard to build. We still don’t have some of the needed materials, like carbon nanotubes. They have decided to focus on a Lunar Space Elevator because it could be built with existing materials. The lighter gravity and lack of atmosphere make the job much easier. Frank showed a video of their proposal. From L1 they drop a ribbon down to the moon and anchor it. It would be on the earth side of the moon. The plan is to have a long tether reaching towards earth. L1 would be a storage location. It would hold stuff headed for the Moon, or for the Earth. They have a couple ideas for anchoring into the moon’s soil. There would be dedicated climbers so they could get lunar soil. The climbers would be solar powered. This would make it easy to gather a lot of material from the moon.
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Sara Meschberger
Sara Meschberger is the Vice-Chair of SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space). They are into space exploration. They have 37 chapters around the United States, mostly on the East Coast. And there are also some chapters in other nations.
She listed various activities they do. It was a long list. Here are a few things: micro rover, community outreach. They help form new chapters and keep old ones going.
Sara told how she had come across SEDS and how she has enjoyed being part of SEDS.
She encouraged the audience to consider donating money, attending their yearly conference and hiring people when they graduate.
Keith Henson, "$100 a kg to GEO with Beamed Energy Propulsion"
Keith Henson explored some of the issues in building about a solar collector in space. He is looking at building a 500,000 thousand a year transport system of putting material into space. (This would be 30 tons an hour into Geo orbit.) He says could have about $50 a kilogram. You might be able to start as small as 500 Megawatts and bootstrap yourself up. Keith says we could have enough solar collectors in a decade to take the planet off fossil fuels.
There were several questions on the political issues of have a mega-laser in space.
Henry Spencer, "Beyond Chemical Rockets: Overview and Near-Term Options"
Henry Spencer started off saying chemical rockets have limits. There is only so much energy you can get out of the chemical bonds.
Henry says it is important to consider what it means to be better than chemical rockets. He showed a couple equations. Henry walked through the consequences of the equation. You can get delta V of about 10 km / second from chemical rockets. This is barely useful for getting around the solar system. It would be nice to get higher delta V.
Chemical rockets work OK for getting around in the Earth Moon system. But the inner solar system is a thousand times bigger. Henry listed four basic approaches:
1) More energetic fuels? Not any good candidates.
2) Non-rocket: environment:
Solar sails are good for slow difficult missions. Could create a small army of them to explore the asteroid belt. There are a few other areas we could use solar sails.
Planet assists – can get a gravity assists, but there are small windows when can use them.
Planet atmospheres – could use for breaking.
3) Non-rocket: outside help
Rotating tethers – Some possibilities.
Can use lasers to provide power, or to drive solar sails. Issues with pushing solar sails of thermal absorption and needing a lot of power.
Microwave beaming – need a big infrastructure, on both ends.
4) Separate energy and mass
Henry showed another set of equations. Where do you get the power? Solar cells is an option. Nuclear is a possibility. For now this is a government monopoly so can forget it. Handling all the energy is a serious problem. He went through a number of additional options.
There are several issues with testing this on earth. Need a good vacumn testing environment.
Space Access 2012 - The agenda
Below is the schedule for Space Access 2012. As the conference goes on I'll update this with links to the talks.
Thursday April 12
9 am - Henry Vanderbilt, your SA'12 Conference Manager, with a brief welcome
9:05 - Henry Spencer, "Beyond Chemical Rockets: Overview and Near-Term Options"
9:55 - Keith Henson, "$100 a kg to GEO with Beamed Energy Propulsion"
10:15 - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Sara Meschberger
10:25 - break
11 am - Liftport, Frank Smith
11:20 - John Schilling, "Halfway to Anywhere, Part II: Groundwork For Going Beyond LEO"
12:10 - Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Alex Saltman, Executive Director
12:25 - break for lunch
2 pm - David Hoerr, "The Rocket Company, 10 Years After"
2:20 - Ed Wright of Citizens in Space, on “Citizen Science: ‘Pump priming’ For Suborbital
2:40 - Bruce Pittman, NASA Ames, "Barriers And Opportunities For Reusable Launch Vehicles"
3 pm - Space Studies Institute, Gary Hudson, President (do not miss - we can say no more)
3:30 - break
4:05 - Dallas Bienhoff, "Payload Requirements For A Low Cost Reusable Launch Vehicle"
4:35 - Rick Maschek, Sugar Shot To Space
5:05 - Spaceworthy, Ed De Reyes, "Roadblocks To Licensing and Permitting: We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us"
5:25 - National Space Society, Paul Damphousse, Executive Director
5:40 - Stratofox Aerospace Tracking & Recovery Team, Ian Kluft
6 pm - break for dinner
8 pm - Scott Tibbitts, eSpace, "From the Hardware Store to Pluto: Adventures in Space Entrepreneurship"
8:30 - Altius Space Machines, Jon Goff
9 pm - Garvey Space, John Garvey
9:30 - Rocketplane Global, Chuck Lauer
9:50 - Matt Cannella, "HySoR Hybrid Sounding Rocket"
10:05 - end of day's schedule. Begin celebrating Yuri's Night, sponsored by Phoenix Chapters of AIAA and NSS! (Don't overdo it, there are two full days still ahead.)
Friday April 13th
9 am - XCOR Aerospace, Mark Street
9:45 - United Launch Alliance, Frank Zegler
10:30 - break
11:05 - Panel: World Space Programs & Prospects - Jeff Foust, Clark Lindsey, Doug Messier, Dave Salt
11:50 - Henry Spencer, "Lessons From Smallsats for Small Launchers"
12:20 - Ben Brockert, "Encouraging STEM Education In The US"
12:30 pm - break for lunch
2 pm - NASA OCT, Dr. Laguduva Kubendran
2:45 - Lasermotive, Jordin Kare
3 pm - Jordin Kare on Recent Laser Propulsion Work
3:30 - break
4:05 - Orbital Outfitters, Jeff Feige
4:35 - Masten Space, Dave Masten
5:45 - Rick Tumlinson, on the EarthLight Institute
5:55 - break for dinner
8 pm - Phil Chapman, "Reviving Human Spaceflight"
8:20 - Panel: Newspace Lessons Learned - Gary Hudson, Henry Spencer, Henry Vanderbilt
9 pm - Armadillo Aerospace, Ben Brockert
9:30 - JP Aerospace, John Powell
10 pm - end of day's schedule. Don't party too late - there's still another whole day ahead!
Saturday April 14th
9 am - FAA AST, Mike Kelly, Chief Engineer
9:50 - Rand Simberg on a Space Property Rights initiative
Gerry Nordley on Tethers Unlimited
10:20 - break
10:55 - Speedup, Robert Steinke
11:15 - Frontier Astronautics, Timothy Bendel
11:40 - Osa Fitch, "The Rocket Test Company: 2012 Update"
11:55 - Percy Luney, VP Space Florida, "An Informal Discussion Of Possible NanoSat Launch Challenge Parameters"
12:25 - break for lunch
2 pm - Michael Clive, "The Mojave Makers Hackerspace"
2:15 - Unreasonable Rocket, Paul Breed
2:45 - Tim Pickens, Rocket City Space Pioneers GLXP Project
3:10 - Ed Wright of Citizens In Space, on "Citizen Science: 'Pump Priming' For Suborbital"
3:25 - break
4 pm - Jim Muncy, PoliSpace
4:40 - Tim Pickens with a few words on "DIY Space Access: Modern Communications, the 'Maker' network, and the Space Community" (Panel to Follow, Panelists TBA)
5:25 - Space Frontier Foundation, Ryan McLinko
5:40 - Panel: Policy Issues For The Coming Year - Phil Chapman, Jim Muncy, Rand Simberg, Henry Vanderbilt
6:20 - end of Space Access sessions for another year. See you in the bar!
Here are my summaries of past years:
Space Access 2007
Space Access 2008
Space Access 2009
Space Access 2010
And if that isn't a enough for you check out HobbySpace's write up of Space Access 2012.
Thursday April 12
9 am - Henry Vanderbilt, your SA'12 Conference Manager, with a brief welcome
9:05 - Henry Spencer, "Beyond Chemical Rockets: Overview and Near-Term Options"
9:55 - Keith Henson, "$100 a kg to GEO with Beamed Energy Propulsion"
10:15 - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Sara Meschberger
10:25 - break
11 am - Liftport, Frank Smith
11:20 - John Schilling, "Halfway to Anywhere, Part II: Groundwork For Going Beyond LEO"
12:10 - Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Alex Saltman, Executive Director
12:25 - break for lunch
2 pm - David Hoerr, "The Rocket Company, 10 Years After"
2:20 - Ed Wright of Citizens in Space, on “Citizen Science: ‘Pump priming’ For Suborbital
2:40 - Bruce Pittman, NASA Ames, "Barriers And Opportunities For Reusable Launch Vehicles"
3 pm - Space Studies Institute, Gary Hudson, President (do not miss - we can say no more)
3:30 - break
4:05 - Dallas Bienhoff, "Payload Requirements For A Low Cost Reusable Launch Vehicle"
4:35 - Rick Maschek, Sugar Shot To Space
5:05 - Spaceworthy, Ed De Reyes, "Roadblocks To Licensing and Permitting: We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us"
5:25 - National Space Society, Paul Damphousse, Executive Director
5:40 - Stratofox Aerospace Tracking & Recovery Team, Ian Kluft
6 pm - break for dinner
8 pm - Scott Tibbitts, eSpace, "From the Hardware Store to Pluto: Adventures in Space Entrepreneurship"
8:30 - Altius Space Machines, Jon Goff
9 pm - Garvey Space, John Garvey
9:30 - Rocketplane Global, Chuck Lauer
9:50 - Matt Cannella, "HySoR Hybrid Sounding Rocket"
10:05 - end of day's schedule. Begin celebrating Yuri's Night, sponsored by Phoenix Chapters of AIAA and NSS! (Don't overdo it, there are two full days still ahead.)
Friday April 13th
9 am - XCOR Aerospace, Mark Street
9:45 - United Launch Alliance, Frank Zegler
10:30 - break
11:05 - Panel: World Space Programs & Prospects - Jeff Foust, Clark Lindsey, Doug Messier, Dave Salt
11:50 - Henry Spencer, "Lessons From Smallsats for Small Launchers"
12:20 - Ben Brockert, "Encouraging STEM Education In The US"
12:30 pm - break for lunch
2 pm - NASA OCT, Dr. Laguduva Kubendran
2:45 - Lasermotive, Jordin Kare
3 pm - Jordin Kare on Recent Laser Propulsion Work
3:30 - break
4:05 - Orbital Outfitters, Jeff Feige
4:35 - Masten Space, Dave Masten
5:45 - Rick Tumlinson, on the EarthLight Institute
5:55 - break for dinner
8 pm - Phil Chapman, "Reviving Human Spaceflight"
8:20 - Panel: Newspace Lessons Learned - Gary Hudson, Henry Spencer, Henry Vanderbilt
9 pm - Armadillo Aerospace, Ben Brockert
9:30 - JP Aerospace, John Powell
10 pm - end of day's schedule. Don't party too late - there's still another whole day ahead!
Saturday April 14th
9 am - FAA AST, Mike Kelly, Chief Engineer
9:50 - Rand Simberg on a Space Property Rights initiative
Gerry Nordley on Tethers Unlimited
10:20 - break
10:55 - Speedup, Robert Steinke
11:15 - Frontier Astronautics, Timothy Bendel
11:40 - Osa Fitch, "The Rocket Test Company: 2012 Update"
11:55 - Percy Luney, VP Space Florida, "An Informal Discussion Of Possible NanoSat Launch Challenge Parameters"
12:25 - break for lunch
2 pm - Michael Clive, "The Mojave Makers Hackerspace"
2:15 - Unreasonable Rocket, Paul Breed
2:45 - Tim Pickens, Rocket City Space Pioneers GLXP Project
3:10 - Ed Wright of Citizens In Space, on "Citizen Science: 'Pump Priming' For Suborbital"
3:25 - break
4 pm - Jim Muncy, PoliSpace
4:40 - Tim Pickens with a few words on "DIY Space Access: Modern Communications, the 'Maker' network, and the Space Community" (Panel to Follow, Panelists TBA)
5:25 - Space Frontier Foundation, Ryan McLinko
5:40 - Panel: Policy Issues For The Coming Year - Phil Chapman, Jim Muncy, Rand Simberg, Henry Vanderbilt
6:20 - end of Space Access sessions for another year. See you in the bar!
Here are my summaries of past years:
Space Access 2007
Space Access 2008
Space Access 2009
Space Access 2010
And if that isn't a enough for you check out HobbySpace's write up of Space Access 2012.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - Just for FUN
Melissa is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Bugs, Knights, and Turkeys in the yard.
She starts the carnival with a list of fun things children can do instead of turning on the television.
She starts the carnival with a list of fun things children can do instead of turning on the television.
Monday, April 09, 2012
A little accountability
Over the last 13 years, I've tried a dozen different ways to track our homeschool activities. Honestly speaking, none of the check lists have worked all that well for us.
At times, I've spent hours each week on lessons planning and creating binders for each child. That didn't work all that well for us either.
Sometimes I didn't track it at all.
My last attempt has met with mild success (though it may be too soon to tell). I've gone to a monthly spread sheet posted on the wall that tracks each category (Math, English, Science, PE, Foreign Language, Chores, Music, Art, and Other).
The thing that I like is that I can see and more easily track progress from day to day, as well as week to week at a glace. By placing each new sheet on top of the prior month, I can glance back to see month to month progress (or lack there of). I only have to print out one blank spread sheet per month per child.
It is flexible, not time consuming, and easy for me to see how each child is progressing.
(When my kids saw
me taking pictures of their homework logs, you should have heard the panic in their voices. "What are you doing?" "You're not going to post that are you?" "I want you to know that I had a fever last week.")
A little accountability is a good thing.
At times, I've spent hours each week on lessons planning and creating binders for each child. That didn't work all that well for us either.
Sometimes I didn't track it at all.
My last attempt has met with mild success (though it may be too soon to tell). I've gone to a monthly spread sheet posted on the wall that tracks each category (Math, English, Science, PE, Foreign Language, Chores, Music, Art, and Other).
The thing that I like is that I can see and more easily track progress from day to day, as well as week to week at a glace. By placing each new sheet on top of the prior month, I can glance back to see month to month progress (or lack there of). I only have to print out one blank spread sheet per month per child.
It is flexible, not time consuming, and easy for me to see how each child is progressing.
(When my kids saw
me taking pictures of their homework logs, you should have heard the panic in their voices. "What are you doing?" "You're not going to post that are you?" "I want you to know that I had a fever last week.")A little accountability is a good thing.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling
Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at Bugs, Knights, and Turkeys in the yard.
This will be the 328th edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
This will be the 328th edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
Friday, April 06, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Spring Edition
Amanda is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at The Faithful Homeschool.
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WELCOME!
Grab a cup of tea, pull up a chair, and get ready for some funtastic links to other great homeschooling sites and articles. I promise to set up all links in "open in new window" format so you won't loose your way!
Spring is a great many things to a great many people around this great big world. It can be a time to plant in northern regions, a time to open windows in southern ones... and 'down under', fall is setting in.
As homeschoolers we may be feeling the lag of a long school year at this time... or ready to hit curriculum fairs with a list in mind. Whatever spring is to you and wherever you are, this Carnival is sure to fulfill your needs right from the start! Oh, did I mention...
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----------
WELCOME!
Grab a cup of tea, pull up a chair, and get ready for some funtastic links to other great homeschooling sites and articles. I promise to set up all links in "open in new window" format so you won't loose your way!
Spring is a great many things to a great many people around this great big world. It can be a time to plant in northern regions, a time to open windows in southern ones... and 'down under', fall is setting in.
As homeschoolers we may be feeling the lag of a long school year at this time... or ready to hit curriculum fairs with a list in mind. Whatever spring is to you and wherever you are, this Carnival is sure to fulfill your needs right from the start! Oh, did I mention...
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Interesting article about data storage
I found this interesting: A Quarter-Century of Losing Stuff.
It starts:
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A new study from Kroll Ontrack about data recovery services points to the ways data--and our tendency to lose it--has transformed our lives.
Kroll Ontrack crunched the numbers on the data recovery services it had performed over the years (it’s been in the business for a quarter-century). The most startling statistic? Today, Kroll Ontrack recovers 35 million GB of data a year (35 PB)--a suitably huge number. But in 1987, Kroll Ontrack only recovered a measly 1.2 GB of data, total--the merest fraction of what your laptop’s hard drive is capable of holding.
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Hat tip: Instapundit
It starts:
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A new study from Kroll Ontrack about data recovery services points to the ways data--and our tendency to lose it--has transformed our lives.
Kroll Ontrack crunched the numbers on the data recovery services it had performed over the years (it’s been in the business for a quarter-century). The most startling statistic? Today, Kroll Ontrack recovers 35 million GB of data a year (35 PB)--a suitably huge number. But in 1987, Kroll Ontrack only recovered a measly 1.2 GB of data, total--the merest fraction of what your laptop’s hard drive is capable of holding.
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Hat tip: Instapundit
Monday, April 02, 2012
The show must go on
When raising concerns about homeschooling some critics are willing to grant that parents might be able to teach the basics like English, History, Math and Science; however, the critics will then raise concerns about other activities. The often unstated assumption is only in high school can teenagers have exposure to things like sports, band, plays and so on. The claim is that even if homeschoolers somehow get a chance to dabble in a choir or band it would never match the full, rich experience that is only available in high school.
This weekend all three of our daughters participated in a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera Pirates of Penzance. This claim was completely destroyed.
Pirates of Penzance is one of my favorite movies. I’ve watched it over a dozen times in the last ten years. The show this weekend was almost flawless. It was as good as any play or musical I’ve seen put on by a high school. The director was excellent. Our daughters had learned a lot over the last couple months.
In addition to learning new acting skills our daughters had a great time. They made friends with the rest of the cast. The older two thought it was OK and were glad to have had the experience, but were not ensnared. My youngest was in seventh heaven. She had a blast and is already talking about being in the next play this summer.
For us the real challenge is not in finding extra-curricular activities to allow children to experience more than a simple academic learning environment. The problem we struggle with is there are so many opportunities. In addition to Pirates of Penzance our daughters were in a play at church early in March, they are part of a homeschool band and they are in a homeschool choir.
This weekend all three of our daughters participated in a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera Pirates of Penzance. This claim was completely destroyed.
Pirates of Penzance is one of my favorite movies. I’ve watched it over a dozen times in the last ten years. The show this weekend was almost flawless. It was as good as any play or musical I’ve seen put on by a high school. The director was excellent. Our daughters had learned a lot over the last couple months.
In addition to learning new acting skills our daughters had a great time. They made friends with the rest of the cast. The older two thought it was OK and were glad to have had the experience, but were not ensnared. My youngest was in seventh heaven. She had a blast and is already talking about being in the next play this summer.
For us the real challenge is not in finding extra-curricular activities to allow children to experience more than a simple academic learning environment. The problem we struggle with is there are so many opportunities. In addition to Pirates of Penzance our daughters were in a play at church early in March, they are part of a homeschool band and they are in a homeschool choir.
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