Engineering

I’ve been having some frustrations. Nothing terrible, but many are aggravations. In the interests of maintaining some balance, because I really am in a good place for all my aggravation, I want to mention something really important to me, a positive thing, about engineering.

I can just test it.

I don’t have to take anyone’s word for biscuits. I can just test it. Some theory floats around that sounds like pure nonsense? Boom. Test it.

In deep learning, there’s a point that borders on aphorism: validation data must be distinct from training data. Most references state this as a natural law on par with ‘gravity points down,’ and the shear blind willfulness of it drives me wild.

So I tested it. It’s running now. Took about ten minutes to fork my data appropriately, or not fork it rather, and set the thing to run.

Don’t misunderstand. They’re probably right, and the forked data will probably work better than the other. But I don’t have to believe that at all. I can just test it. There are matters to be taken on faith, including literal faith, but also matters by time and priority I simply can’t duplicate. Virology is the current-events one, but there are plenty of big issues I can’t test. Maybe I could have had I spent the last twenty years learning something different, but I didn’t.

But in engineering, I can to a large extent. So when I’m reading something and start arguing, loudly, with a book, I can throw the idiot to the wind and run my own simulations. And that is not everything, but it is something.

Extensions

The students, they come to me and beg for extensions. They say, “OTS, please! The homework is due tomorrow and I need more time!”

And I reply, “I stop giving extensions the day before it’s due. That way only people who got a reasonable start on it get extensions, and everyone else who failed time management doesn’t.”

And the students reply, “But sir! I’m begging. I had a tragedy!”

Gently swirling my coffee, I ask, “Was it Covid?”

“It was worse.” They’re weeping now. “It was my mother’s roommate’s cousin’s nephew. I held him in my arms after the life left him, Mr OTS. I can’t stop seeing it.”

“Ouch. How did he die?”

“Eaten by bears.”

I sip my coffee. “You held him in your arms after he was eaten by bears?”

The student nods emphatically. “Yes. It was gross. That’s why I need an extension. I’m traumatized.”

In spite of my better judgement, I am moved. I hold up the first of three fingers. “Okay, yes, that’s pretty traumatic.”

The student nods even harder.

I lift another. “Second, ew.”

The student is forlorn. “You have no idea.”

“The smell?”

“The smell.”

We bond.

I hold up my third finger. “Finally, go wash your hands.”

“Mr OTS, about the extension-”

“No, no. Wash hands first. Use soap.”

“Mr OTS-” The student looks worried now. I think the conversation has gotten away from them.

“Safety first!” I declare. “Hands. Go wash. At least thirty seconds.” And I put my coffee down long enough to snap twice.

They run off, but when they return, another tragedy has struck. I’m gone. My office is dark. They get no extension, and they are doomed.

But at least they’re cleaner.

Space DoD

1) Stealth in space is impossible.

2) All attempts at detection are successful in the aggregate if a target is there to be found. And an attempt at detection is made against every target.

1 and 2 are equivalent statements. If some detection attempts aren’t successful, stealth in space is possible. If some targets are not the subject of detection attempts, space stealth is possible.

Therefore, there can be no problems, ever, that reduce the effectiveness of space detection to less than 100%. If so, stealth in space would be possible, but there is no stealth in space.

Space detection is handled by Space DoD, and Space DoD is amazing.

Space DoD never misses maintenance. Space DoD never skips requirement upgrades. Space DoD ships are never in deep space, away from supply lines, long enough for battle damage to impair their space detectors. Space DoD ships never half-ass maintenance. Space DoD ships never take damage in space battles, or at least space damage never impairs their detectors.

Space ships away from drydock and supply always have all personnel fully trained for all repairs. All space lieutenants are fully trained and competent. All of them.

All space lieutenants reading space directions know how to correctly repair all battle damage. They are never wrong. If you’re unsure, just ask one. Every space lieutenant who passed her space repairs qualifying exam knows exactly what to do. She will never assert rank over more competent personnel. She will correctly make the repairs with supplies on hand, no matter how long the ship has been on patrol, no matter how far they are from resupply, no matter the nature of battle damage.

If a space detector is damaged, it will be repaired to spec immediately, before the enemy attempts stealth.

Enemies will never attack in quick succession. Enemies will never allow Space DoD forces to be damaged fighting other enemies, before swooping in to prey on the weakened Space DoD.

Space DoD will never adjust op tempo. Space DoD had op tempo correct initially. Space DoD will never get into infantile power struggles between personnel. The fly-in-circles-team will never fight the calibrate-space-detector-team. FICT will never fly their ships outside the correct flight envelope. Their ships will never interfere with detector callibration. No Space General will ever fight another Space General for resources.

Space DoD is never corrupt.

Space DoD will never give a contract to a space contractor incapable, unwilling, or untrained to perform contracted work. No space contractor will ever syphon funds from a Space Detection System contract to buy yachts. No space contractor ever got a job because his cousin knows a guy. No space contractor will ever bribe a space senator.

Space DoD is omniscient.

Space DoD knows the mechanical, electrical, quantum, relativistic, and ALL future scientific properties of all detectors. Space DoD will never discover something doesn’t work after sinking thirty billion space bucks into it. Space DoD will never budget first, fix later. Space elevators will always work when being installed. Space catapults will never have unintended side effects, not work as expected, or not work at all. Space DoD will never screw-up. Space DoD will never underbudget a mission critical system later because they screwed up before.

Space DoD is on point.

Space Congress will always correctly, accurately, and successfully fund a correct, working system with no side effects.

Space congressmen never pick one program over another, a less successful program over a more successful program, because the less successful one brings good jobs to their district. . No space congressman has ever signed off on woefully wrong legislation just to do something. Space senators will never grandstand their way into incompetent decisions. Space voters will carefully and rationally weigh each and every criteria, and then ALWAYS pick space detectors as the most important field. Space detectors will never lose funding to another program because a space senator grandstanded on space TV to get space twitter likes, screaming ‘Won’t somebody please think of the space children?’

No one ever thinks of the space children.

The companies that build or maintain space detectors always work in perfect unison.

No space company gets into a patent lawsuit with another space company in such a manner that affects a space detector. No space company ever insists on an space data transfer protocol that doesn’t work in every application. No space data transfer protocol ever fails to achieve perfect upgradability. No space data transfer protocol ever worked pretty well for a while, but is incompatible with the new system, but basically impossible to switch, and so now space DoD is trying to cram a square peg into a round space hole just to make it work. This never happens.

Space Microsoft never sues Space Amazon and then refuses to work until the lawsuit is concluded. There is never a time, during the lawsuit, wherein the space detectors are impaired.

The people who work on space detectors are infinitely motivated, energized, and healthy.

Space privates never slack off. Space privates are never injured. The space corpsman that takes care of them always knows how to cure every problem. When space enemies attack and the detector operators are dragged from their posts, someone else will ALWAYS man the space detector. An ‘All Hands On Deck’ call will never interfere with space detectors.

The only space detector operator will never get killed when the space ship is deep in enemy lines, and some cook with good space ASVABs won’t be dragooned into operating the space detector.

The space detector operator will never have girl problems, boy problems, foot problems, drug problems, money problems, diet problems, discipline problems, digestive problems, or even a bad case of space gas such that the detector is not operated perfectly.

The space detector will never just stop working because F* if I know why.

Sleep

I’m sure you’ve heard that inoffensive bit of advice that you shouldn’t do waking things in bed. No reading, no playing on phones, no talking. When you wake up in the morning, get out of bed immediately. The idea is that your habits can train you not to sleep when you go to bed, as bed is now a wakeful place.

If that’s so, if those habits do train you to wake up, why am I exhausted when I’m at my computer, in my kitchen, or at work? Aren’t those places that would train me to wake up even more? Why do I lay down and feel wide awake within moments if the same habits do the exact opposite elsewhere?

I call shenanigans.

Flat Earth

I tried to write a physically correct flat-Earth story. So the fantasy world is flat, and people interact upon it like they would on a flat Earth.

I ignored some things that just didn’t work or handwaved them away like gravity. It’s a magical world, so the gods made down point down.

The problem is, some things are so alien to the real world, I keep slipping. Things like seeing long distances. From a mountain, the characters can see all other mountains at least sometimes, and dawn moves all weird.

To simplify things, I tried a geocentric world, and now it takes me fifteen minutes to figure out how the phases of the Moon work.

Heavy-Weight Adventure Touring Bikes

The thing about the heavy ADVs is that they’re the best long distance cruisers when the roads are garbage.

I was talking to a guy about bikes, and I mentioned how large some of the big adventure bikes are. The BMW GS 1200 is a surprisingly large machine, as is the Multistrata and even the Africa Twin. The guy gave the usual line about how absurd it is to strap two hundred pounds of luggage to one of these machines and try to ride it through deep sand.

But I don’t want to take one through deep sand. I want to take one up mountain roads, roads that are aspirationally paved. Roads get paved to within a rounding-error: 95% is paved and the rest is washed out. I don’t need to take a machine through deep sand, but I often look at cabins or campsites in the hills, sites that the paved road comes close to. A decent paved road might stop three miles away.

But three miles is three miles. Three miles of soft gravel is a nightmare on a cruiser. One moderate gully, a three foot washout, is a non-event to an ADV, even one of the overweight ones, but not-passable to my car. On a cruiser, a three-foot washout is a matter of approach angles and lines. How dry is the dirt? What’s the weather like? Could I pick this thing up if the tires go out from under me? What if there are five more little gullies between me and camp? Do I want to press ahead to this campsite if it might rain tomorrow and I could get stuck up here?

Meanwhile, for highway cruising, I want some weight. Westbound on 285, out of Denver and into the plains that follow Kenosha Pass, the winds can get insane. I want something heavier, bulkier, more resilient with an upright seating position.

Fantasy

I love romanticizing the past as much as the next person, probably more, but Saruman just gave his speech about machines of war.

No one gave a speech about drinking tainted water and dying of dysentery.