The Proc(r)astinator: you should do it later

Leading a crew to a Hot-spot

2010-10-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

How the firefight could be improved with aerial IR camera. It would be amazing the moment when we will have hotspot detectors flying over our skys all the fire-season in order to catch the fires before they begin. I'm always thinking in future technologies that we will have in soon. Anyone is thinking in UZ, Unmanned Zeppelins?

Via:

Firewatch cobra videos

http://firevideos.firewatchcobravideos.com//videos/8/jesusita-fire-santa-barbara,-california

By the way...

Loockedheed Martin: P-791

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/p-791/index.html

What our Aerodynamics professor thinks about us..

2010-06-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is the comic that our aerodynamics professor has upload to the "virtual workspace" of the course...while he is grading our exams..

what will be our future?

Why we need to go back to Mars

2010-05-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Some days ago I saw this amazing "TED talk" about sending an airplane to Mars.

About this talk:

"At TEDxNASA, planetary scientist Joel Levine shows some intriguing -- and puzzling -- new discoveries about Mars: craters full of ice, traces of ancient oceans, and compelling hints at the presence, sometime in the past, of life. He makes the case for going back to Mars to find out more."

More info:

TED talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/joel_levine.html

Website of the Project: http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov/

Ariane-5 Booster Recovery System Secuence

2010-04-27T01:30:00.001-07:00



Altitude     Events (referenced to Fig)                          Initiated by


0            Launch phase (1)

+/- 10 km    Removal of first safety barrier in control system      Pressure
          (switching of baro relay) (1)

59 km        Booster separation from central stage (2)              Electrical signal
          Removal of second safety barrier in control system.    Supplied by booster
          Arming of safety device (BSA).

150 km       Culmination of ballistic phase (3)

8.5-27 km    Removal of third safety barrier in control system      Pressure
          (switching of baro relay), initiation of Altitude
          Determination System (ADS) (3)

4.8-5.2 km   Ignition of nose-cone release expandable tube (4)      Altitute from ADS
          Ignition of nose-cone separation pistons               Time delay from ADS
          Separation of nose cone                                Separation piston force
                                                                 + aerodynamic force
          Release and deployment of auxiliary parachute          Noise cone movement
          Release and deployment of drogue parachutes            Auxiliary parachute force
          De-reefing of three drogue parachutes,                 Built-in cable cutters
          in four steps (5)                                      with pyrotechnic delay

1320-2770 m  Activation of drogue strap release pyros and release   Time delay from ADS
          of drogue parachutes (6)
          Release and deployment of additional parachute (7 & 8) Drogue parachute force

1200-2640 m  Release and deployment of main parachute (7 & 8)       Drogue parachute force
          De-reefing of main parachute, in four in steps (9)     Built-in cable cutters
                                                                 with pyrotechnuc delay

0               Splashdown at v <>

More info:

http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/bulletin/bullet85/gigo85.htm

Space Calendar

2010-02-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

I've just found the place where all crazy-about-space procastinators can get updated about all space issues week-by-week.

Via:

http://www.spaceagepub.com/calendar/currentcalendar.html

Plane with skis

2010-01-19T06:48:00.000-08:00

I was looking for a video of a real (no R/C) aircraft whith skis and I've finally found it:

Skis :: Ohio Bush Planes from Greg Swingle on Vimeo.

Seen after a short procastinate, I'm doing my final exams...have you noticed it?

Ekranoplan

2010-01-19T06:35:00.001-08:00

Ekranoplan from EW on Vimeo.

I've been procrastinating over vimeo and I've discovered this video. This documentary cannot finish as this video does,

I'll procrastinate a little more... :-)

Exclusive unseen video footage of the Miracle on the Hudson, flight 1549 New York City

2010-01-19T06:23:00.000-08:00

Exclusive unseen video footage of the Miracle on the Hudson, flight 1549 New York City from David Martin on Vimeo.

Via:

http://avion.microsiervos.com (Spanish)

WTF!

2010-01-16T14:31:00.001-08:00

I hope it was an emergency (there is a pharmacy just in front of the tricycle)

Seen in Graus, Huesca, Spain

The Results up-to-date

2010-01-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

The Teacup Stirling Engine

2009-11-07T06:47:00.000-08:00

"There's energy all around us, just waiting to be tapped. Whether it's a hot cup of coffee on a cold day, light from the sun, scented candles, or waste heat wafting from electronics, it's all potential power waiting to be harnessed! This is the world of the Stirling engine."

Via Makezine

http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol17/?pg=70&pm=2&u1=friend

Geek's Twins

2009-10-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Seen over there...(e-mail)

Crossing the November Sky

2009-10-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

The sky was on fire, the plane was not

Seen in Avión Microsiervos (Spanish)

http://avion.microsiervos.com/fotos/cruzando-el-cielo-de-noviembre.html

via Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrargerich/3045549519/

Boeing 777 engine replacement (Russian vs American's way)

2009-10-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Via English Russia, the coldest way of replacing one Boeing 777 engine:

and via Youtube, an amazing video about the same issue but done in one of the American Airlines' hangar:

Amazing!

Via:

English Russia

http://englishrussia.com/?p=5205#more-5205

Where are we in our Galaxy?

2009-10-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

NASA's researchers has mixed data from the IBEX , the two Voyagers and Cassini spacecrafts in order to study the heliosphere and its surrondings.

The heliosphere by NASA

"For the first time, we're sticking our heads out of the sun's atmosphere and beginning to really understand our place in the galaxy,"

David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator

VIA:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ibex/allsky_map.html

Amazing Video:

http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/392978main_RosineGalaxyZoom512x288.mpg

Sometimes I feel programming languages behind me

2009-06-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel as if some C# code were following me...

Gmail's procrastinators VS. Gmail's anti-procrastinators

2009-05-11T01:48:00.001-07:00

Two options with which Google's Gmail guys let you choose if you want to be more or less productive.

From The-Proc(r)astinator, I recommend you to choose the first one (Warning: Your boss may not choose the same ;-) )

Via:
Myself discoveries/Daily Procrastinations

All about Boeing 727

2009-05-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

I've found this very complete web about the Boeing 727. Although info is quite old, it is up-to-date.

Detail of the stabilizer trim system. Image by "Benson", http://www.boeing-727.com

...just another web where do your 'procrastinations'..

link: http://www.boeing-727.com/index.htm

It's curious

2009-03-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

It's curius that from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. there are only 6 hours

meanwhile from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. there are 12 hours...

...things are sometimes curious

SpaceSheep One rocket on-board cam

2009-03-05T02:09:00.000-08:00

This is the result of a Rocket Model Workshop that we made as a subject of a Bachelor degree of Aeronautical Engineering at EPSC (UPC), in Castelldefels (Barcelona).

It is the first time in the subject that a cam is load as payload (it used to be an altimeter).

(As a good procrastinator, I post it with a pair of months of delay. Jan 15 was the launch day) :-)

More news will be available at:
http://spacesheepone.blogspot.com/

Strange aircrafts...(Tailsitters)

2009-02-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

A tailsitter is a type of VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft that launches and lands on its tail.

One example of this kind of aircrafts is the Convari XFY-1 (Pogo), which is also the faster Turboprop* aircraft.

*(only in the theoretical world, the faster Turboprop ever made is the Tu-114)

Another example of this kind of aircrafts is the Lockheed (this guys are in all the strange topics)

More at:
VTOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTOL

Tailsitter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailsitter

Pogo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_XFY-1

Lockheed XFV:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_XFV

Another famous Tailsitter, the X-13:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-13_Vertijet

Tu-144, the comercial version of the famous Tu-95:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu-114

Always is recommended to make a visit at Loockheed Martin webpage:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

Did you know...(Victor airways)

2009-02-23T04:11:00.000-08:00

...that Victor (V in aeronautical alphabet) airways connect VOR, VORTAC, and VOR/DME stations and are predicated on VOR signals?

Read at:

FAA TI 8200.52 page 11-6 - Flight Inspection Handbook
http://www.avn.faa.gov/content/fioo/pdf/TI_8200-52wChg1.pdf

Aeronautical alphabet:
http://www.webaviation.online.fr/learning/morse_en.php3

Did you know...(NAVAIDs)

2009-02-23T03:38:00.000-08:00

...that the aircrafts are able to surf the skies or do an accurate approach to the airport due to some kind of radio-beacon navigation aids (NAVAIDs)?

Some of them are: NDB, VOR, VOR/DME, DME, ILS and MLS.

learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAVAID
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DME
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NDB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLS

If you want more info, please, ask me with a comment.

Did you know...

2009-02-23T03:28:00.000-08:00

Much of the things that I found and I want to share with all of you are very long to write (or aren't long enough to write a post) so I procrastinate them.
My way to avoid procrastinating this kind of things is this section, where I'm going to explain things with a sentence or two and I would place here (as I ussualy do) from where I take the info.

Make your blog flourish

2009-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

'Make your blog flourish' is an initiative propoused by 'yoriento.com' (Spanish) so we could made our blogs flourish. Here I left the-procastinator's one.

This java applet is made using a tool which is being more and more seen on the net. I've been procrastinating to write a post about that tool, that's Processing, a java-based development interface which meet maths with art giving awesome results.

I've done a course about Processing last fall. In groups of two people we made different projects, since a video game to a 'Dress the doll' game. Going throught an mp3 player (our case) or different animations that variate in function of the music. I've been waiting the professor to upload all the works in order to offer all them for you, but I'm losing the hope on this upload.

More info

Make your blog flourish
via (spanish) http://www.carmepla.com/es/2009/01/21/haz-florecer-tu-blog/
applet http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/

Processing
project site http://processing.org/
more info (spanish) http://foro.visualp5.net/

The Man Who Sweats Blue: Yann Marussi

2009-01-15T09:06:00.000-08:00

I can't find the words to describe what I feel each time I see these pictures.

Yann Marussi inyects in his body Methilene blue and then exposes itself closed in a glass jail at high temperature (in order to swept that methilene blue) in a museum so all the people who wants to contemplate his 'performance' could do it.

Is very hard to see. Is very hard to my mind to accept a man placed in a glass jail in a museum sweating some kind of death-blue with his body discussing itself between life or death while healthy people goes to see that performance.

It's highly toxic and I've read somewere that after all his performances he's carried to a hospital so medicians could extract all this toxic component from his body.

This performance transmits something very hardly...but I could not say what.

I've done this post to reflexionate about the art. Is there a line which art must not go through?

Via:
http://blog.albagcorral.com/2008/09/12/el-hombre-que-sudaba-azul/

More info:
http://www.yannmarussich.ch/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVSPw1XrRK0&eurl=http://blog.albagcorral.com/2008/09/12/el-hombre-que-sudaba-azul/

Mathematics

2008-12-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

"In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them."

- John von Neumann

I've got no network! -The nightmare of any procrastinator-

2008-11-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

All of us have felt something similar to what this flower is feeling now ...
... The Net has the strange habit of abandon us to our fate in the most important moments...

To The Bible of the procrastinator:

Ch.1 THE NET

No matter what are you procrastinating, THE NET will be there for you.
No matter the time you spend procrastinating, THE NET will be there for you.
But, my friend, if you try to do something productive...if you try doing something productive, THE NET will leave you as it has done with all the others.

The Procrastinator

Picture via:
http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com/

Step 1: Recognize that you're Procrastinating

2008-11-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Three simple steps to have a well procastination:

Step 1: Recognize that you're Procrastinating

If you're honest with yourself, you probably know when you're procrastinating.

Step 2: Work out WHY You're Procrastinating

You find the task unpleasant; or
You find the task overwhelming

Step 3: Get over it!

Make up your own rewards. For example, promise yourself a piece of tasty flapjack at lunchtime if you've completed a certain task.

And a paragraph with which 'The Bible of the Procrastinator' should begin:

Procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often work longer hours) but they invest their time in the wrong tasks. Sometimes this is simply because they don't understand the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks, and jump straight into getting on with urgent tasks that aren't actually important.

via:

Mindtools

(via Microsiervos (spanish) - Each day more, I think that Microsiervos is a kind of synonymus with procrastination)

Rocket from-building-to-launch vehicles

2008-11-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

As I told you yesterday, we're working in our first amateur rocket. Soon you'll find some interesting news about it @ http://spacesheepone.blogspot.com .

Today we've finished the first construction sesion of two hours, here I left the results:

You could see here our SpaceSheepOne rocket placed on the Transportation Vehicle (we're still waiting for the wheels and the engines ;-) ).

At the final of the session, while taking the rocket to a safe shelve, the rocket-carrier platform reminded me (I'm sure that most of you'll have thought in it while seeing the picture above) the train which carries the russian rockets from the builder hangar to the launch platform :

Proton rocket during transport to the launch pad at Baikonur in Kazakstan.

And, as an experimented procrastinator, I've remembered the Space Shuttle,

and its massive mobile launch platform above the crawler which carries both mobile launch platform and the Space Shuttle.

NASA’s massive mobile launch platform and the crawler that carries the space shuttle
from Kennedy Center’s Vehicle Assembly building to the shuttle launch pad.

You could continue procrastinating in this way following:

Aeronautic/Astronautic pics:

http://isdc.unige.ch/bin/images.cgi?ALL

Curious things:
http://blog.hvidtfeldts.net/index.php/2007/07/modern-wonders/

Recommended (spanish): Space Shuttle
http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/808341/Space-Shuttle:-El-Transbordador-Espacial-Estadounidense.html

News about the SpaceSheepOne:
http://spacesheepone.blogspot.com

Smallest Camera vs. Biggest Pencil (WTF?)

2008-11-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

This morning, while looking for a mini-camera for our rocket (maybe some day I will tell you something about it). I discovered the one that is called the world smallest camera (in the photo you can compare it with a pencil). This camera, developed by Omnivision may help in medical research giving the surgeons a new and less-invasive-to-the-patient method to many medical procedures. It also allows certain medical devices such as intubation systems and endoscopes to be made even smaller to allow for use on infants and small children.

Some people could say that it could not be as small as it seems ...if the pencil were the biggest pencil ever built... I'm sorry of those who wanted to procrastinate looking for the biggest pencil, because I've already got it:

...Faber-Castell's facility in Malaysia near Kuala Lumpur. This pencil is nearly 65 feet tall and is housed in a glass enclosure. (...)The project required over 7000 man-hours over a two year period to complete. The pencil is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest.

But..friends..I've never find the way to finish my day-by-day procrastinations and I would suggest very hardly 'The Pencil Pages' where you could find lots of 'amazing'(WTF?) things, photos and 'posts' like 'LEFT-HANDED PENCILS - do they exist?'

All this and much more seen @:

Camera:
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/8687/omnivision_camerachip_ov6920/

via (http://www.therawfeed.com/2006/06/worlds-smallest-camera-for-inside-body.html )

Pencil:
http://www.pencilpages.com/gallery/largest.htm
http://www.pencilpages.com/misc/trivia.htm
http://www.pencilpages.com

via (http://www.therawfeed.com/2006/06/worlds-smallest-camera-for-inside-body.html )

32 nearby stars

2008-11-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Guys,...in my mind I can only see an advert that shows a child with an airplane, the text says: It's exams time!

But I love procrastinating so I couldn't study as I think I need so here I leave for you a 3D map of the '32 Nearby Stars'. I hope you enjoy it!

source:
http://kisd.de/~krystian/starmap/

via...I can't remember it...:(

Upload:
I've just read in 'Microsiervos' (Spanish) a similar applet which shows a simulation of our Solar System and some Extrasolar ones: Solar System Visualizer
via: Microsiervos

Arp 147: Good news from Hubble

2008-11-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here you have the first image from a recovered Hubble Space Telescope.

From Hubble Space Telescope Site:

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business. Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online, Hubble aimed its prime working camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), at a particularly intriguing target, a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147. The image demonstrated that the camera is working exactly as it was before going offline, thereby scoring a "perfect 10" both for performance and beauty.

The two galaxies happen to be oriented so that they appear to mark the number 10. The left-most galaxy, or the "one" in this image, is relatively undisturbed apart from a smooth ring of starlight. It appears nearly on edge to our line of sight. The right-most galaxy, resembling a zero, exhibits a clumpy, blue ring of intense star formation. The galaxy pair was photographed on October 27-28, 2008. Arp 147 lies in the constellation Cetus, and it is more than 400 million light-years away from Earth.

But good news never come alone, so here I left you a link to read while procrastinating some productive things.

Via:
Hubble Space Telescope Site

Flightglobal

(Both via Bad Astronomy Blog)

The perfect game for those moments..

2008-10-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

I think that I've just found the perfect game for those moments when you are trying to do nothing but you have lots of things to do :-)

Use the arrow buttons on your keyboard to navigate and move your way around the maze to find the exitto the next level.

You need to upgrade your Flash Player

via:
http://www.theprocrastinator.co.uk

If Larry Page and Sergey Brin could, why dont I?

2008-10-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

As all of you could have seen, yesterday, while registering a name in blogger I made the mistake of searching for 'the-procastinator' instead of 'the-procrastinator'. I found the domain available so I was able to get it.

see:
http://procrastinator.blogspot.com
http://the-procrastinator.blogspot.com
http://procrastinate.blogspot.com

This story reminded me of those which happened somewhere in the 'Gates Computer Science Building' at 'Stanford University', where Google was born:

...Sean is not an infallible speller, and he made the mistake of searching for the name spelled as "google.com," which he found to be available. Larry liked the name, and within hours he took the step of registering the name "google.com"...

Sources:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html
From Googol to Google: The Stanford Daily

Welcome! (...or what does 'procrastinator' mean?)

2008-10-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hi Proc(r)astinator's guys,

I'm pleased to announce that from now and (I hope!) once a day I'll post a new thing that would help you in your day-by-day's procrastinations.

At first I would say that the things that would appear in here will be related with aeronautics and science but some interesting games too.

I hope you like them.

As an 'Procrastination for dummies' tutorial for those of you who don't know what procrastinator and procrastinate means,I left here some definitions.

procrastinator, postponer, cunctator
someone who postpones work (especially out of laziness or habitual carelessness)

procrastinate, stall, drag one's feet, drag one's heels, shillyshally, dilly-dally, dillydally
postpone doing what one should be doing; "He did not want to write the letter and procrastinated for days"

An exemple of what procrastinate means:

And a very accurate definition:

And before my first goodbye I'd recommend this classical post about what procrastination is. And you'll also get an important idea:

There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.