There's fast and then there is REALLY fast

It's finally here, a blog post worth reading. I've been wanting to write about this topic for a couple of months and now I've got some footage that really brings it to life.

In New Zealand, my brother in law, Sean, and his crew, Dan, have taken their R-Class sailboat to a whole new level, literally. First, let me explain that the R-Class boats are basically rockets in the water. The boats are about 18 feet long, crewed by two people, extremely light and have huge sails. The design of the boats is pretty much unlimited too (other than length) which means they can really innovate. Here is a picture of their boat last year. Notice that it's barely in the water.















And now, here is a picture from this year. Notice anything different?



It's the two hyrdo-foils that they've added. When the boat gets up on the foils (which can happen even in pretty light wind) they almost completely erase friction from the water. And with that, they can almost double the speed of the other boats in their class. In a race that normally takes the fleet 40 minutes, they can finish in 25.

They were recently interviewed by a Kiwi TV station and they got some great footage of the boat sailing. Check it out HERE.

Of course, as you can see in the video clip, they haven't worked out all the bugs yet and still occasionally crash, which means going from 20 knots to zero in a few seconds. Yes, it's a dangerous sport and they do wear helmets. This particular crash was caused by a breakage of the main foil. Here's a closeup of what the foils look like on land (that's Sean on the left and Dan on the right).



Needless to say, next season you'll probably see more (if not all) the r-class boats with foils. One of the problems with being the innovator is that you are paving the way for your competitors (and they don't have to struggle as much). However, I fully expect Sean and Dan to do well, as they've won the National Championship for the R-Class even in the conventional boats.

One of the places Sean and Dan got inspiration from was another class of boat called a Moth. Moths are one person boats, but have adopted the foil technology, too. However, they've spent a million dollars and received corporate money for development. Sean and Dan are doing this on their own. Here is some really unique footage of the Moth's in action:



I'm not sure what they've got up their sleeve for their next trick, but I would love to see a Foil Boat Championships. Moths, R-Class and anyone else doing it. Let's see who is the the fastest in the water (or over it).

The Inauguration Haiku

I started to write a long and boring blog about the inauguration. Instead, I'll summarize in haiku form and then give you a couple of interesting things I noticed.

So happy for change
The time for thinkers is now
Face problems with smarts

Ok, that took me way too long to figure out (and I stole the middle line), but at least you don't have to read the rest of my boring blog.

Among the poignant things I saw:

• The video of Bush and Obama hugging it out on Bush's way to the helicopter. Say what you will about America, but the proof that we live in a great country can be seen in how the once most powerful man in the world so easily passes his job to the next man. To me this is a sign of a highly evolved civilization. We've got a long ways to go to be perfect, but the ingredients are there. Yes we can!
• There were some great interviews on The News Hour (watch here) with people who were at the inauguration. My favorite was the 105 year old woman, Elma Mae Johnson, who traveled from Cleveland to be there. It starts 1:45 into the video. This woman was sharp - no sign of aging in her mind what so ever. If they didn't tell you she was 105 and you just read the text of the interview you would have thought she was 30. Quite inspirational. Never stop using your mind.
• Lastly, I hate Balls - inaguration balls. Inaguration balls rank up there with stupid half time shows are among the dumbest things I've ever seen. It might be ok, to be at one of these things, but watching it on TV is so painful. Oh well, that's pretty far down on the priority list of things to fix. Time to start at the top!

San Diego 1 - Pittsburgh 0

I'm a 49ers fan, but since my teams are lousy I've been watching the Chargers games this year. Last Sunday I was watching the Chargers-Steelers game. Right now, I'm watching the Steelers-Ravens game (with the winner going to the Super Bowl). You might feel bad for the Chargers fans because the Steelers knocked them out of the playoffs, but don't.

Currently in the Steelers game, there are snow flakes falling. It's not heavy snow, but that does mean it's less than 32 degrees in Pittsburgh. Let's compare this with San Diego.

Today I went to the beach. At 11am it was about 75 degrees, sunny and decent waves (though I didn't surf). After enjoying the beach for a couple of hours Erin and I walked over to The Cheese Shop and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and snacks. We then headed back to the beach and ate while sitting on the wall on the board walk.

After I got home I was exhausted by my time at the beach so I opened the window in our apartment and then napped for a while.

After waking up I went for a run. It was still about 70 degrees out and when I got to the top of La Jolla Scenic drive I was welcomed by one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera but it was a great combination of colors in the sky, the blue ocean and the sun ducking behind Mt. Soledad. Here is the view using Google Street View.


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So, no matter what happens in the game, I say San Diego is the big winner this winter, and next winter, and every winter. Remember that Steelers fans when you are freezing your asses off.

Throwing Darts - Jan 11 2009

I haven't been blogging much lately. In order to lower the barriers to writing, I'm allowing myself to put out shorter posts. This means the quality will probably suffer. Good thing I never set the bar high anyway.

First thing I'd like to point out. THE WARRIORS ACTUALLY WON. It was a close came and Jamal Crawford came up big in the end. You can see him to the left, cooling off his six-shooters after the big shot. Another great thing about the game, former Warriors Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy stunk. Dunleavy bricked a huge shot at the end of the game for the Pacers. Now if I could forget the rest of the season that would be great. The bad news, looks like our Rocky look alike (Marco Belinelli) got hurt. Hope to see him on the court soon, he's been one of the few bright spots on the team. Thank you ShoulIWatch?com for saving me so many hours this season.

In music news, check out the band Why? (question mark included). I heard about their album Alopecia recently and I have been loving it. Among my favorite songs are These Few Presidents, Good Friday, The Hollows, and really the whole damn album. You should be able to play it below, or check them out at www.myspace.com/whyanticon.

Hmm, what else to mention? Oh yes, www.keepvid.com is an awesome way to download videos from YouTube and other video websites. Be sure to choose the .mp4 download option, that way you don't need a Flash player. Also, it will then easily transfer to your iPhone, or in my case, iPod Touch (thanks Erin!).

Oh, and my deep sympathy to Chargers fans. Since the 49ers aren't sniffing the playoffs I've been following the bolts during their exciting playoff run. However, it ended to today in snowy and cold Pittsburgh. Remember Chargers fans, you are the real winners since you watched the game in shorts and sandals.

That's all for today (tonight). Have a great week.

Interesting Blogs

My boss, Bill, has always been a big technology guy. He's been in the industry as an engineer, marketer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist for pretty much his whole life. So, it's pretty interesting to watch him grasp on to the power of the blog in the past month or so.

The first blog he started was The Business of Classical Music. I think it's pretty obvious what it's about. It got a pretty big reaction and now he's got a second blog, The Twilight of Venture Capital. You may not be directly interested in either subject, but I think they are worth checking out from a refreshing ideas point of view.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to figure out how to make it look like I'm not sucking up to my boss.

Throwing Darts

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks and I'd like to apologize to both my readers (and say hi to you mom!). I've replaced late night blogging with late night coding. Some of the coding has been on InstantEncore and some has been on my new pet project Should I Watch.

I've also been making my rounds on the internet. To see my holiday spirit, go to picture 18 on the Jeff and Jer show's ugly holiday sweater contest (here). Erin encouraged me to dust off the sweater I found last year. The winner of the contest gets $500, but there are some other good ones and I'd say my chances of winning are nill.

I also recently had a "bleg" of mine posted on the Freakonomics blog. If you haven't read the book Freakonomics I highly recommend it. It has made me ask "why" more often. The question I "blegged" was whether there is such a thing as too much data (I asked in relation to the Should I Watch website). A lot of people left insightful comments, so check those out. Thanks again to the freakonomics guys for taking the time to post and answer the bleg. I highly recommend checking out their blog regularly.

In other internet news, Erick Rarick, a co-worker of mine at InstantEncore, was recently on the news in San Diego. The music group he is a part of, Bach Collegium San Diego, was doing a Handel's Messiah concert and the news did a feature about it. You can view the news clip here. Erick is the very first person they show during the piece.

Lastly, I'd like to give a big congratulations to my mom. She was named Alameda Realtor of the year 2008. I think it's even more impressive given the slow down in the economy. Mom always said the bad times were good because it filtered out the realtors who couldn't cut it. Well, clearly mom, you make the cut. I hope they give you a big trophy like when a team wins the championship.

Looking ahead, I've been wanting to write a blog of hydro foiling sailboats. My brother in law, Sean, has been designing (and now sailing) one in NZ and it's one of the coolest things I've seen. Hope to get that out by Christmas. If I don't talk to everyone before then, hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Sometimes Bad is Bad

Let this be a lesson to everyone out there. Don't blog when tired. I actually wrote the following blog...

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It's 1:10am. I'm failing at prettying up the user interface that I'm working on. The team I played ball for tonight lost by 50 (I'm not exaggerating). And the Warriors lost in excruciating fashion in overtime. I'm convinced the coach is losing on purpose. On the bright side, I'm rocking out to Huey Lewis... but of course the current song is "Bad is Bad." Go figure.

At least I'm content knowing that Sports is the coolest name ever for album.