Cerberus

Cerberus; an epiphany

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This morning I got talking to Angie about matter, and how I looked at a mundane thing such as a fist. Half an hours breakfast conversation turned into a seven hundred word intro, which finally broke a logjam of ideas stalling the Cerberus project.

Now I’ve finally opened the floodgates into a massive story, which I’ve been trying to do for over five years. A series of eBooks about Paul Calvin, renegade cop with a psychic talent. the third in the series almost wrote itself, but I hadn’t a clue how to build the rest of the story arc. Until this mornings little epiphany.

Watch this space. 1400 words of really first class copy today, and what even my wife calls ‘electric’ reading. Cerberus has just been raised from the almost dead. Even I think it’s good.

Technology

Firefoxed


One of the things that is an annoying distraction in this life is software updates. Particularly software updates that should not have come out of beta. At the moment I’m reserving some significant bile for Firefox 14.0.1 and more particularly Adobe Flash 11.3. The trouble started about three weeks ago when Angie updated her copy of Firefox, and then upgraded Flash. Normally there isn’t an issue with Firefox and Flash, but Angie seemed to have uploaded the 64 bit as opposed to the 32 bit version of Flash. Videos would not play. Youtube became a closed book, and trying to do any video conversion on her eighteen month old Windows & laptop became impossible. Being the households tech support, I fixed the problem by uninstalling the 64 bit and installing the 32. Functionality was restored; videos would play in Firefox again, and I thought I was off the hook and could get back to work.

In all innocence I then upgraded my own Firefox Browser and Adobe Flash to the ‘recommended’ Adobe Flash 11.3 and Firefox 14.0.1 releases. Videos stopped playing in every browser. The only solution was to uninstall all four of my browsers and reinstall earlier versions. These are now working fine. Videos play, hyperlinks link, and all I seem to lose in some of the functions from, excuse my pun, the flashier advertisements.

Overall, this has cost me an equivalent of four writing days, because I’ve been too occupied or annoyed to focus on my work. As far as browsers go, I happen to like Mozilla based products, but not ones that shouldn’t have been released on an unwitting public.

I suppose you could say I’ve been firefoxed, and I’m not very happy about it.

Stars Trilogy

Video content now online


Well, for better or worse both video’s will be up very shortly on the ‘Video’ tab. I’ve disabled comments over at YouTube because I want anyone who wants to say anything come here and do so. It also saves me messing around with yet another login just to argue when I should be writing.

The first video is a very uncomfortable me doing a little reading off a cheat sheet, trying to explain in under four minutes what a three volume trilogy of 450,000 words is about. The second is another four minute vid of me talking about some of the ideas I got to play around with. Not quite so uncomfortable, but not as smoothly as I’d hoped.

If the Stars trilogy were a sandwich, it would be a club sandwich with a whole steer and half a hectare of vegetables, smothered in fifty gallons of mustard and mayonnaise, and not too much bread. Not to everyone’s taste, but if we all liked the same thing, what a dull world it would be.

Technology

Thoughts on Fusion reactor design


When it comes to some science topics, I’m more than just an interested bystander. I like to look at things, and ask questions about how they go together. Tinker with ideas and try to bolt them into a narrative.

Something that’s been bouncing around in my mind over the past five years has been how to build a working Nuclear Fusion reactor. What would it look like? How would it actually work on a semi continuous basis? Now I’m going to exclude ‘cold’ Fusion from today’s little rambling because, well, just because I don’t want to go there. Mainly because I don’t think it can or will work. Fusion needs thousands of degrees of heat and many atmospheres of pressure to slam all those light nuclei together to fuse and produce energy as they do so. Anything else is just chemistry.

Nuclear Fusion at present has been achieved in it’s crudest form as the Hydrogen bomb. A Fission trigger detonates and slams a lot of Tritium and Deuterium together with a resultant massive release of energy in a multi megaton explosion. Tokamak reactor designs have come close, and firing a humungous laser at a tiny pellet of fuel also promises a positive result, all conditions being perfect. The ITER showed promise, but last I heard was suffering with issues surrounding superconductor failures. There’s also a thing called a Polywell, which is the brainchild of the late Dr Robert Bussard. This too shows promise, and I think the idea is sound, but the execution leaves something undone. All of these approaches have one thing in common; they require more energy input than they produce.

My (albeit fictional) preference is for a merging of the two solutions, where the tight plasma toroids of a Tokamak type design are merged with the Polywell concept. In shape, the plasma flows would resemble eight ring doughnuts stood on edge in a circle so that the plasma streams all merge at a highly contained central point. Thus forming a plasma flow point of confluence in a central containment core. See flow diagram. The stylised sun indicates where the actual point of reaction should take place, the top red arrow shows the direction of fuel injected into the charged plasma, and the yellow arrow the excess ‘exhaust’.

One of the problems with the aforementioned approaches to Fusion is plasma requiring very heavy magnetic containment to prevent it arcing or in electrical terms, shorting to earth. There may be an answer to this issue and I saw it hidden in a report on an Italian experiment in 2008/9, where an electrical charge was applied to a plasma stream, which then self organised itself into a helix, or corkscrew shape. This was replicated by an American team led by Ray Fonck at the University of Wisconsin, as reported in this 2009 news item.

Now if eight lower energy helical plasma streams could be guided into a central area of heavy containment, where the little sun is in my rather crude diagram, then I wonder if my Tokamak / Polywell hybrid concept might actually work? If the Pegasus team in Wisconsin have found a way which makes Tokamaks easier to build, perhaps taking a mental sideways step and combining the approach with another might just lead closer to the dream of working sustainable nuclear fusion?

Now I appreciate I’m no Physicist. My original work training was in Electrical Engineering, mostly power distribution. Nowadays I write slightly geeky science fiction which hardly anybody reads for goodness sake. Yet no matter which direction I look at the subject, I’m left with this overpowering gut feeling that a hybrid approach might be the answer.

General musings

Delays


No Aurora watch tonight, although there’s a report that we may see a Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun big enough for some serious Aurora watching by the 27th July.  Another X class.  Not a Carrington event, but big enough.

I’ve been occupied today trying to put together a promotional video to put up on this site.  It’s not as easy as it looks.  I used up two sets of batteries in my camera, and although the definition was great I’m afraid my performances weren’t and now I’ve lost daylight.  The upside is that I now have a workable script that comes out at a comfortable three minutes and thirty seconds.  A shade under four minutes with title and adverts.

Needless to say, there will be no video online for the next day or so.  

Strange how I write far more cogently and fluently than I speak.  Maybe I spend so much time behind a keyboard that I’ve lost my gift of the blarney.

Astronomy, Stars Trilogy

Video readings


I’m currently having a Henry Higgins “By George he’s got it” moment. My stammer is mostly absent, and I’m finally confident enough to sight read my own work to camera. The proof of the pudding came yesterday, when I settled down in front of my laptop camera and read the first eleven pages of ‘Sky full of stars’, hardly muffing a word. Well, apart from six occurrences that I noticed. Not bad for twenty-nine minutes without a break. I’m quite pleased.

Until I’ve sorted out some kind of video hosting, I think my best path is to post on Youtube and embed on this site on a specific page like on a Youtube channel. While I’m sure there will be some less than kind comments from the casually immature, I’m hoping that there will be more supportive responses. A couple of friends tell me that the best way to deal with negative people online is simply to delete their unpleasantness.

The current state of play with our local Weather is that we might get lucky with clearing skies to view a possible Aurora Borealis on Saturday night. SOHO has experienced considerable interference from heavy S1 level particle bombardment as reported on Spaceweather.com. I shall also be watching the CSSDP Real time Auroral data to see if anything in happening elsewhere.

Astronomy

Aurora prediction


According to Spaceweather.com we’re due another X Class solar flare on Friday. I’ll try another Aurora observation blog if conditions are good, but this time I’ll wrap up better against my little biting friends.

Work on ‘Darkness’ and the ‘Cerberus’ series is currently painfully slow. On the upside I’m currently in the process of writing to various convention holders about being a speaker on the topic of science fiction, albeit the slightly nerdy end of the spectrum. My 20-30 minute talk “The big what if” always seems to be well received by audiences, mainly because I avoid sight reading, and simply talk to people instead of ‘at’ them. Oddly enough my slight stammer seems to disappear when I get into a more relaxed stride.

Astronomy

Attempted Successful Aurora blog


Okay. I don’t know if this is going to happen, but I’ going to try live blogging this Aurora. Providing we get to see it this far south. All times are Pacific Standard Time. (-8 GMT)

Time 9:30

Outside on the deck watching the dusk creep towards me. Mosquito coils lit. Citronella candles lit to try and keep the bugs at bay. Covered feet to neck and hoping not to get bitten too much. Writing a sequence for ‘Darkness’ about the handover of a new starship to its pilot.

The dusk is gorgeous and soft, with a ticklish little breeze continually blowing out the candles. A confused cockerel is crowing as the light fades. Who keeps chickens around here? The way the sound is carrying tonight it could well be over on Mudge, or even Gabriola island.

Time 9:45

Have set up my old hiking compass to see if there is any magnetic deviation. Probably not, but you never find out by not looking. Light fading quite rapidly. No visible stars yet.

Time 10:00

If the flare levels hold up, It’s a great night for skywatching. Barely a cloud in the sky, and the few that are are low down on the horizon to the North heading West. The sky to the north is surprisingly bright. First star / planet spotted 10-12 degrees east of vertical. Someone is playing what sounds like Buddhist prayer chants. Or is it First Nations? Just going to duck inside and get some insect repellant. Which I haven’t got. Bummer. OVATION predicts that Aurora should be visible over northern Lake Superior.

10:15

Hard to see keyboard. A few more clouds on the Northern horizon. A couple more visible stars / planets.
Aurora Data Screen capture 10:15 PST

10:30

Constellations starting to take form. Vancouver, slightly north of east is covered by a slight haze of light pollution, punctuated by the bright dual pinpoints of aircraft headlights. Looking at data peaks in ‘Risk’ part of graphic. Last large one was about twenty plus minutes ago.
Horizon to the north ids almost completely dark.

11:00

Ursa Major and Polaris now clearly identifiable without visual aids. Stars visible within 15 degrees of horizon away from the city lights. Not sure if I just caught a flash of something to the North and East, or whether it was an optical illusion caused by quickly looking away from my laptop screen.

11:15

Horizon seems lighter to the North. There’s a band of deep indigo, then a vaguely greenish haze up to about ten degrees above the horizon. Although I think that’s reflected light off the leftover haze from those Siberian wildfires that made the news last week. It’s quite distinct. A hazy, slightly lighter band about 10-12 degrees up from the horizon.

11:30

Nothing much to report. Might just duck inside to put some socks on my feet. 11:42, what sounded like two shots. Not a shotgun, and not Aurora related, but I’d say within 200 metres. No shouts or other fuss from the neighbours, so it was probably someone trying to scare off some of the local Raccoons.

11:45

Nipping indoors to connect my laptop to it’s charger. My dog is hiding under my desk and steadfastly refuses to come out.

Midnight Pacific Standard Time

According to both OVATION predictions and the CSSDP the area of probability as far as seeing the Northern Lights is concerned is getting closer.

12:15

Paydirt. Aurora visible as monochrome pale vertical banding behind clouds due north. Moving back outdoors. Angie came out and confirmed my observation when her eyes had adjusted. She described the glow as ‘greenish and indistinct’. The vertical component is intermittent and not bright enough to take video footage of at present.

12:30

It’s like vertical streaks of anticrepuscular light. Right up to forty degrees or more above the horizon. Not bright enough to show up on my camera, but quite distinct with the occasional flash of brighter green.

1:00

Might get a bit more distinct, but not much at this latitude. The occasional greenish flash, and shadowy pillars in the sky are enough to show where the old gods came from. For myself, i have work in the morning, and need to catch some sleep. Shutting down.

06:45 Sunday 15th July

CSSDP screencap for this morning. Looks like activity was greatest around 3am according to the ‘Risk’ part of the graph.
I’ve picked up a few mosquito bites on the back of my left calf (Which I covered up, but those little things get everywhere), but nothing some antiseptic skin lotion won’t fix.

General musings

Upgrades


Angie and I have been discussing an improved web presence for the blog and home site, with more content and better integration with a public Facebook and Twitter setup.  She says I need to be more ‘visible’.  More open.  More focussed and professional.

We’re talking a revamp of the site and a cleaner, more consistent overall look.  Free downloadable text samples in *.pdf format.  Better pictures.  Maybe a little on work in progress.  Video content (Readings and general thoughts on science and technology)  Maybe some simple flash apps.  Science and technology newsfeeds which complement work in progress.  

The only real issue facing me is which part first?  BTW; that’s a rhetorical question.

General musings

Back from the printers


A day of errands today. A short hike down to the printers for some test posters this morning. They’ve come out better than expected. The artwork for giveaway bookmarks needs a little tweak, but definition and content are looking much better than I’d hoped. Just have to play with the wording on the reverse and they’ll be good to go.

Arranging a visit to the vets for my dog, Amos, who is looking a bit peaky, poor chap. Have tried changes to his diet and exercise, but nothing seems to make any difference. So off to Parksville we go. The Bellevue clinic has always been pretty good, so despite a 50km drive, I’m happy to take my poorly pup up there. I’m thinking bladder stones as he is over 12 years old, but the Vet will have a better idea. Hope it’s nothing too drastic. That pup has come a long way with us, across the Atlantic and trans Canada, and it puts a nasty prescient knot in my gut worrying that he might be seriously ill.

General musings

Listening to Seals dance

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Last night as dusk closed in, I was sitting out on the deck with Angie.  Not talking, but just listening to the night sounds.  From down in the narrows came the splashing slapping sound I now understand to be a Seal mating display.  A male Seal, in order to attract a mate, dives deep, then rockets three quarters of its body length out of the water before falling back with flippers outstretched to bellyflop on the water.  Makes a heck of a racket.  The sound carries for miles.  There were three I was sure of coming from distinct locations.  One half way down Mudge Island.  One between Round Island and Cedar shore, and another further down towards Boat ramp.  All making a racket.  All clamouring for attention.  Splash-bang!  Splash-bang!  Me, me, me!

What with one thing and another I should have been doing something similar with regards to the Stars Trilogy and my other work.  The only problem is that I’ve been busy doing other things, or there have been too many distractions.  My writing has been effectively dead in the water for six months, and my self imposed deadline for completing “Darkness” has simply whooshed on by.  It has stalled.  I have a beginning and an end, but the middle, the meat in the sandwich, is sparse and unsatisfying.

My problem is that my work is viewed by my family as some kind of bizarre and unproductive hobby, and in some ways I suppose it is.  Yet every time I revisit the previous two volumes, the more they grow on me.  There is nothing wrong with the stories or the writing, apart from being just shy of 150,000 words apiece.  The mini universe my narrative inhabits does not fall into what I refer to as the ‘Unicorns and fairies’ stuff of hyperintelligent pan dimensional beings (Who all look surprisingly human), just an isolated and querulous humanity, wrapped up in their own agendas, and struggling to get by on their brave new worlds. 

Angie has been nudging me to do some more promotional events to publicise my works, but to be honest I haven’t a clue where to start.  Nor the funds.  I’m revisiting my artwork (Which still looks good, even in poster sizes) and have written to the organisers of next years Vancouver Science Fiction convention, asking how it works, and what an author has to do in order to make an appearance. Despite my occasional stammer, I’m a reasonable public speaker with, from my attempts at stand up comedy back in the 90’s, a decent sense of humour.  I can get a laugh out of a crowd, and if I can get ten words out, I can get a thousand or more, and make it entertaining to boot.  The issue is, finding the crowd.

The thought occurs that if a lonely seal needs to leap out of the water and slap down hard to get attention, perhaps I should follow his example.

 

Technology

Build the Enterprise!


Just picked up a couple of news items about a campaign to build the Starship Enterprise. I like the idea. While I’m not so sure about sticking to Roddenberry’s original concept, the thought of actually building a starship, starting now, certainly engages my interest and arouses my inner geek.

The technical challenges for such a project are immense, but then so were the ones that took men to the moon in less than ten years. From John F Kennedy’s speech to Armstrong and Aldrin setting foot where no human had gone before. Less than ten years. This is particularly significant for me, as I’ve recently been helping my wife with press releases for the forthcoming To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA exhibition at Nanaimo District Museum about the May 1969 Apollo 10 mission which took place a mere two months before the Eagle Lunar Excursion Module landed in the Sea of Tranquility.

From this speech

To this event.

In less than ten years.

Awesome.

Humanity should attempt this kind of project again. Soon.

Technology

End of an era


Watching the various vids on the Discovery Space Shuttle heading for the Smithsonian, then reading a news item about a dud European satellite; I was given to wonder, with the shuttle program having flown their last missions, who can fix this one?

The only reusable shuttle currently in use is the X-37B, but that is unmanned. Like when the Apollo program ended, for some reason I can’t sidestep a certain wistfulness and feel that an opportunity is being missed.

Take a walk on the dark side of Science Fiction ©