SILICON SOAPWARE wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway from Bubbles = Tom Digby = bubbles@well.com http://www.well.com/~bubbles/ Issue #179 New Moon of July 21, 2009 Contents copyright 2009 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of "fair use". In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I get a cut of the profits. Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback. Details of how to sign up are at the end. ********************* In Memoriam 3FDM486 Sept 16, 1993 July 4, 2009 I'd had a number of cars through the years, all bought used with lots and lots of miles already on them: A nineteen-fifty-something VW Beetle, a Datsun, and a 1960's GM monster. They had all served me about as well as could be expected. But around 1993 I was doing fairly well financially and was getting tired of that feeling of half-expecting my car to die at any moment. So I decided to splurge on something new. I did preliminary shopping around the middle of 1993, and had pretty much made up my mind by August or thereabouts. But I didn't actually make the commitment until a week or so after I'd gotten back from the World Science Fiction Convention. So in September of 1993 I took delivery of a brand new 1993 Geo Metro from dealer stock. That car served me well for almost sixteen years, through various ups and downs and a move from Southern California to the Bay Area, as well as more than one round trip back down to L.A. for science fiction conventions. But as the years and miles piled up, that feeling of "What if something happens?" gradually started coming back. I'd had good reason for feeling paranoid about cars. That first VW Beetle threw a rod at a time when I was unemployed and couldn't afford to have it fixed. Subsequent cars did not leave my life in as dramatic a manner, but they did give me some scary moments by the side of one road or another. On the other hand, things always seemed to sort of work out. For example, a couple of months after the VW died I found a job that was a pretty good fit for me within walking distance of where I was living. Anyway, back to the present. There I was, starting the drive home from a Fourth of July party. I'd gone a couple of blocks when I noticed the engine wasn't running. Attempts to restart it were unsuccessful. It would crank, but it wouldn't actually start, and the cranking sounded somehow different. So I called the Auto Club and had it towed to the place I'd been taking it to for service. Their diagnosis: A broken timing belt. Replacing it would cost almost eight hundred dollars. And that might or might not fix the problem. There was likely to be internal damage to valves and pistons and such. In other words, it would cost eight hundred dollars to find out whether or not I would need a new engine, which would probably run at least another couple of grand. And even if I did have the engine replaced, the rest of the car would still be almost sixteen years old. I don't know if car years are anything like dog years, but even if they aren't, sixteen years is a long time. So I ended up replacing the entire car. So instead of a 1993 Geo Metro I now have a 2005 Chevy Malibu. It cost a lot more than a new engine for the Geo, but it feels a lot nicer. And although one never knows what the future will bring, this feels right. ********************* One big bit of outside-world news has been the fortieth anniversary of the first Moon landing: "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Reporters have been asking people where they were when it happened. I was at a party watching it on TV with a bunch of science fiction fans. This party was in Los Angeles, hosted by John and Bjo Trimble, who at the time were prominent in local science fiction fandom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjo_Trimble They had a house with a large living room and a color TV with a fair-sized screen for the time, although it wasn't what we today would call a "big-screen TV". There were a couple dozen fans sitting around the TV on chairs or couches or the floor, and there were snacks and such on the table in the adjacent dining area. I don't recall exactly what time the party started, but the Wikipedia article shows the actual landing as 1:17 pm California time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11 The Wikipedia article mentions a "contact light" but doesn't explain what it was. According to a news commentator at the time, there was a switch attached to a probe sticking down from of the landing legs. When the leg in question got within a few inches of the surface, the probe would activate the switch and light the light. That was the signal to turn off the engine and let the lander settle to the ground. And it had emotional significance in that it was the first part of the craft to actually touch the lunar surface. Sometime during the few seconds after the contact light, perhaps right after the statement that "The Eagle has landed," a cheer went up from the assembled fans. Then things sort of quieted down for several hours until it was time for the astronauts to get out and walk around. They may have been busy getting ready, but there was little for spectators to watch. Yes, there was commentary and such, but I felt too excited and too tired to pay much attention. I went for a walk, and then went home for a brief nap before returning to the party. The actual "one small step" came a few minutes before 8 pm that evening. Again, the Wikipedia article has the facts and figures. But I did notice one thing: The lighting. I'd previously read about how the sky would be black and how shadows in the lunar environment would look darker than on Earth because of the absence of an atmosphere to scatter sunlight, so I wasn't really surprised. But the overall effect didn't really look all that alien. I recall thinking that it was like being outdoors at night in a place lit only by one bare light bulb. At one point I went out and looked up at the Moon. It looked pretty much like normal. Of course I wouldn't expect to see anything unusual without a large telescope, and maybe not even then. So that's my answer to "Where were you for the first Moon landing?" ********************* Advice from the Heisenberg Traffic School: Use the Uncertainty Principle. If you're stopped for speeding, insist that the officer document the exact location where the alleged offense occurred. ********************* Terrorists tried to terrorize the Toonland Lanes bowling alley, but the attempt appears to have backfired. They secretly filled one pin with explosives, then leaked the news to the press. People started staying away out of fear. Business was so bad that there were cobwebs all over the cash registers, and when you listened for the sounds of rolling balls and falling pins all you heard was crickets. The manager considered calling the police, but that would have led to the Bomb Squad blowing up the whole place in hopes of getting the one pin the terrorists had tampered with. Then he had an idea. Since the place uses automatic pinsetting machines instead of the traditional pinboys, no one, except terrorists and Bomb Squad officers and such, ever comes within sixty feet (the length of a standard bowling alley) of any of the pins. And since almost all of the customers are cartoon characters, the worst that can happen when the bomb does go off is that a few of them end up with dazed looks and sooty faces for a while. Or maybe in an extreme case, someone might get a few bandages stuck on them here and there. That's not nearly as bad as having the whole place blown up by the Bomb Squad. Also, the machinery is old and due for replacement, and he'd been thinking of remodeling soon, so some damage would be acceptable. So he decides to make a special promotion out of the situation. Whichever bowler happens to detonate the exploding pin will get a prize. Now business is booming, possibly literally. ********************* I'm reminded that Wikipedia recently had a Featured Photo that led to an article about using explosives to demolish buildings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_implosion I spent some time reading that, then got to thinking: What if instead of tearing down old buildings to make room for new ones, you built the new building first, in and around the old? Cut a few holes in walls and floors at one end of the old building, then stick beams and such through them for the new frame. Then gradually tear out the old walls and floors as you put in the new ones. Only the parts of the building closest to the actual construction zone would need to be vacated, and once any significant portion of the new building was in place you could start using it. Thus instead of the whole site being out of commission for a couple of years you would lose the use of just the parts closest to the moving construction front. With eventual future technology such as robot-assisted nanotech you might not even have to give up that much: The old building could just sort of morph into the new as the occupants went about their business more or less normally. Wouldn't this be more expensive than our current approach? It would seem so at first glance, but then we haven't had enough experience with such methods to really tell. In a world where space is at a premium the savings from not having to vacate the whole area for the duration of the project might make up for the extra cost of maneuvering girders and concrete mixers and such through hallways, especially if people have lots of experience at doing that kind of thing, and are accustomed to designing buildings with this kind of transition in mind. And if it's a matter of tradition or not making the gods angry or something like that, cost may not be the main consideration. I don't expect to see this approach being widely used in our world any time soon, but you never know. ********************* It may be worth noting that July 20 is also the anniversary of the Viking Mars lander. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1 Draining the Last Canal "It's landed! It's finally landed!" "Let's go see it!" "What if it sees us?" "Don't worry. It has eyes only for the physical. We could form a mob and advance on it with pitchforks and torches and plaster it with posters and graffiti and make obscene gestures right into the lens and still it would ignore us." "But surely among its masters are a few who are not blind. Won't they see us?" "They have seen us for centuries already without artificial aid. Physical sight forms a barrier: If we want them to see us we must approach from behind, lurking just outside the picture: Or else retreat behind a dune, or better yet, the horizon." "Retreat, retreat, retreat. First to remote areas of their world, then to here, and soon to places beyond. Will it ever ens?" "Probably not, since that is why they created us: To give them something to follow to remote lands, then here, and eventually the stars." "The stars... Enough to last quite a while. But then???" "We'll think of something." "We always do." Thomas G. Digby written 0205 hr 7/24/76 entered 2225 hr 2/08/92 ********************* HOW TO GET SILICON SOAPWARE EMAILED TO YOU There are two email lists, one that allows reader comments and one that does not. Both are linked from http://www.plergb.com/Mail_Lists/Silicon_Soapware_Zine-Pages.html If you are already receiving Silicon Soapware and want to unsubscribe or otherwise change settings, the relevant URL should be in the footer appended to the end of this section in the copy you received. Or you can use the above URL to navigate to the appropriate subscription form, which will also allow you to cancel your subscription or change your settings. -- END --